Employees with children have to make calculated decisions about who they interact with, and when, in order to both produce high-quality work and make time for caregiving. Research shows they tend to do this by avoiding interactions, like turning down invites to lunch; hiding from coworkers by working at home or even sneaking off to the bathroom at a time when everyone else is in a work meeting; organizing interactions strategically by booking meetings back-to-back so that they can promptly end an earlier meeting; and focusing interactions by coming to meetings with set agendas and redirecting conversation from talk of non-work activities. These strategies work, but they can come at a cost: some parents do not feel they have many close friends at work, do not feel a sense of belonging, and are out of the loop on workplace gossip. This can have professional and team ramifications, which both managers and parents can remedy in different ways.
