For several years now children have been going to work with their moms, dads, aunts, uncles, etc. on Take Your Child to Work Day to see what goes on in that person’s normal workday. This was the first year that my eight-year-old daughter, Jessica, was old enough by my company’s guidelines to join me for the day. I asked her (in passing really) if she was interested in coming to work with me and after I got up off the floor from being tackled, I concluded that the answer was a resounding, yes!
Jessica (pictured left) and a friend at the Prudent Publishing headquarters on Take Your Child to Work Day.
She went through what I call the girl drama process of picking out just the right outfit with just the right accessories and shoes. She asked me many, many questions about how the day would unfold and couldn’t wait for the day to come. She was so enthusiastic that I hoped she wasn’t setting such high expectations in case she would end up being disappointed. Finally the big day arrived (April 22nd) which happened to also coincide with Earth Day this year. I have to admit I was even a bit anxious myself to see how things would progress that day. I warned my husband that we were likely to be home early if she ended up getting bored.
Well, there was no need to worry. Several of my co-workers came up with such creative ways to get the children involved in learning about our company, which primarily sells business greeting cards. Jessica had a full day that started with typesetting and designing her name tag, then meeting with our company president to discuss her future career plans, after which she entered her own order on our website (which she found very easy to use) and designed and photographed her own birthday card design for the mini-catalog that our graphics team produced for the children. After a fun pizza lunch, we headed over to eat some dirt, er, I mean dessert; a fellow employee made an edible flower pot with crushed up Oreo cookies made to look like dirt, complete with gummy worms. Yum!
Everyone gathered like flies when the dirt dessert was put out. Thankfully, they weren’t really eating dirt; it was crushed up Oreos!
The afternoon consisted of listening to one of our customer service specialists take a phone order for thank you cards, testing her typing speed to see if she typed fast enough to take orders, and various projects that were assigned for her to complete. She was sad that the day was coming to an end but happy to receive her paycheck and company newsletter before heading home. She couldn’t wait to get home and tell her family and friends all about her experience. Does she want to return next year? Well, let’s just say the outfit is already being planned!
