Po: Working Care = Caring Work?

'Po' is a word that Edward de Bono (the originator of 'lateral thinking') came up with more than 25 years ago. Po is to be used as a provocation word -- a word to provocate a thinking process -- but not necessarily create judgement.

For example...

Po: Employers provide day care facilities for their employees.

Read this as "Wouldn't it be great if..." & "What would happen if..." but all rolled into one thought.

The companies would save on time (and money) since less people would take sick leave or absences for emergencies or appointments. The money from contributing employees could be redistributed to fund the full-time staff looking after the children, thus reducing running costs. The reputation of the company would be fantastic in terms of benefits and generating the feeling that they're really taking care of their own. And -- perhaps most importantly -- it would provide a means for the typical working-parent(s)-with-child family to interact during the day, on a daily basis.

The employees would obviously save a lot of time and money usually spent getting to and from day care (since they're going to work anyway), or leaving early picking the children up, and organizing after-work activities would fit better in their schedules. They'd worry less, since they'd be closer in case of an emergency, and therefore have less on their minds -- which potentially increases productivity. They'd have a more flexible schedule to work with, again decreasing stress and increasing productivity. Interestingly, they could have lunch with the children, which not only gives the day care workers a bit of a break but more importantly they get to spend more time with their children...

The positives in this situation are too numerous to list.

Why hasn't this idea caught on more??