<p>I just really don’t get this, at all. </p>
<p>[Should</a> You Bring Mom and Dad to Your Job Interview? - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323864604579066964214209866.html?mod=e2fb]Should”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323864604579066964214209866.html?mod=e2fb)</p>
<p>A guy at the consulting firm I worked at in the late 1980s brought his parents to a company Christmas party once. The whole office talked about it, and I bet it is the first thing anyone from the office at that time would say about him if his name came up. I would not dream of going to an event at my kid’s work.</p>
<p>Now… I did take my mom up to my office once when I had worked there for a couple of years. She was in town and coming to see me for lunch before heading straight to the airport, so we put her suitcase in my office before going to lunch. After lunch we are riding up in the elevator, and a couple of partners step into the elevator. Not realizing the other person is my mom, one of them barks at me, “Intparent, there as a typo on the first page of that presentation draft you left on my desk this morning.” My mom pipes up from the back of the elevator, “Intparent has always been a very good speller.” Partners gawp at her. I sheepishly introduce her as my mom, and next thing I know one of them has whisked her off to his office to regale her with tales of his early days with the firm.</p>
<p>Motto of these two stories: NEVER take your parents to a work function or to work. No matter what the company says these days.</p>
<p>One of my coworkers brought her mom with her to the holiday party. For what it’s worth, no one thought it was weird. You are allowed to bring a friend, why not a relative? A different woman also brought her neice. I am pretty sure someone’s brother came one year. What’s wrong with that? Why should a person be required to bring a date?</p>
<p>If it was an interview, that’s different, but I just don’t get what’s the big deal with a company party where you are allowed to bring a +1.</p>
<p>I think people are too date oriented as it is, and I think it’s a nice change of pace that some people don’t feel compelled to bring a date just to bring a date, not because it’s someone who is actually special to them.</p>
<p>I had a new young employee (22 yrs old) invite her mom to tour our office and warehouse. At first I thought that it was sorta cute. Then she asked a lot of pointed questions as to how we did business and she even had some advice. Along with “I’m just a few blocks up the road so I may drop in occasionally…is that OK?” I told her no, that was not OK.
BIZARRE and completely inappropriate.</p>
<p>A couple of weeks ago one of our 20-something research assistants brought her mom (visiting from out of state) into the office to tour the building and take her to lunch. I was delighted to meet her (uncanny resemblance!) and tell her how smart, resourceful and valued her daughter is by the whole team. Two identical huge grins–made my day.</p>
<p>And a couple of years back, when S was an admissions associate on his campus and we were dropping D for her freshman year, we slipped into the back row of the auditorium where he was giving his “What you should know about admissions (and life) at XU” presentation to prospective students and their parents. One of the kids asked him (as apparently someone always does) what he did, in particular, to get admitted, and he must have spotted us because he said something along the lines of “worked hard very day like my dad taught me and read everything I can and be curious about everything like my mom is”. And then pointed us out. Mortifying to be busted but a sweet moment nevertheless.</p>
<p>Bringing Mom or Dad to a social event: okay, I guess. I probably wouldn’t, but maybe others would feel differently.</p>
<p>Bringing Mom or Dad to a job interview: absolutely not. It would never once have even occurred to me as an option to reject.</p>
<p>My D brought my H and I to work a few weeks ago. She works at Google and they really encourage that. They think it’s really appropriate since the average employee age is 29. We loved it. They have a really great, free cafeteria.</p>
<p>I had an experience with a kid whose mother couldn’t stay out of his job. Rather than him contacting me (his supervisor) about his schedule, his mother emailed a higher-up about it. Then when he had to quit recently, because I did not respond quickly, his mother again emailed the higher-up who then called me. Even as a high school kid, that’s unacceptable.</p>
<p>I thought this thread was about middle-aged folks bringing their elderly parents to work–because they couldn’t find a sitter. . .</p>
<p>S1 brought us to his place of employment. Didn’t get to see his office and didn’t meet his coworkers, but he took us around the large campus, the gift shop and showed us the exciting stuff. Saw another engineer there with a parent, too. We got visitor badges, which DH stuck on his Kindle afterwards – his way of showing pride in S, I guess. ;)</p>
<p>Would not dream of contacting his boss. Don’t know how to reach him, anyway!</p>
<p>Bringing parents to a job interview? Absolutely not…especially if one’s over 18. It tends to give off the impression the supposed young adult lacks sufficient maturity and self-confidence for jobs beyond summer/part-time jobs for kids in middle-high school. </p>
<p>Bringing parents to visit one’s office/job site once hired is usually fine so long as it doesn’t violate any company policies* and the parents aren’t acting obnoxious or speaking/acting in ways which may reflect negatively on themselves and the child hosting them. </p>
<ul>
<li>Some of the offices I’ve worked in had rules against admitting visitors to our actual workspaces/offices due to client confidential or other secrecy/NDA disclosure policies. In such cases, any visitors may only visit the sanitized “public” areas of the office. If there were any exemptions, they could only be had by having vetted guests sign multiple NDA/security disclosure forms of various kinds before they were approved to be allowed into the actual work areas/offices. I had to read & sign some such forms when visiting some relatives’ offices due to their secrecy/NDA disclosure policies.</li>
</ul>
<p>Viewer , Google was founded 15 years ago, but average age is 29?
Is there age discrimination in hiring?</p>
<p>Um, emeraldkity, how many employees do you think Google needed at start-up versus today? Do you think they were the same size 15 years ago?</p>
<p>No, but I wouldnt expect that everyone hired was the same age.
[State</a> high court considers Google age-bias case - SFGate](<a href=“State high court considers Google age-bias case”>State high court considers Google age-bias case)</p>
<p>I was once contacted by an executive search firm (a very well-known, renowned one) for a job at Google. The recruiter asked me what year I graduated from college. </p>
<p>The interview ended soon after.</p>
<p>I had to have my mom drive me to an interview at my company once (I had like 5 before they hired me.) There was a problem with my car. She parked in the very back so no one would see, and then it turned out my interview that day was in an office where she was RIGHT outside the window. It was tinted so she couldn’t see me, but I could see her sitting in the car behind my interviewer the entire time. It was very distracting! Now it makes for an amusing story.</p>
<p>S took me, H, and D to lunch at his company - a very well known silicon valley enterprise - nothing odd about it. It is a tourist destination and he swiftly made his exit when we started bringing out the cameras. No cameras allowed inside and no one allowed into the office area. This is not what the article is about but I’m sure a number of cc parents (as seen upthread) have similar experiences of ‘visiting’ your child’s work.</p>
<p>Top sales rep brought her mother to a client proposal presentation. Ugh. She was the sort of employee who “could do no wrong” and is now one of those monstrously paid top execs, somewhere.</p>
<p>My kids and I have toured my H’s work, if we were to visit our children and they worked somewhere that we would find interesting (not an office complex) we would love to visit. </p>
<p>I took my kids to their first job interview, they couldn’t drive, someone had to.</p>
<p>My Hs work used to have periodic open houses, and we attended one when oldest was 7 or so, but since where he works requires security clearance, they dont even have open houses any more.</p>
<p>The kids first job was before they were old enough to drive, but I just dropped them off, I didnt stay. They walked home.
Question, if you have to drive them to the interview, are you going to have to drive them to work too?</p>