Bringing Up Baby at Work

Sept. 15, 2007 — -- Pamela Crosier is giving new meaning to the phrase "working mom," and she isn't alone. Every day Crosier brings her 6-month-old daughter, Nora, with her to work.

"I'm a multitasker. I can walk into work, have the baby in the sling, coffee in the hand, cell phone in my pocket, get in in heels without losing anything," Crosier said.

She's an experienced project producer at T3, the Think Tank, a Texas-based advertising firm that allows babies to come into the office from 6 weeks to 8 months old or until they start to crawl.

"It's really a wonderful benefit -- I didn't have to make a daycare for her right away, and she goes to meetings with me, she's very social," she said.

But the older baby Nora gets, the more involved her caretaking has become; between eating and napping, it's often difficult for Crosier to find time to, well, work.

And it's no surprise that with children in the workplace comes controversy, a flashpoint in the mommy wars, which often divides the office.

One man said, "It relieves tension for people, they don't have to worry about their child getting proper care, so I think it can work!"

But not everyone agrees.

"I don't think it's very professional to have children in the office atmosphere -- how are things to run if they started crying," another woman argued.

When Nora starts crying, Pamela takes her out of the office.

"The reality is in the workplace, we avoid confrontation at all costs. So I wouldn't be about to go up to somebody and say, 'You know what, your crying baby is really annoying. I'm getting tired of seeing your baby come in day after day, week after week. This isn't fair. I'm fed up,'" said Tory Johnson, "GMA" workplace contributor and CEO of Women for Hire.

Pamela's colleague Marshall Wright is a creative director. He also brings his baby to work, in a pinch, even though Maggie is now 13 months old.

"This is a perk, you can do this. You have to make sure that it's not disruptive," Wright said.