Episode 1 Babies in the Office

Addison Lee is Britain's biggest minicab firm.

A £200 million company, which books 25,000 journeys a day.

Can I take the job number for the booking, please?

Call us five minutes before the booked time.

And where were you going, please?

The world of taxis used to be a bloke's business.

Traditionally, the minicab driver comes off the road,

works in the office, they sit smoking fags and talking about football.

But the arrival of women has created a problem.

BABY SCREAMS

Babies.

Oh, darling.

These bundles of joy can halt careers in their tracks.

Childcare now is exorbitantly expensive.

It's £943 a month.

So, the company are about to trial a radical American scheme

that allows babies in the office.

It would make me feel happier if I could see her more often.

I'll feel more involved in her life.

I feel like I'm a part-time mum now.

It does make me feel a bit sad at times.

To succeed, eight parents must combine their day job...

BABY YELPS

..with being mummy and daddy...

After all that, you don't want the bottle?

Nyla, Mummy's going to work now, OK?

No!

OK, that's fine.

That's all done for you. Is there anything else?

Yes, that's a baby in the background.

November 97, 97. November 97...

This isn't going to work, is it?

..and prove the doubters wrong.

Children in the workplace. What's there to discuss?

There's nothing to discuss. They shouldn't be there, should they?

But can the taxi business and babies start a workplace revolution...

Yeah!

It's nice, yeah, it is kind of a hard-sell environment.

Obviously, I don't want it too airy fairy here.

..or will this be one journey that all ends in tears?

BABY CRIES

Worst-case scenario is it is a complete disaster

and the babies scream the whole time

and the business comes to a standstill.

BABY CRIES

Ssh!

Can I have my agenda back, please?

With 3,500 cars and 5,000 employees,

Addison Lee is Britain's largest minicab firm.

No-one likes a cab to be late.

So in this business, every second counts.

Time is money.

Good afternoon. Can I take your number?

The price will be £11.

When would you like the car for?

Historically, it's been a male industry.

I got this car washed yesterday!

But for managing director Liam Griffin, times are changing.

Nearly a third of his office staff are women.

And they're having families of their own.

It takes time to replace them,

it takes time to train up their replacements.

And ideally, we'll have kept them.

It's not just the business that suffers.

Across Britain, parents struggle with the cost of childcare,

and working mums spend an average of just an hour and 20 minutes a day

caring for their kids.

I don't want to work too much

so that I never get time to spend with the kids.

'I can be working while they're with me,

'and I can also be bonding with them at the same time.'

Mum!

To solve these problems, Liam's going to do something radical.

In America, over 170 companies run babies-at-work schemes,

allowing parents to bring their babies into the office.

Not in a creche or a nursery, but right next to them at their desks.

If someone brought this up and mentioned it to you in a pub,

you'd just go, "What a stupid idea." It's... It is.

When you initially hear it, you think, "That'll ever work."

Addison Lee will be the first British company

to try out this scheme.

As supportive as I am of this concept,

if it's not working, we can't carry on.

We can't be persevere just for the sake of it.

There's a big risk here, and if it doesn't work in this one day,

then we will have to, you know, call it a day at that point.

For Liam, parenting and work is something that's close to his heart.

My wife has been through a similar scenario.

She's a teacher, had the children, wanted to come back to work,

and there's a tear, there's a draw.

Yes, "I want to go back to work but I don't want to leave my kid?."

So I've been there. I've seen it first-hand,

so I can relate to it a lot more now that I've been there.

So when you put all those in the pot, I think, you know,

let's give it a go, let's see what we can do for these mothers.

Liam's head of Human Resources, Claire,

has been with the company for over five years.

It will be her job to manage the trial,

and she's curious about it for her own reasons.

On a personal level, this experiment is very relevant.

You know, I'm mid-30s, early 30s, mid-30s...

Of course, children have crossed my mind. Of course, it is on my radar.

I definitely want to be a mum, I definitely want children,

all of those things.

But have I held back a certain... because of my career?

Yes. I definitely have.

I don't feel upset about that. That's the choice I've made.

But I definitely think that...

I know if I had a baby, I'd want to come back to work quite soon.

I'd want to come back after three or four months.

But not everyone in the office shares the enthusiasm.

A full-time job at Addison Lee is a full-time job, believe me.

It's a busy, busy company, and we need to be on the ball all the time,

otherwise things could go horribly wrong very quickly.

They'll be at six months coming in,

screaming on the phone to a client,

"Yes, sir, we're going to be ten minutes for your parcel,"

a baby screaming in the background.

It's a full-time job. Being a mum or a parent is a full-time job.

End of. It can't work, it just can't work.

No British company has ever done this before.

For Liam, this is one of the biggest gambles of his career.

There's going to be cost implications against this.

There's going to be, potentially, loss of earnings from this.

And you worry about the brand.

We spent a long time building this brand.

We don't want to damage it just by trying to do something a bit clever.

Safety is a top priority, so the office is baby-proofed

from top to bottom

under the guidance of health-and-safety officers.

Any of the socket faces that are missing,

we should have the safety connectors

and get as much of this clipped back as possible.

Could we all make a bit of a team effort, just from

a health-and-safety point of view?

If there's any bits and pieces that can be grabbed or pulled

or that babies may be able to pick up,

if you can get them into your drawers, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Spare office space is transformed into a playroom.

Amongst the staff, 78 have children under two,

and ten are currently on maternity leave.

In total, eight mums and dads have agreed to take part in the trial.

Look, Tyler.

'It's just me. Me and Tyler.'

First-time mum 23-year-old Thelma

has been with the company for four years.

She's currently on maternity leave with her nine-week-old son, Tyler.

Thelma's on her own, and receives £128 a week in maternity pay.

This scheme could provide her with a financial lifeline.

My parents, they work full-time, so they don't have the time

whatsoever to, erm, look after Tyler.

I could leave him with a childminder, but I can't afford it.

Since I heard about the project, to be honest, I was just really excited,

because I knew I wanted to go back to work earlier,

so I said to myself, "Wow, I can't believe it's actually come about."

Financially, that will make a big difference to us,

because I don't want to be on benefits,

and yeah, I'll be able to pay my rent and just be able to go on holiday

and do normal things.

But Thelma's call-centre job is hard enough already,

let alone with a baby.

They've got a lot of targets that they need to meet,

and they're about customers, customers, customers,

so I can't imagine them willing to risk losing their customers.

Aida is mum to Amira, and has another child on the way.

She'd love the scheme to work,

but is worried about how disruptive babies in the office will be.

Some of my colleagues do not like kids,

so it will be a bit hard, and I'm very over-protective of Amira.

I don't want her to be rejected.

Because it's not everybody's cup of tea to have children in the office.

Eight volunteers with their nine babies

want to prove to Liam this scheme can work.

At first, the trial will run for just one day.

If it works, it will be extended for a whole month,

giving Liam plenty of time to assess

whether babies can be good for business.

Hello, Amira!

Say hello, bubba!

Good afternoon, Addison Lee. How can I help?

It's 8am, and the start of the morning shift in the call centre.

This team handles 25,000 calls a day,

with call durations strictly monitored.

Wasted time means wasted money.

The call centre is where it all happens.

It's the coalface.

This has to be a ruthless machine in terms of running it,

because we get it right so often,

if we get it wrong once, then our customers don't forgive us.

Yes, we thought this area, there's a bit more space.

23-year-old Zara is bringing in her two daughters,

baby Alina and toddler Nyla.

You want to come to me?

Hello, aw. Hello!

Not bothered, are you?

They're very chilled.

They weren't like that in the car.

We'll put all the mothers in this area. We'll have three mothers here.

We'll get rid of some of the seats so there's space to play,

so they're not just sat at a table, really.

This is quite easy!

For the last two years,

single mum Zara has been getting up before 4am

so she can do the 6am shift and be home to see her daughters

in the afternoon.

It's exhausting, and she still feels she doesn't see them enough.

Every morning, when I leave at 5:20 in the morning, I hate it.

I just think, "I should be in bed with the kids."

'When I walk out the door, I just think, "Oh".

'I just want to rush back home and I just want to hurry up and finish.'

How cute!

At two and a half, Nyla is the oldest child

taking part in the experiment.

Mum!

Nyla, Mummy's going to go... Mummy's going to work now, OK?

Look!

Yes, you colour and eat your fruits, OK? Good girl.

Good morning, you're through to Zara. Can I take your phone number, please?

And going to...?

Thank you for calling, bye.

Hey, what's wrong?

The caller didn't say anything. He heard Alina.

He just laughed!

This trial day isn't just for mums.

Next to arrive is car control manager Paul,

with his 11-month-old daughter Lyla.

LYLA CRIES

Have you got the piggies? Let's get piggies!

SHE CRIES

Look at the piggies.

SHE SCREAMS

Arms up.

He's been given step-by-step instructions from Mum

to keep her baby happy.

This is Mummy's list of what Daddy should be doing.

8:30, breakfast. Toast and Weetabix. So she can have cow's milk,

but no sugar.

12:30, lunch. Various bits and pieces,

and she can have water any time, always boiled.

This has to be kept, stapled and all the rest.

42-year-old Paul has worked at the company for 15 years.

Baby Lyla was a surprise addition to his family.

Now, he's keen to bring her to work,

because he doesn't want to miss out on seeing her grow up.

Come on, then! Yes!

Rather than, you know, the nursery care teacher seeing it,

or Mum seeing it, it will be nice to say,

"I was there the first time you fell over,

"you took your first steps," and that kind of situation,

'so it would be great for me.

'It would help Mum. I think it would make me very happy.'

Are you ready for a knife and fork, do you think?

-Let's get that door for you.

-Thank you very much.

Pleasure.

One floor up is the finance department.

On a normal day, it's as quiet as a library.

And, apart from pricing assistant Monica, staffed entirely by men.

So who's that? Who's that? Say hello.

What's that? Look at that.

Our job is basically attention to detail.

If we don't get it right, then we'll have a lot of drivers

contact us the following week, a lot of queries on our side.

Phones have been off the hook recently,

so we need to be accurate, and we need to be sure

that we're paying the drivers correctly

every week on every single job.

So, how will 22-month-old Natasia

affect the office on such an important day?

You all right, bubs? You're just taking the butter off it?

-You're supposed to eat all of it, Googla.

-Can I have some?

No, say, "It's mine."

Monica is eager to expand her family,

but unless this trial succeeds, she can't afford to.

'I'd love to have another child,

'but at the moment, financially, I can't see it working out.'

Currently, we're spending £4,500 a year on just one child,

two days a week at nursery.

'There'd be no way I could find another £4,000, £5,000 a year.'

I know there's a couple of parents

that have taken part in the experiment,

and a couple of parents throughout the business

that have maybe had one child and are actually holding back

on having their second till the first one's in school

because of the costs, and I just think that's a bad state of affairs,

where you are deciding when you are going to have your family

not based on when you want your children,

but when you can afford to have them, and I just think that's a real shame.

I need someone to do me a favour.

Googla, be careful, bubs. Erm, who's not doing anything?

What do you need, Monica?

Erm, someone put the diaries in for me?

-Diaries in?

-Yeah.

Right, so they go... And previous week, that's a charge...

CHILD CRIES

Do you want a pen? Here.

-Mine.

-There you go.

Uh, what she writing on? That's fine.

Just delegated a few things out, it's all right.

I've put it all together,

just got to get a couple of emails back

and I should be ready to go with the vans,

so...hoping she'll stay like this!

BABY CRIES

She's a bit grumpy today, to be honest, she's teething very badly.

So I hope she will be OK today.

In customer services,

Aida arrives with her 22-month-old daughter Amira,

who's used to a nursery and a set routine.

'I know it's working in America,'

and I hope it will be working in here,

so it can help other mothers to go back to work

and look after their child at the same time, without high expenses.

Say hello, baba, say hello...

-How are we?

-Oh, it's been a rush this morning, oh, nightmare.

So I'm just feeding her because she's hungry now,

and then hopefully, she'll be in a better mood.

Oh, dear! You don't want any more?

'I don't want Amira to see me just as a mother looking after her.'

I want her to show, you know,

that you have to work hard to get to where you are.

So yeah, that would be a good example for Amira as well.

Blow your nose. Aah.

THEY LAUGH

You like to blow kisses?

THEY LAUGHS

Bravo! She's so funny!

We have such a good time at home, I tell you!

Just processing your account for you.

Another-high pressure department taking on a new recruit is

the sales team.

All of our accounts work on a monthly credit facility,

so otherwise it's going to be like

a pay-as-you-go cash or credit card service.

-Stop bitchin' and get pitchin'.

-Stop bitchin' and get pitchin'.

I don't want to pitch in case the baby starts crying.

You've all got 25 minutes to get that that to green, yeah?

The trial has barely begun,

and the boss of the department already has his doubts.

The guys are commission-based. They do get a basic as well,

but, you know, bulk of their wage is commission.

They'll say,

"Oh, Tyrone's this and that, he doesn't want the babies here" -

we don't mind it, but you see their commission figures

ain't where they should be, you'll see a different side to them,

I can promise you.

It's 10am. By now, car control manager Paul is usually

well into his workload.

See, she's showing management... you know...

-Potential.

-Absolutely.

What your dad does in here is pretty much nothing -

he's got all these other people doing all the work for him,

and that's why he's called a manager.

Say we don't want to do no work, do we?

We want to skive all day. Play with babies.

Ah, she's drawing on the mouth, excellent, that's what I normally

-go home with, bit of pen on me.

-There we go.

I wish I'd brought my kid up, I tell ya.

We've been in 55 minutes,

and we're now just about to log in.

I'd like to say I'm about an hour behind now.

All right, we'll get you in your car.

There.

Have you written an e-mail yet?

-I'll catch up.

-Just write one e-mail, just to see,

because that means you've actually worked with the baby in the office.

See, I'm logged in. Eventually!

-See, you've e-mailed the MD, saying, "I've logged in."

-Exactly!

She clocked in herself at half seven,

so she's looking for a day's pay!

With your finger, you clocked in with your finger!

Slow down, slow down, slow down!

Booked to work a late-morning shift, mum of six Shellon is coming back

from maternity leave specially to give the trial a go.

'I've got five boys.

'Madika is my only girl, so I've got six kids.'

The older ones, they're in uni and not living at home,

and I've got a little one, Elijah - he's in full-time school.

Don't go in class without me.

She's alarmed by the cost of childcare

and doesn't want her new baby to keep her off the career ladder.

'I don't want to be stuck in my house all day, every day.'

I like that buzz of getting up and going out there

and, you know, earning my living,

and I don't think just because I have a baby

I should be shoved into a corner or locked out of sight.

Why can't I still mingle and do all the things

'that I would normally do?'

You have a good day, you understand? All right, go in.

OK, thank you. All right.

Her hopes are high, but after five months off,

she'll have to hit the ground running.

This one on the end? Ah, no, give me the end,

because then I can put the chair here.

So, that works out perfectly.

Five minutes, all organised, and she's ready to go.

So, you can spot the mum with six children!

Thank you!

I think I really, actually, could do this.

No sooner has she arrived than she's in the hot seat.

Good morning, Addison Lee, Shellon speaking,

can I take passenger's contact number, please?

Are you going to be the passenger?

All right.

OK, so there's two of you, that's fine.

And you want to go to the Gatwick Express?

OK, hold on.

And that's all booked for 12:45 this afternoon.

Thanks. Bye-bye.

OK! Phew, that was nerve-wracking,

I haven't taken a call in months, but I did it.

A quote, a price...

By 10.30am, all parents and babies are at their desks.

And for the moment at least, all is peaceful.

-I can't hear no children.

-Exactly.

Marvellous, ain't it?

-There's loads of them in here.

-Later, come see me later.

It's not right, is it? Look at her, poor little love,

she needs attention.

Is that yours? Both of them?

She's allowed to bring two in?

That's not allowed, is it? There you are, look!

I'm going, no, I'm going! See you later.

We'll go for plan B, which is bottle time.

Let's go to our bottle.

It's feeding time for Lila,

and Paul's management skills are being given a thorough test.

There we go.

Oh, after all that, you don't want a bottle?

Ah, no, we'll go for plan C.

Could eventually get up to D and E.

There.

Do you think you're going to sleep?

You're not eating bobo?

Right, well, I'm going to go like this, then, strap you in,

but we're not going in the car.

Keep you there, and you'll hide.

There!

You can have a nice sleep in there, and hide!

Have your botbot in peace.

If I leave her alone for a few minutes,

she just goes into her own thing and goes to sleep.

Can I put you back in?

No, OK. You going to sit on my lap?

Going to sit on my lap?

Multi-tasking, you know!

-But you normally type with one hand anyway.

-Yeah!

For Zara, the early signs are promising.

What's wrong? Huh?

OK, baby, you sit on Mummy's lap, OK?

Good morning, you're through to Zara. Can I take the account number, please?

OK, is this cash or account?

OK, can I start by taking your phone number, please?

OK, so that's a total price of £22.30,

car's booked for 10am this morning.

Thank you for calling. Take care, bye.

She's staying on top of her work,

and has discovered another benefit of the trial.

No?

OK, OK.

Nyla, are you going come with Mummy?

Do you want to use my office for breastfeeding?

I've just put the blinds down, look.

-Let's go around to the left here.

-Oh, right, OK.

This is a really good thing, I get to breastfeed her during the day,

instead of her just staying without it.

So what I'm going to do,

just breastfeed her and go back on the phones.

Each of the parents has nominated a buddy to help out in emergencies.

Paul's job involves external meetings, so it's not long

before his buddy - head of HR, Claire - is asked to step in.

When she wakes up, or if she wakes up in the next 20 minutes or so,

-just take her out.

-I'll just get her out of that?

Yeah, just comfort her for a minute for two.

I'm hoping that she doesn't maybe need the toilet till you come back.

Maybe, hoping...

-Fingers crossed.

-How've you got on today, so far, this morning?

In a way, it's actually pushing you,

so rather than dilly-dallying with one of the other departments,

it's, "OK, I need this, can we do this?

-"How long will this take?" So actually...

-Less small talk?

-Absolutely. Yeah. She's great at the moment.

-Off you go, then.

-I'll be back as quick as I can. Call me if there's any problems.

-OK.

-Thank you.

-Right.

The kids all seem quite chilled,

don't seem to be suffering from the fact they're here.

That was my main worry, are we not giving them the right development,

or, you know, are we being cruel to children by bringing them in?

But actually, I think they're really excited

and looking at all the new people and everything that's going on,

and to be honest, I don't think it's the kids that are bothered -

it's the adults. As you can see!

She's going for the vintage. OK. There we are.

-There we are.

-Wow. Look.

According to experts, babies-at-work schemes can benefit

both parents and children.

Certainly, a small amount of time in the work environment for the child

could well be beneficial in terms of expanding the child's experience.

Small periods, like a day a week or two or three half days a week,

would almost certainly not be detrimental to the child.

She's been all right, hasn't she?

Quite placid, this one. We don't mind babies if they behave like this!

That's what our drivers do, drive into lots of things!

It's late morning, and the staff are not only getting used to

having the new recruits around some are positively enjoying them.

Bubbles make them go quiet, there's something about bubbles all kids love.

That worked perfectly for me today, with the bubbles!

Everybody was just like amazed about it, like, you know,

there's something about children,

they just bring another side out of you, as a person.

So they were all like, "Wow!," and all like, "Whoa!," you know? So yeah,

the atmosphere definitely changed in the call centre today. Yeah.

-Boo!

-Go do it. You do it, you do it.

Hello, Customer Relations.

-Duh-duh.

-Da-da!

And for Aida, trying to juggle her job with her very active toddler,

the buddy system brings some much-needed relief.

It's been a hard day for me,

so I'm having a rest for half an hour, thank God.

Hello! I'll put it on mine.

Ah!

Now you see we can go...

I haven't done much work.

I've probably answered two or three calls,

which usually we answer about 10, 15 by now.

'I have done absolutely nothing, but I'm still exhausted!

'So, yeah, it's great(!)'

People will be on the phone and we'll be making noise, won't we?

Where are we going, please? Selfridges on Oxford Circus.

11:30 brings the first sign of major trouble.

The queue in the call centre is getting longer and longer,

and manager Emma has to step in.

Just to remind you, the objective of this, again,

is that you're actually doing the job with the babies.

Therefore, the buddies, that role should be there

if you need to go for a comfort break, to the toilet,

or if the baby's crying while you're actually taking a booking.

That's where the buddy steps in to take the baby off you.

So, we need to change the dynamic now,

because I need the buddies to do some work today, yeah?

You've got a big task ahead of you, because you've got two jobs,

but I need you two to take bookings.

-Good luck, round two.

-Round two!

THEY LAUGH

With over 2,000 calls an hour coming in,

all workers are closely monitored.

Emma is keeping an eagle eye on the mums' performance.

The buddies have taken the role of nannies,

and therefore the mums are finding it fantastically easy, actually,

because they're just sitting there

and somebody's looking after their child.

So I've just literally had to go out and speak to all the buddies,

and just gently remind them, really, of the objective,

so that they all carry on with their job.

Thank you. And when would you like your car?

Yes, of course, how can I help?

Up on the fourth floor, in Customer Services,

Amira's enthusiasm for the office is beginning to wane.

AMIRA CRIES

In this department, each agent has a daily target of 40 calls.

But Aida is falling way behind,

and she's worried Amira's affecting her colleagues.

Her cries are even reaching the far end of the office.

As you can hear, there's a little bit of noise coming at the moment.

It did happen while I was on the telephone,

and the customer mentioned it,

but again, I just let them know exactly what was going on,

and they seemed up for it.

There are sides to the argument that it can work,

and there are sides that it couldn't work.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I'm sitting on the fence.

Mum Aida is fast approaching crisis point.

Just hearing her screaming makes me really sad now.

It's the environment, the atmosphere,

everything is new for her,

so I think that's why she's behaving that way.

On the second floor, the finance team are also under pressure.

On a normal Thursday, by 1pm,

the team would have processed the wages for all their drivers.

Monica holds a key role, cross-checking timesheets,

bonuses and rates.

You can draw on this side, but not on the other side, OK?

But with one eye on Natasia,

it's now 2:30, and she's nowhere near finished.

-No, no!

-OK, sorry, that way around. OK.

'It's a lot harder, with Tassy being here.'

I'm not able to... I thought I was a good multitasker,

but I'm not able to... to do a few things at once,

especially when I have a nearly two-year-old running around,

screaming for attention also,

'and not wanting to be in this environment.

'So I'm unable to be as efficient in my job as I normally am.'

You want to go there?

Monica, I think, has found it difficult,

certainly with checking process, she's sat there,

and she's trying to do things like that, but found it difficult.

She's probably a couple of hours behind on where she'd normally be,

as well as passing other tasks on to other people.

There's just three hours before close of business

to get all 3,500 drivers paid.

Obviously, we can't do anything about that till that goes, OK?

So at the moment, what are you guys doing in between?

-Just checking bank details.

-Do you want to start credit-card staff?

We're just going to undo the gross and that's it.

-That's going to affect my...

-That's going to affect your bad stuff.

I'm just trying to figure out at the moment who's doing what,

to get as much done as possible. I think we'll be OK.

-We've never had a late payment, have we?

-Never had a late payment.

Never had a late payment for a driver.

Can't start now just because we've got Natasia in the room, can we?

For the first time in 30 years,

the drivers' wages may not be paid on time.

Monica's dreams of saving on childcare and expanding her family

are fading fast.

If that was to ideally work out and I could have Natasia with me,

or, you know, that would probably push us to think

we could financially survive if we had another child.

And I love Natasia so much, it just breaks my heart, thinking...

I couldn't imagine her just being on her own.

I just feel like, you know, when you feel like you've worked so hard,

and you continue to work so hard and it just...

You don't feel like you always...

You always feel like you're not doing enough, and with Natasia...

I think that's with every mum,

I think every mum probably feels the same as I do -

we always feel like we're not doing enough.

With perfect timing, Natasia falls asleep.

Monica gets some peace, and 3,500 drivers get their wages.

I was very lucky that Natasia's slept

and given me time to do everything that went wrong,

given us time to rectify that.

Yeah, otherwise I would have had to delegate a lot more stuff out,

and I didn't have to do that.

Head of HR Claire is keen to have a child,

and wants the trial to succeed.

But she's heard the boys in the sales team aren't happy.

If you're dealing with, you know, big clients,

and you've got a baby screaming next to you, it's not very professional.

It all goes down to the customer as well,

because if they're ringing up to call a taxi,

-they can still hear the baby screaming.

-It's unprofessional.

They should just have a nursery on the fifth floor.

Yeah, but today they have done it in the call centre,

where clients have heard the babies in the background,

and the agents have explained it and some of the clients have been,

"Oh, that's really brilliant, what a good idea."

For one or two days, oh, it's lovely,

but I reckon for every day of your working day, it could never run.

On this floor, in our department, in sales, it couldn't work.

And to be honest, it makes you realise

how much of a break you have from your kids at home.

Oh, then you come here and you got it all again.

Hi there, just phoning to see if you received your account details?

Because we are quite male - which is fine, you know,

we have a really good time here -

I think that it will maybe add a bit of a softer side,

and I don't know, it will be interesting to see, I think,

will that change the dynamic a bit?

Down in the call centre, it's a different story.

The mums' lives are being transformed for the better.

My day is going great.

I've managed to balance motherhood as well as work,

cos it's hard being cooped up in a house with a newborn, 24/7,

so it's nice to get out and get some fresh air,

but in this case, I'm at work, earning some money.

And I don't feel guilty at all, bringing him into work,

and I don't feel like I'm taking anything away from him,

because he's still beside me,

and I'm still giving him all the attention

I would have given him at home, and if I was at home,

I would either be doing some sort of cleaning or, you know, whilst...

Cos I can't play with him 24/7.

Listening to other people's opinions, I started to think,

"Oh, maybe it won't work," but now that I'm here

and I've experienced it for myself,

I think it's a great idea, and I think it definitely would work now.

So what can I say? Babies at work, great idea!

Hey, I've got a guy... Thank you.

3362. Sorry, I need to get over to chauffeur service,

I've got a guy who's made a cash booking for the 25th.

She's met so many different people already.

I mean, she's been passed around the office,

she's getting to know new children.

She's still here with me, so she feels safe.

She's being fed, she's being changed, she's being stimulated,

so I don't see any negatives for her.

I am happy, it feels really good, to be honest,

it feels really good to be back. And I thought... I kind of forgot,

cos I was thinking, "Oh, my God,

"I've been away for almost five months now,"

but after the initial 10, 15 minutes,

maybe two, three phone calls, I was right back in the swing of things.

Aw, pudding, yes!

But Zara has two babies on her hands,

and two and a half-year-old Nyla is playing up.

Nyla's getting bored. She's sitting right there now,

with a colleague of mine.

Do you want to come over here? Do you want to come to Mummy? No?

I feel so bad. Thank you so much, Alisha, thank you.

That's all right, don't be silly.

There you go. You don't want to colour no more?

Are you going to throw it? No?

Nyla's getting bored.

I'm thinking maybe I'm better off leaving her at nursery,

cos she does have fun there.

She enjoys herself with kids and she learns and she doesn't get bored.

But I'll stick with Aleena coming with me,

so I can get a good bonding with my baby.

When both of them actually woke up and they saw I was with them,

cos they never do, first thing Aleena said was, "Mummy,"

like she was so amazed, and I was like, "Aw, yes, it's Mummy!"

So, yeah, I think it'll be good, and also the whole breastfeeding,

I just do it while she's with me.

Do you want some water? Have some water.

But for one parent, it's all become too much.

Each mum and dad has been told

they are free to take their child home at any time.

At 4:20pm, Aida decides to call it a day.

I'll be honest with you, I didn't manage to do any work.

I've literally answered about maybe four calls.

Amira is a handful, she's very active. Ooh!

AMIRA CRIES

Nice?

OK, let's go.

I'm happy, actually, to go home!

With the trial's first resignation, nine babies are now eight.

-Say bye-bye.

-Bye.

As a relieved Aida heads home,

the fate of the scheme hangs in the balance.

-What time are you leaving?

-About 5:15.

I've got a meeting at about five anyway, I'll be back by then.

-Cool, no worries.

-Shall we see how the others are getting on?

Come on, then.

HR manager Claire wants the trial to succeed,

and is hoping to discover it working smoothly.

We're going to see the other baby.

-Hi, Peter.

-How are you?

-Good, you?

-Very well, thank you.

We've got an addition today, coming up with me.

Going to the fourth floor.

Say, "Hi, Peter." She's a bit unsure.

-Bye-bye. See you later.

-Bye.

Where are we? We're going to see the other little babies?

-Say hi.

-Look, Tanisha, it's another baby.

Has it made you broody, with all these babies?

-Yeah, it has, actually.

-OK, I want some now!

-How've you found it?

-I wouldn't say easy, but she's been a delight.

Yeah, she's been fine.

It's nearing the end of a unique day.

Most of the babies may be happy,

but the thoughts of the managers are turning to the bottom line.

The call board over there,

the red and the green dots or circles on there,

that denotes the amount of calls that they did.

The green one means that only one person in the team

did as many or the same amount of calls as what they did yesterday.

The reds denote that they did less calls then what they did yesterday.

So that would say to me that, obviously, having the babies in here

has kind of like slowed down their workload a little bit,

but we'll see. I might be wrong, but I don't think I am.

Whilst it's been a positive experience for some parents...

Right, say bye to Leo. Say, "Bye-bye, Leo, bye."

Bye, Natasia.

..others have struggled.

The drivers' payments only just made it out by the close of day.

Bye, Liam, bye, guys.

Good girl, good girl.

Today has not been as easy as I had planned or envisaged.

It was great as the novelty factor,

but then, where I've gone back to my desk

and saw 14, 16 emails that have come from the last 7 or 8 minutes,

and I think got to be on top of them, got to be on top of them.

At no point have I thought, "No really shouldn't have done this."

-Ready to go?

-Are we done?

In my mind today I was going to go training,

go training, nice tea in the evening,

uh, on second thoughts, I'm going to go have an early night,

nice bath, relax in front of the TV,

really veg out, it's been a hard day

but, yeah, early night tonight, definitely.

Boys and girls.

They've been in the office for just one day,

but the babies have had a significant impact.

Bye-bye, don't bring your mother in next time.

The question for MD Liam, is whether he can afford

to extend the trial for a whole month

without wrecking the company's bottom line.

-Hi.

-Hiya.

The fate of the scheme and the hopes of the parents

all rest with managing director, Liam.

-Everybody suitably knackered?

-Yes. Definitely.

I hear the stats on the fourth floor weren't too clever.

No, the sales guys, I think only one performed to the same level as the day before.

And what about your lot, Emma?

How many calls did they take compared to like normal?

It was quite telling actually.

Looking at Zara's stats,

she took, normally would take 27 calls an hour

that she's recently been performing, that went down to 19.

Paul as sort of the only dad that I got to see,

seemed to be faffing a bit compared to some of the mums

who just came in, plonked the baby down, fed him, on you go.

With Paul I think he was milking it a bit more than most.

How do we think it went? What do we think we can learn from it?

I'm not sure, I'm still undecided about toddlers that can walk around.

-Agreed, yeah.

-I'm not sure if that would work,

but I definitely think children that aren't really mobile

in terms of walking around, maybe they can crawl around,

I think could work.

The jury is out.

Being in charge of a £200 million company,

Liam needs proof that it really can work.

So he and Claire head to America -

the birthplace of the babies-at-work scheme.

I want to see how they do it, I want to see if it's...

If it's struggling to be acceptable over here,

I think we're going to have big problems trying to get it accepted.

So I think the important thing is to see how they've implemented it.

I think now we're here, having done the trial day back at home,

I think there was a couple of things came out of it,

it was pretty chaotic,

so I think one of the more interesting things will be to see,

how is it in practice for somewhere where the novelty has worn off,

where they've been doing it for a while, day to day?

Is it fairly normal, is it just matter of fact,

come on in, kids get on with it, parents get on with it,

and they are productive? Or is it still quite a distraction,

and is it quite a... Does that whole novelty thing

just play havoc with the actual doing of the job?

The Arizona State Department Of Health

has a turnover of 2 billion a year.

It employs over 1,700 people and,

to date, has raised 110 babies...

..with ten currently in residence.

-Hi, I'm Claire, nice to meet you.

-I'm Liam, hi.

-Nice to meet you, I'm Bethy.

-And who's this little girl?

-This is Stella.

-And how long has Stella been coming to work?

Stella has been here for two months.

She came when she just turned two months old.

Workwise, how do you find it doing the work having her around you?

Workwise it's actually fine. I have things set up how I need them.

She sits on my lap a little bit.

But a lot of the time, she'll hang out in her little bouncer,

and then I have her little toys that I brought from home,

but I leave them here. So she has these.

Do they measure your productivity as part of this?

My workload hasn't changed. I haven't really noticed a difference.

I mean, I have the same caseload,

I've had to really keep focused, so when she's sleeping, I'll...

that's maybe when I make phone calls or something

where I don't want a baby in the background making noise.

In the United States, paid maternity leave is not a legal right

and many mothers who go back to work do so after just a few weeks.

Babies-at-work schemes are a growing solution to this issue.

From your boss's point of view, do they measure what happens to you on the days he comes in?

Does anyone ever pull you in and say,

-"You haven't done as much today?"

-No.

-No?

No, they don't do that. No, they're really good about it.

How much productivity do you drop by?

I would say about a quarter, 25%.

-You do about 25% less work as a result.

-Correct, yes.

That's still 25% across the week,

so you're going to lose 10 hours work,

so therefore, from a business point of view,

our average salary,

that'd be costing us the best part of 70 quid a week.

I'm a contractor here, a consultant, so I actually

am very sensitive to that

and so then I just don't invoice those hours then, I subtract them.

-Oh!

-So it doesn't really cost anybody anything.

-Oh, OK.

The department's babies-at-work scheme has been running for 12 years.

The man who currently oversees it is director, Will Humble.

-Hi, Will.

-Oh, hi, you came.

I'm Claire, nice to meet you.

Hi, nice to meet you too, thanks for the opportunity.

-Hi, nice to meet you.

-Thank you for seeing us.

Hi, come on, have a seat, let's chat for a minute about it.

Great. Thank you.

What do you think so far?

Well, we've certainly met a couple of the ladies that are doing it

and it seems to be working really well.

Everyone seems to be absolutely loving it,

and it's a great thing to have in place.

Sitting in this job, that's my main priority,

which is to look at the agency as a whole.

This is a 2 billion a year agency, that's what our revenue stream is,

and so I look at it like,

in order to keep this organisation running not just for today

but in the long run,

we've got to build the infrastructure of middle managers

who are going to be moving into those senior manager positions

and we've invested a lot of effort into that middle management team

and a lot of them are women in their 30s, and they're having babies,

and we can't afford to lose them, so to me, it's really a business deal.

You don't have any reservations in the productivity drop whilst they've got the kids here?

Well, it hasn't been a problem,

but what we gain is a long-term increase in our productivity,

and we build and continue to reinforce the commitment we have with our employees

which helps us in the long run to retain those critical employees

that may have made another choice.

Most of these women have husbands that have jobs,

and you know they could probably stay home.

Just wanted to ask you about something else.

We're looking at doing it beyond six months.

I'd say that's brave, but I'm not going to say you can't do it.

It's all a question of, you know,

can you bring the resources that you need to make it work?

We're in the public sector,

I don't know if you are public or private sector?

-Private.

-So that means you can go to somebody

that can write a cheque to make it happen.

Yeah, I would be the guy writing that cheque, and I'm tempted.

I think the reasons you give for keeping and retaining

any member of staff, that's the reason why we're looking at it.

I mean, it's a good opportunity and it's so easy to do, it really is!

-Well, I'll hold you to that!

-LAUGHTER

Thank you for all your information,

we'll go away a little bit more educated on it now on how to do it.

-Right, well, good luck with the cause.

-Thank you.

-Bye.

-Bye.

I think it was good to talk to A, a boss, and B, a man,

because everyone we've spoken so far has been female,

and they're probably a little bit more child orientated,

so to hear a guy say it's a good idea and it's got buy in,

and it's got benefits, I take with a little bit more credibility,

so that's why it was good to speak to him from my point of view.

The reality of why he's got the scheme is he keeps the best staff

and he retains the people that do the job best for him.

So that's what you want to do, isn't it?

-Keep the best middle management women.

-Anyone in mind?

-Me!

With Liam more reassured about the bottom line,

he and Claire head to Halcyon Yarns in Maine -

a medium sized business with over 80,000 customers.

-Hi, I'm Claire.

-Nice to meet you.

Founded by Halcyon Blake,

it has one of the world's longest running babies-at-work schemes.

Oh, there's the blue one, good, Frieda, you found it, sweetie.

Halcyon's own daughter, Gretchen,

was just two days old when she was first taken to work.

-Nice to meet you.

-The product of this environment.

-Yeah.

-Lucky me.

-The first one.

-Yeah, I survived.

She's living proof of the benefits to babies.

-I don't suppose you can remember it, can you?

-Bits and pieces, sure.

You know I was here from when she was pregnant with me in the store,

my entire childhood and, yeah,

there's probably things I've blocked out,

don't worry, I've forgot the bad stuff.

But I think on the whole I was really lucky.

I mean, I'm very grateful

and I think it's probably really shaped how I live now as an adult.

I suppose what we wonder is does it do anything

to indoctrinate you with a sort of work ethic -

kids in childcare versus a kid brought in the workplace -

does it make a difference?

Absolutely, and I think one of the things

that's really nice about that is

I learned not to sort of compartmentalise life versus work,

so you don't see yourself as I'm at a job and this is what I do there

and then I leave

and I have my identity and my family and my personal life.

You don't have to choose between the things that matter to you,

you can find a way to make them a part of each other.

In the UK, work and parenting remain largely separate.

The average cost of childcare for each baby under two

is more than £5,000 per year.

And a quarter of women who go on maternity leave

don't return to work.

For employers, this means a significant cost

in terms of recruiting and training their replacements.

It's something both business people and experts in social policy want to address.

The fact is the people are the ones that make the business

and, if you want to have the best people,

you've got to treat them properly.

And if you're going to treat them properly,

that includes making sure that you've got family-friendly policies

which gives people flexibility

and allows them to do what they need to do to support their children.

As a country, it makes no sense to force families

to choose between work and bringing up their children.

We should enable them to balance work and family life,

providing the kind of childcare, the flexible work opportunities

that enable them both to have careers

and to bring up their children.

At the moment, we force far too many families to give up work

because they can't afford to do that and provide for their kids.

Back at the office, it's decision time.

Will the company extend the trial for a whole month

or abandon it entirely?

Liam calls the parents into a meeting.

Having now seen how it works in America,

what's your overview of what actually happened and what you saw?

I didn't fully appreciate quite how easy...

I was the biggest sceptic of anyone when I first...

when the idea was first floated, "That's never going to work."

Having seen it in place,

it definitely does work, it's just up to what age limit it can work.

The reaction of the mothers out there

and the benefits that came with it

were far more significant than I really thought they could be.

I really think we can do something quite special and unique in the UK

and make it work.

We are committed to giving it a trial,

we are committed to trialling it.

Without a doubt. One of the things we did see, it does work.

Having seeing it in place,

we are definitely going to be doing something, at your desk,

I have no doubt that we will be able to make it work at somebody's desk.

Addisson Lee are going to extend the trial for an entire month.

Next time, the company puts their £15 million monthly turnover at risk.

We've had a customer complaint.

Passenger was expecting a vehicle this morning, important meeting,

six passengers, car's not arrived.

More staff are on the verge of pulling out.

Having both worlds, having Tanisha in my work life in one

is kind of slipping away.

I just didn't expect it to be this hard to do both at the same time.

And the babies aren't the only ones close to tears.

Today, I'm not really achieving my target because Tyler's teething,

the most he's slept today has been about 15 minutes.

Yeah, so, it hasn't been that much of a great day.

But can the scheme convert the sceptics?

My name's Kitty Kat.

In general I've loved having her here, it's been good, good fun. Long may it continue.

And if you would've seen me at the beginning, I wouldn't have said that.

And will the boss agree to keep the babies on - permanently?

-Afternoon, everybody.

-ALL: Afternoon.

It's been an interesting experiment, you know,

it's not been without its challenges.

Whatever we decide today will affect people's lives for the future.

It will affect people deciding to have families, so it's not a decision we've taken lightly.

And the decision is...

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