Today is National Work from Home Day in the UK.

And, since I’m always a jet setter, I am celebrating at home.

OK, maybe the plans for my day off got canceled, but, still today’s the big day, I’m working and I’m at home.

National Work From Home Day, a part of Work Wise Week, is intended to demonstrate the benefits of home working. Reports estimate that approaching five million workers across the United Kingdom are planning to “make their home the office” on May 15th in honor of National Work from Home Day.

According to Work Wise UK, the benefits of working at home are:

enhancing work-life balance for staff, with added health and leisure benefits, and reducing the need to travel, working from home significantly improves productivity, enabling businesses to be more competitive.

I’m a bit skeptical about what one day does to demonstrate this, but, if it works, then by all means, keep on.

I agree with the premise of working at home, but as I’ve said before, I come from a hospital patient care background, an industry that really doesn’t lend itself to working at your own home, so it’s hard for me to relate.

However, there are many businesses that lend itself to this work arrangement and it might benefit both the employee and the employer.

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One of the hazards of being a working parent is the moment you get “the call” from daycare or school, “Your child has a fever (insert other contagious illness, here), come get them.”

All at once, you feel deflated because that parking lot dose of ibuprofen didn’t hold (kidding. mostly.) and you worry that something might be really wrong.

At that precise moment, the magic “hour” stopwatch starts ticking and you race to get there before…well…before, I’m not sure, but I’ve never wanted to find out.

Tekla, at Silicon Valley Moms Blog, had that experience recently and the school couldn’t reach her or her husband and the office got upset:

I called the school when I got the message and rushed right over. She was feeling a queasy and looked a little feverish, though when I took her temperature it was normal. Shed been lying down on a cot in the health office. She wasnt bleeding or throwing up.

The school nurse glared at me. Where have you been? Weve been trying to reach you for an hour and a half! Why werent you answering your cell phone!

While I’m sure there is the occasional parent out there who resists picking up a sick child, I think most parents respond promptly and appropriately as soon as they receive the message since it’s not good to leave a sick child to expose other people.

It’s vital to leave a good contact number with the school or the caregiver, but, schools need to remember parents who are at work may not always be immediately reachable, but they can respond in a reasonable amount of time.

What about you? Have you ever surpassed the magic hour of picking up a sick child from school? Did you live to tell about it? Do you find that parents are expected to be “on call” and immediately available?

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My work situation is on the verge of changing soon.

In the next few weeks, I’ll likely be working alone since my employee is moving on. And, well, I’m going to be busy, busy, busy.

As I’ve told you before, my job is reasonably flexible, but the added workload may compromise that flexibility and I’m concerned.

My daughter will be starting high school in the fall, and my sons are getting older and doing more things that require my time, and now I may have less time to manage it than before. But, as with any change, you just have to go along with it, and I shall, but I may need to drive just a little faster to get to soccer practice, so you might want to stay out of my way.

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Career Builder.com had a Mother’s Day survey that revealed that 43% of working moms are willing to take a pay cut if it allows them to spend more time with their children.

If had read that about 7 years ago, I would have thought, “That’s nice, but it doesn’t apply to me, we can’t do that.”

But, it was decided for me immediately upon my return to work from maternity leave.

My job was eliminated, and I had to find one within the organization (lots of reasons) pretty quickly.

The job that was the most appealing to me paid a LOT less than I was making, but I kind of held my breath and jumped in, thinking I could always look again if we didn’t drown financially before then, because taking a drastic pay cut after having your third kid isn’t something I’d recommend.

However, the change turned out to have more benefits than I could have ever imagined.

I didn’t cry all the time, my job was flexible enough that I could pick up someone from school if I needed to, and, I got home at the same time every day..

But, another huge benefit wouldn’t be realized until years later when my mother became ill. When I had to miss so much work, I couldn’t have asked for better support, and, I knew right away this was the job I was supposed to have.

There are some things money can’t buy.

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In the workplace, it’s often perceived that parents, especially mothers, get preferential treatment when it comes to working late or overtime.

However, a recent survey by Adecco USA Workplace finds that working moms are just as likely as non-parents to work late:

The latest Adecco USA Workplace Insight survey, conducted in recognition of Mother’s Day, found that working moms (71%) are just as likely as non-parents (73%) to work late and respond to e-mails after hours, even though one-third of all workers (32%) would be less inclined to ask a working parent (male or female) to do so. Further, even though they’re willing to burn the midnight oil with the rest of their colleagues, nearly half of moms (49%) think their companies should do more to help them achieve better work/life balance.

I know there’s conflict between parents and non-parents in some workplaces, but fortunately I’ve never experienced it.

I worked for a brief stint in IT, and the culture was clearly different than what I was used to as a nurse. I had my first child during this time and knew I had to get out because my supervisor was a caricature of of the boss who thought people who arrived early and worked later were better employees.

I disagreed with that philosophy before I had kids, and I certainly wasn’t going to change my mind after I had kids, but I never asked for anything special because I was a parent.

I might add that he died of a heart attack at a young age.

There are people who clearly take advantage of their status as a parent to get out of things at work, in my experience, the majority don’t.

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