The "Working from Home" line

[sam_gordon]

This is interesting. In DC, when we have bad weather, the federal government sometimes gives certain employees the option to work from home. When that happens, local message boards are usually filled with rants from people in the private sector saying this is effectively nothing more than a day off for lazy government workers and that working from home means not working. It's interesting that doesn't seem to be the thought here. Wondering why.

FWIW, I support work from home programs, even though its not an option available to me.

Maybe because people here either qualify for WFH or their company allows others to do it and they understand it is possible to WFH AND complete work. It so totally depends on the job. Someone only looking at their job requirements that require them to be at a job site doesn't even look at the "other side".

 

[nkereina]

My department allows everyone to work from home two days a week as our regular schedule, with other days as needed or based on weather. We have an internal instant messaging platform that allows everyone to see who is online so we know who's around and who's not. We're expected to be available and working, but no one is keeping tabs on us. If we're getting our work done and there's no complaints, management does not monitor or bother anyone. If we are working from an airplane or a car ride, they wouldn't care. In fact, my manager last Friday was at a trampoline park with her nephew when I had a meeting with her.

I will say that I find I actually get MORE work done on days I work from home. I get to sleep in a little bit because I don't have to get ready and then commute 45 minutes. I sign on and start work earlier than I would if I were in the office. I throw on sweatpants and get to sit comfortably all day. And I'm not interrupted by chatty coworkers or the need to get away from my desk for a minute. I also have no qualms about working late or finishing something up, because I'm not worried about getting caught in rush hour traffic. I can run down and throw dinner in the oven, and come back up to work some more.

 

[DCLPrincess]

My aunt works from home every day. She does laundry, mows the lawn, runs her kids around, etc. Apparently her boss doesn't care because she hasn't gotten fired but it seems like abuse of privileges to me.

 

[joedplumber]

I actually talked to my manager about it today who also works from home every Friday and got approval to do the same. Her response was interesting, she said, "We are a small company and we are all professionals that got hired to do a specific job not to sit at a desk 9-5 like a trained circus animal. Enjoy the flexibility, after all we should all work to live not live to work." I was floored by this!!

 

[_19disnA]

It depends a lot on the type of work you do and how your company operates as many as already stated. White collar jobs tend to be more unstructured so it may/may not lend itself to working remotely. If you attend a lot of meetings, for example, being there is person means more then a job you do on your own with little interaction with co-workers. Some people like the 'working at home' concept since they think they can get away with doing less work and still get paid. Think you will have those types of people in every company regardless of whether they work from home or not.

 

[soccerdad72]

For me, it's a Catch-22. I do tend to get more work done when working from home, because there are less distractions. But as a manager, many of those 'distractions' are people in and out of my office, so when I'm not there, much of that doesn't get dealt with, so it festers longer.

I have staff ask me all the time to work from home - problem is, history has shown me that most of the time when they're working from home, they're not accessible like they need to be for their job. They talk the talk, but when push comes to shove, people (including me) can't get a hold of them, so it's questionable as to how they're truly working.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I'm of the opinion that people "working from home" while really being "on call" is something that will get the privilege removed for everyone. I have one manager who encouraged one day a week of work at home so that we could get things done without constant interruptions. I really appreciated that, and I find that I usually feel obligated to work more at home than I would have in the office...I just do it from my comfy couch. When I permanently worked from home, I loved being able to start laundry or throw food in the crock pot during the day. I would just work later to make up that time. The down side was that I really never stopped working,.

When my staff works from home, I ask that they stay logged into instant messenger so that they are reachable and so that I can see that they are at least on their computer. I have also approved special instances of work-while-traveling, usually doing editing or revising procedures that needs to be done, but can be done without reliable Internet.

 

[Klayfish]

For me, it's a Catch-22. I do tend to get more work done when working from home, because there are less distractions. But as a manager, many of those 'distractions' are people in and out of my office, so when I'm not there, much of that doesn't get dealt with, so it festers longer.

I have staff ask me all the time to work from home - problem is, history has shown me that most of the time when they're working from home, they're not accessible like they need to be for their job. They talk the talk, but when push comes to shove, people (including me) can't get a hold of them, so it's questionable as to how they're truly working.

To me, that last part is where accountability comes in. If they don't have the time management/responsibility/maturity/etc...to handle WFH and its' temptations, then that's a performance issue. As I said, I truly don't care if my team throws a load of laundry in, take a walk over lunch or whatever. I do it myself. But the expectation is that their work is done to the levels in their performance goals and they are responsive to internal and external customers. If they can't, then they lose WFH privileges and/or the performance management process begins. My boss expects the same of me. I'm totally cool with using some perks of WFH, but just don't completely abuse it.

On your first part, it is an interesting challenge, isn't it? One of the things I'm struggling with is we all have different WFH schedules. People can pick WFH days for what fits their schedule (but it has to be the same days every week). That flexibility is awesome, but creates an unintended consequence. There are days when some of my team is in the office, but I'm not. There are other days when I schlep all the way into the office only to have half of my team at home. I'm going to push the concept of having everyone coordinate WFH days...but I foresee challenges there since we already let the toothpaste out of the tube with people picking their own schedule.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My aunt works from home every day. She does laundry, mows the lawn, runs her kids around, etc. Apparently her boss doesn't care because she hasn't gotten fired but it seems like abuse of privileges to me.

What are her responsibilities and does she get them done?

 

[Nancyg56]

My previous job we were allowed to work from home with permission. I only did it on snow days and I quickly learned that I am not a good work from home person. I found myself doing laundry, cleaning, and watching tv instead of getting my work done. I'm sure there were people that took advantage of it but it never affected me so I didn't care. My new job doesn't offer the option at all.

We can work from home as well, and while I am grateful for the opportunity I seldom use it. Snow days, etc, but that is it. I hate it. I found that I am not always as focused as I should be so I have to have everything in order before I start, be showered and dressed as if for work, and toss everyone out of my area. I never lose sleep over what my coworkers may or may not be doing. I figure that in the end they are held accountable for their responsibilities, so as long as I am honest in my efforts, I am good.

My aunt works from home every day. She does laundry, mows the lawn, runs her kids around, etc. Apparently her boss doesn't care because she hasn't gotten fired but it seems like abuse of privileges to me.

You may think that but it does not make it so. My employer simply wants to know when I am available, so days when I have several appointments scheduled I just let him know or our admin know so she does not send me calls at that time. As long as I put in my time, no one questions it. I have started working at 5 AM and worked on and off to make my 8 hours. My employer is just fine with this arrangement, and not only offers the opportunity, he often encourages it. If I take a few hours off in the afternoon, or run to pick up the kids, but my time is in, he is good. You may need to rethink your position because you have no idea what the arrangement is.

I actually talked to my manager about it today who also works from home every Friday and got approval to do the same. Her response was interesting, she said, "We are a small company and we are all professionals that got hired to do a specific job not to sit at a desk 9-5 like a trained circus animal. Enjoy the flexibility, after all we should all work to live not live to work." I was floored by this!!

I tend to agree. My DS has no physical office to work out of, although he has a space in a building if he needs it. He works remotely all day every day. He also cooks meals, does laundry, runs an occasional errand, whatever. he often puts in well over 50 hours a week and gets more done than just about anyone I know.

My DD as well. She chooses to go to the office most days, but can telecommute at any time. She is crazy awesome at multitasking and I know she did not get that from me. In the office she gets interrupted a lot, and was frustrated that she could not get some of the coworkers to stop treating the office a neighborhood fence to yell over when our employer was not in the building. Kind of hard to concentrate when people are making a racket.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

That's abuse.

About 20% of the employees at my company work from home. We put in a full 8 hours. In fact, I had to work at home twice this week to take a child to the doctor. So while I might take time out of the middle of my day, I will make that time up and do my 8 hours.

 

[nkereina]

That's abuse.

About 20% of the employees at my company work from home. We put in a full 8 hours. In fact, I had to work at home twice this week to take a child to the doctor. So while I might take time out of the middle of my day, I will make that time up and do my 8 hours.

Are you salaried? In my company, salaried employees don't have the expectation of working 8 hours a day. Some work flex schedules, some put in much longer days, some put in less. It depends on our workload at any given time, even though we're all full time. We're expected to work about 40 hours per week, but we have flexibility with how and when we do that. And again, as long as our work is getting done, that's all that anyone cares about. Every company culture is different.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Are you salaried? In my company, salaried employees don't have the expectation of working 8 hours a day.

Yep. I mean, the expectation is a 40 hour work week ,moreso than 8 hours per day. Whether that means 8 hours on Friday or 4 hours on Friday and then make up 4 hours on Saturday.

 

[nkereina]

Yep. I mean, the expectation is a 40 hour work week ,moreso than 8 hours per day. Whether that means 8 hours on Friday or 4 hours on Friday and then make up 4 hours on Saturday.

Gotcha. In our company, we wouldn't have to make up those 4 hours on Saturday, but everyone knows there may be some weeks when we're expected to put in extra hours to meet deadlines and keep up on work. It evens out in the end. We don't have anyone that blatantly abuses it, luckily.

 

[kdonnel]

My aunt works from home every day. She does laundry, mows the lawn, runs her kids around, etc. Apparently her boss doesn't care because she hasn't gotten fired but it seems like abuse of privileges to me.

Does she do all work assigned to her?

Does she do as much work as someone who works in the office?

Does she respond in a timely fashion when contacted?

Is her boss happy with her work?

If the answer is yes to all of those then she is not abusing anything.

 

[princesspiglet]

I know my neighbors all think I am a slacker because I get to work from home whenever I want, as they see me taking my daughter into school, pulling weeds, etc. But what they don't know is that I am on-call 24/7. My company phone and laptop are tethered to my body. I haven't taken a proper vacation (without working while on it) for at least 6 years. I am an Executive Coordinator for the company CTO and VP of Engineering. I have a reactive job. Both of my executives live in different states and travel constantly. One is in China right now and will start emailing me about 8 pm tonight and I will be up working until around 4 am or so. So yes, while I get to be at home doing laundry, grocery shopping, etc...I still have to do whatever is needed at any time of the day. There have been numerous times where I have been at the grocery store and my boss calls and needs something asap. I run out to my car to my laptop- seriously, I take it with me everywhere- and do what's needed. I have a wifi hot spot on my phone and a separate 3G wifi router that goes with me everywhere I go.

So while I do get to "work from home"...it is definitely not a day off!

 

[loves to dive]

Not quite the same but my Honey owns his own IT consultant business and works from home. Currently he is lounging on the couch reading his kindle. On the other side of that, last night around 11 pm he was working on a client's server (still on the couch but whatever). When he first started it used to drive me crazy because I had to get up and go to work for 9 to 10 hours. I would leave and he would be sitting on the couch and I would come home and it looked like he hadn't moved. After over 15 or so years of this, now when I get mad it's because we are travelling home on Christmas day and he is on the phone talking a client through something. He gets no vacation and is on 24/7. Because of the type of work he does, most of his work has to be done after hours and on weekends. We just bought a new RV and were camping this weekend and he was working from the RV. I even have a picture of him on Honolulu beach standing with his phone to his ear doing a support call. He has been known to be on the phone in the middle of the ocean when we just came up from diving. He does have an office in our basement and will go down there if we are dog sitting my sons two dogs because they are noisier than our little one but 99% of the time, he works from our couch. Don't even get me started on having to mute the TV because he has to take a call or putting something we are watching on pause because "this is critical" or always having his darn laptop on our coffee table.

 

[princesspiglet]

Not quite the same but my Honey owns his own IT consultant business and works from home. Currently he is lounging on the couch reading his kindle. On the other side of that, last night around 11 pm he was working on a client's server (still on the couch but whatever). When he first started it used to drive me crazy because I had to get up and go to work for 9 to 10 hours. I would leave and he would be sitting on the couch and I would come home and it looked like he hadn't moved. After over 15 or so years of this, now when I get mad it's because we are travelling home on Christmas day and he is on the phone talking a client through something. He gets no vacation and is on 24/7. Because of the type of work he does, most of his work has to be done after hours and on weekends. We just bought a new RV and were camping this weekend and he was working from the RV. I even have a picture of him on Honolulu beach standing with his phone to his ear doing a support call. He has been known to be on the phone in the middle of the ocean when we just came up from diving. He does have an office in our basement and will go down there if we are dog sitting my sons two dogs because they are noisier than our little one but 99% of the time, he works from our couch. Don't even get me started on having to mute the TV because he has to take a call or putting something we are watching on pause because "this is critical" or always having his darn laptop on our coffee table.

My Dh feels the same way about me! LOL

 

[disneychrista]

If these are exempt employees and they are meeting deadlines getting their work done, etc. It really doesn't matter how/when/where the work is getting done.

 

[Snowflakey]

To me, that last part is where accountability comes in. If they don't have the time management/responsibility/maturity/etc...to handle WFH and its' temptations, then that's a performance issue. As I said, I truly don't care if my team throws a load of laundry in, take a walk over lunch or whatever. I do it myself. But the expectation is that their work is done to the levels in their performance goals and they are responsive to internal and external customers. If they can't, then they lose WFH privileges and/or the performance management process begins. My boss expects the same of me. I'm totally cool with using some perks of WFH, but just don't completely abuse it.

On your first part, it is an interesting challenge, isn't it? One of the things I'm struggling with is we all have different WFH schedules. People can pick WFH days for what fits their schedule (but it has to be the same days every week). That flexibility is awesome, but creates an unintended consequence. There are days when some of my team is in the office, but I'm not. There are other days when I schlep all the way into the office only to have half of my team at home. I'm going to push the concept of having everyone coordinate WFH days...but I foresee challenges there since we already let the toothpaste out of the tube with people picking their own schedule.

Just a thought - why don't you instead choose one day a week where everyone has to be in the office. I've done this and it is working out great. That's our day for a staff huddle to talk about whats going on with everyone.