Working Solution Family-A-Fair Will Recognize Workplaces Like The Camp Fire Boys And Girls For Their Willingness To Accommodate Business And Family Lives

Riley Ball’s tiny blue Gymboree fleece hangs in a line of professional women’s jackets on the office coat rack.

Back in her mother’s cubicle, Riley’s blue mesh play pen is wedged against a green metal desk. Her bottle and sipper cup perch on an “in” basket. And her diaper bag lies on the floor near cases of Camp Fire mints.

Here at the Spokane office of the Inland Empire Camp Fire Boys and Girls, 4-month old Riley accompanies her mother, Tracy Taitch, to work 40 hours a week. In an office surrounded by grandmothers and others who truly enjoy children, this bald, blue-eyed sweetheart is starting her life in the most family-friendly of workplaces.

“We’re all doting yet we’re all able to do our work,” says Vi Martin, executive director of Camp Fire.

It’s exactly the sort of business that a local organization called Family-a-Fair hopes to recognize this spring. Family-a-Fair sponsors a fall festival for families each year and this spring will expand with a luncheon and the new Family-a-Fair Workplace Award.

“As a working parent I am well aware of how difficult it is to do what I consider quality work and quality parenting,” says Adie Goldberg Yates, co-director of Family-a-Fair and a family therapist at WomanHealth.

“I sit in therapy and listen to woman after woman struggle with that,” she says.

Yates hears plenty of horror stories: parents being reprimanded and put on probation for taking too much sick leave to care for ill children; parents forced to miss their children’s Christmas pageants, DARE graduations and doctor’s appointments; postpartum women pressured to return to work too early.

“All the research shows that coming back when the infant is 6 weeks old is not good for the infant, but parents are forced to do that all the time,” she says.

Family-a-Fair’s Workplace Award will recognize businesses that provide their employees opportunities to advance their careers and have good family lives. These businesses provide benefits such as job-sharing and flex-time, paid leaves for child and elder care, on-site child care, school holiday leave or sick child care arrangements.

“You’re more inclined to hold on to your employees if you have a family-friendly workplace,” Yates says.

The awards will be presented at an April 19 luncheon at the Ridpath Hotel. Author Judith Viorst will speak. She will also give an evening lecture called “Parenting Our Children From Newborn to 30 Years Old and Beyond.”

Winning businesses will receive award certificates and the individual employees who nominate them will receive the real goodies: a night in a hotel, theater tickets and a bottle of champagne for a parents’ getaway, and pizza and ice cream for a family night.

All employees submitting nominating forms will receive a gift certificate from Tidyman’s.

Vi Martin of Camp Fire believes that other companies would also discover benefits to creating a family-friendly environment.

“Riley’s a good ice-breaker for a lot of people,” Martin says. “I don’t think of her as a distraction at all.”

Riley is the first baby to join the Camp Fire staff. Martin considered allowing Taitch to work from home, but felt that arrangement would leave her out of too many day-to-day events. Martin preferred keeping Taitch in the office. She put the idea to a staff vote, and the support was unanimous.

“It seemed like the right thing to do,” Martin says. “Tracy’s a really valuable staff member and I would do it for any staff member.”

Martin’s 19-person staff takes turns holding and caring for Riley as they work. “We’ve all learned it’s amazing what you can do with one hand,” she says.

On a recent afternoon, Taitch counted and sorted orange fliers for Camp Dart-Lo in the copier room. Taitch’s supervisor, Kyla Bates, held Riley with one hand and made phone calls with the other. Riley perched in Bates’ lap and played with a red foil balloon.

Taitch, director of Camp Dart-Lo and training coordinator, talked about the system she’s devised for minding Riley at work. It’s important, she says, that co-workers feel comfortable returning Riley to her mother whenever they’ve had enough.

Most staff members are adept at setting their own limits, Taitch says.

“One woman said, ‘I can’t handle it if they throw up. If she’s throwing up, I’ll give her right back to you.”’ When she hears Riley fussing at someone else’s desk, Taitch usually cringes.

“I think I handle it worse than they do,” Taitch says. “When she cries, I’m so concerned it’s really affecting other people’s work. I’m sure they’re learning to tune her out, but I’m overly concerned that this is not going to work out.”

If all goes well, Riley will accompany her mother to camp this summer, and then enter other child care in the fall - before she reaches the ripping-into-the-Camp-Fire-mints and-eating-them stage.

Already, caring for Riley at the office has slowed Taitch’s work. She has mastered the art of breast-feeding while she’s typing at the computer, however. Throughout the day, she chatters and coos with Riley while she works.

In the evenings, Taitch usually makes up for lost time by putting in another three hours of work on her home computer.

“It’s pretty wearing,” Taitch says. “I get worn out a lot.”

But Taitch values the chance to care for Riley herself, and to keep a job she enjoys.

Had the Camp Fire office not allowed Riley to accompany Taitch to work, Taitch believes she might have decided to quit.

“Being a mother is very important to me,” she says. “I didn’t want to put her in child care at an early age.”

Soon Bates brings Riley back to her mother in the copier room.

“I got too boring,” Bates explains, deadpan, as she passes the baby back to Taitch.

Taitch pulls Riley close and croons, “Kyla does that. She gets boring a lot, doesn’t she?” She lays Riley on the floor surrounded by stacks of orange fliers. Riley smiles up at her mother.

She hands a flier to Riley. “I’ve got one more I can spare for you,” she coos. Riley smashes it with tiny baby fingers, kicks her pink Baby Gap sneakers and grins.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: Nomination forms for the Family-a-Fair Workplace Award are available at Holy Family Hospital, Kindercare Learning Centers, and the Family-a-Fair office. The nomination deadline is March 18. For more information, call the fair office at 456-3733.