An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently. Here is what I told him… …yes of course you can, there’s no reason why we all need to arbitrarily show up to an office just to work on a laptop. Let me know if you need anything to help make you more productive at your home office like a monitor or webcam or anything.
I have a meeting later today for an employee who requested a reasonable accommodation to work from home for medical reasons, and it was declined (by the people who review the RA requests, not by me). The employee, like the rest of us, have been doing the job for over four years from home; how can anyone possibly make the case at this point that they need to come into the office?
The meeting description has a sentence in it that clearly states the medical documentation was sufficient to support working from home. So why are we having this meeting?
I, of course, completely support her request and will argue for it, if necessary. I wish I could come up with a similar justification for myself, honestly, but I cannot, and I’m not going to game the system and possibly affect people who really do need it.
(Our employer’s whole return-to-office thing is driven by outside forces that have little to do with our work. I suspect our leadership would continue work from home if they could. Unfortunately their supervisors do not agree.)
If you work for a large company, then they are also in the real estate business. It’s better for the real estate business if people work in their real estate and support the restaurants and other companies that rent from their real estate.
Sounds like you’re a good manager in a frustrating situation. Good luck with your meeting and hopefully you can talk some sense into whoever needs it.
I’m very lucky that my employer basically went totally remote first as soon as covid hit and made it clear it was a permanent change from the get go. I know many folks in this frustrating position of fully or partially in office mandates that really don’t seem to be required for the work.
Update: They kicked me out of the meeting. The employee’s first-line supervisor was still in it, and it was really short - they basically asked if the employee could do the job remotely or not. It sounded like they were going to approve the request. This whole meeting setup is very strange; it’s never happened before on any accommodation request I’ve been involved with (maybe half a dozen over the years). Maybe they review a few at random or something.
Thanks. Part of me wants to find an employer similar to yours, the other part of me is like, hey, I’m planning to retire in like 7 years.
There’s a LOT of concern over what this return-to-office plan will do to staff - we think quite a few people will find other jobs. A few have said so out loud; who knows how many more are planning the same quietly (of course, some people also talk a big game, but when push comes to shove…will they really?). We’re also running into more issues hiring; another manager I know had a candidate decline because the position wasn’t remote and they didn’t want to move here. When I talk to candidates, it’s now the first thing I check, even before I schedule the interview - no point in wasting time for either of us if it’s a non-starter.
It’s kind of weird - we only have to go in once a week, which actually isn’t that bad at all - for those of us who already live in the area. But it’s harder to convince people to move across the country to a high cost of living location so they can sit in their apartment 4 of 5 days each week. But we have to support the local Popeye’s fast food joint, I guess.
Actually beans are pretty carbon friendly, it’s the red meat you got to worry about.
Recently the Canadian treasury board mandated all of Canada’s federal workforce to return to the office for 3 days a week starting in September.
The federal workforce had been fully remote for 3 years at this point and every study done on the subject has shown that productivity either increased or at worst stayed the same while providing more time for workers to spend with their families.
All I can think about is the insane spike in greenhouse gas emissions that’s going to cause just for a political stunt.
An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently. Here is what I told him…
No
An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently. Here is what I told him:
“Bob, you drive an excavator, are you out of your mind?”
I hooked up a webcam and controller board to the excavator and a PlayStation controller at home. How about now?
Unbeknown to the company Bob had found a Diamond mine below his backyard. So he weathered another few months saving money to rent his own excavator and pay a lawyer to deal with the excavation rights. Within four weeks of his own excavations he made enough money to buy his old company and make changes to management. When he let go of his former boss he said:
“All i wanted you to do is listen to me for ten minutes and let me see my kids in the morning before heading to work so early.”
