'AITA for reporting a crying baby to HR?' 'Something's gotta give.'

"AITA for reporting a crying baby to HR?"

I am second guessing my decision to report to HR. There is a person in my building who brings their infant to work with her, and it cries and screams and fusses, as babies do. She does not close her office door but leaves it open like an echo chamber resounding through the halls. It is incredibly difficult to focus on anything at all with a crying baby in your ear.

Closing my door helps a bit, but we have a culture of leaving doors open to signal that you're available for an impromptu meeting. I leave mine open about half of the time. I decided today that something's gotta give. I do not know her and we do not work for the same department.

I work in an office with a lot of touchy personalities and egos, and I was not confident that I could simply ask her to close her door, without setting off WWIII, either with her individually, or between our co-located departments. Instead I sent a very nicely worded email to HR asking if someone can send her an anonymous request to please kindly keep her door closed while she has her baby with her.

I assumed the woman has some kind of "Reasonable Accommodation" for having the baby at work, but now I'm second guessing myself. What if she doesn't, and isn't supposed to have the baby with her? Did I just "tell" on her?

I am feeling quite sheepish about it at the moment. Should I have tried to resolve this myself? HR has already responded with an emphatic "good job in bringing this to HR, as this is an HR issue, and not something to handle yourself," but I still feel like maybe I'm the AH here.

Here's what people had to say to OP:

Aggressive_Desk_4335 said:

NTA. You didn’t march in there and say, “Get that baby out of here.” You didn’t slam her door shut mid-wail. You didn’t CC her boss or post on Slack like “Hey, whose baby is this??”

You went through the exact channel you're supposed to. HR even gave you a gold star and said "Yes, this is our thing." That’s not tattling. That’s...procedure. That's literally what they're paid to handle.

Starfoxy said:

If she was bringing the baby to work on the down low, you'd think she'd be a bit more proactive about making sure it wasn't drawing attention (ie shutting her office door).

KrystalVox said:

You handled it professionally. HR confirmed it's their domain, and a constant crying baby impacts everyone's work. You prioritized productivity and sought a discreet solution.

Nucf1ash said:

Dude. If I had to work next to a screaming child for five minutes, I’d be calling leadership ON SPEAKER to let them experience some of it for themselves. Unless you work at a literal daycare, that is NOT okay. Oh hell no.

duckoffthanks said:

NTA. Whether she has a reasonable accommodation or not if her baby is affecting others work or the work environment that definitely needs to be brought up. I get it, I’m a mom working while having kids is hard but she has to understand that not everyone wants to hear her baby scream while they work.

HappyTwill said:

I am telling you as a mother who works from home with an office like setting - you are not the ahole here. There is a reason my kid goes to daycare even though I work from home. It's so I can work and focus during work hours. Sooooo NTA. Kudos on how you handled this, OP.