Seems to me that your supervisor and coworkers should never hear about whether or not you have a family or kids.
Surely that sort of information is need-to-know at work?
Surely that sort of information is need-to-know at work?
It's a tough balance, because if you don't allow the same perks to your childless employees, they end up being "suckers", working extra hours for no extra benefit. Conversely, if you were to eg pay them more, even for working more hours and being extra contactable outside of regular hours, it could be seen as discrimination.
It's not "hiding" anything, it's keeping personal things personal. I don't talk about my medical issues at work either. It's not hiding, it's just not need-to-know.
Show up and do your job, and then go home.
A few months later he and I were hanging out at a bar, the time gets away from us and I go "hey man don't let me keep you out here away from your family all night, it's cool if you gotta go".
He looks at me and asks "what family?" I am confused.
That's when he drops it on me: he's been at this company 5 years lying about having a family because it gets him out of doing off-hours work and nobody asked any questions, they'd just assign work to someone else. Whereas when some of the younger, childless, and more impressionable workers try to protect the boundaries of their off-time...well you see where this is going (if not: they would get talked into doing it anyway)
It's a kind of malingering that I found...honestly....kind of brilliant in a bastard kind of way.
It doesn't require lying.