LinkedIn had their annual "Bring In Your Parents Day" last Friday, Nov. 4. Instead of having the employees' daughters and sons visit the workplace, the mostly millennial staff invited their parents to the office to see how they work and get to know the people they work with.
The company launched "Bring In Your Parents Day" or #BYIP over four years ago and continued with it because it drew a positive response. It started off as a joke among the employees but it has since become a good boost for work and life balance. Today, the company holds the event every first week of November.
Over 350 parents participated in LinkedIn's "Bring In Your Parents Day" in New York. But across the company's 28 other offices around the world, 3,500 parents came to see their sons and daughters at work, Today reports.
Bring In Your Parents Day was a success! Check out the Instagram story to see how we celebrated in SF: https://t.co/HB3csSpRJn #BIYP pic.twitter.com/KS8SDtakSJ
— #LinkedInLife (@LinkedInLife) November 4, 2016
"When my dad saw his first scooter in the office, he was all freaked out but by the end of the day he was breezing through the halls riding one," LinkedIn manager Nawal Fakhoury told Today. Her parents, who are now based in Florida, actually participated in last year's "Bring In Your Parents Day" as well.
LinkedIn senior manager Shira Selkovits appreciates that the company supports "Bring In Your Parents Day" and values the importance of family. She also had her parents join the event in the four years that she has been with the company. She cites that the initiative is a tangible way for her to include her parents in this aspect of her life, according to CIO.
LinkedIn's initiative has inspired other tech companies, such as Google and Amazon, to hold their own #BYIP. At Voices.Com, some employees were actually thrilled to show their parents their work areas and some were glad that their moms and dads have gotten an actual idea of their jobs.
But even other industries are also taking cues from LinkedIn's "Bring In Your Parents Day" initiative. "There's nothing better than looking in the eyes of a parent on this day and saying, 'Your kid is just amazing. We love having them on the team!" LinkedIn director Catherine Fisher said in the reports. Watch the parents talk about their children at work in the video below.
