Less Pay, More Convenience

  • Peter Maloof (4/27/2011)


    UMG Developer (4/27/2011)


    The official policy is B, but unofficially they want exempt employees to do A (still using sick time), and want non-exempt employees to do C.

    They expect you to work, but still charge you a sick day?

    I wonder if demanding that people come in when they're infectious violates any health codes.

    Anything food related is a definite yes. Hosital, schools, kindergarden... should be yes.

    Then anything else is just common sense. To me anyways.

  • Peter Maloof (4/27/2011)


    They expect you to work, but still charge you a sick day?

    Yep, work from home is allowed, only for exempt employees, and in a lot of cases expected but they won't pay for it as "worked" hours. So I can fix things after hours or while on vacation/sick, but I can't work a normal day from anywhere but the office. (Hourly employees aren't allowed to work from home, but if they manage to somehow the company will pay them, as the laws require it.)

  • Has anyone ever heard any explanation as to why they're not allowed to telecommute?

    I'd love it if a manager would post here, trying to justify their company's telecommuting policy.


    Peter MaloofServing Data

  • Peter Maloof (4/27/2011)


    Has anyone ever heard any explanation as to why they're not allowed to telecommute?

    I'd love it if a manager would post here, trying to justify their company's telecommuting policy.

    +1 000 000

  • Ninja's_RGR'us (4/26/2011)


    Grant Fritchey (4/26/2011)


    nico van niekerk (4/26/2011)


    One can understand that employers would be reluctant to allow someone with whom they have no trust-relationship to work at home. There are a multitude of distractions at home, such as being closer to the refrigerator, the couch for frequent naps, and doing outside work on the side. This is especially true if the project is of such a nature that benchmarks and deliverables are not clearly quantifiable.

    At least the employer knows that the likelihood of moonlighting, excessive private calls, or frequent trips for household chores are far less likely if the employee sits right there in an open office. Cutting a couple of bucks off the payroll won't make that suspicion go away.

    It takes time for a trust-relationship to develop and I have found a much lower stress-level at the employer if I work longer hours with measurable results. Granted, I am not a W2 employee, but an hourly-billing contractor and giving clients more than they pay for is just a solid investment in job security. A W2 employee suffers more from the perception of "having to be there" than an independent contractor does.

    Predictably, my client's stress-level about remote working lowered considerably when we successfully negotiated a weekly flat rate with my undertaking to immerse myself in the project. Although that works both ways it still took almost a year before relationships were strong enough to make that change to the contract. But, they still demanded that I frequently show my face around the office in spite of state-of-the-art communications and video technology.

    I cannot see a large W2-crowd working from home any time soon, exactly because of the suspicion-factor. It's common to the relationship.

    So they don't trust me to work from home, but they give me the keys to the kingdom for the enterprise data, and probably the HR & Finance data. Oh, and in the middle of the night, I'm perfectly entrusted, encouraged even, to jump on to work and fix any problems, remotely. I'm also good for doing remote maintenance on weekends. I'm "trusted" all those times, but that 9-5 period, I'm just out to rip off the company... This is my fundamental problem with this approach. If you trust me enough to give me control over your databases, then I think you can also trust me to work from home.

    Amen!

    The same thing happened to me in a firm with some kind of discriminating culture. Some people can work from home but only outside working hours while someone else can work wherever they like during working hours.

  • hangxliu (4/29/2011)


    Ninja's_RGR'us (4/26/2011)


    Grant Fritchey (4/26/2011)


    nico van niekerk (4/26/2011)


    One can understand that employers would be reluctant to allow someone with whom they have no trust-relationship to work at home. There are a multitude of distractions at home, such as being closer to the refrigerator, the couch for frequent naps, and doing outside work on the side. This is especially true if the project is of such a nature that benchmarks and deliverables are not clearly quantifiable.

    At least the employer knows that the likelihood of moonlighting, excessive private calls, or frequent trips for household chores are far less likely if the employee sits right there in an open office. Cutting a couple of bucks off the payroll won't make that suspicion go away.

    It takes time for a trust-relationship to develop and I have found a much lower stress-level at the employer if I work longer hours with measurable results. Granted, I am not a W2 employee, but an hourly-billing contractor and giving clients more than they pay for is just a solid investment in job security. A W2 employee suffers more from the perception of "having to be there" than an independent contractor does.

    Predictably, my client's stress-level about remote working lowered considerably when we successfully negotiated a weekly flat rate with my undertaking to immerse myself in the project. Although that works both ways it still took almost a year before relationships were strong enough to make that change to the contract. But, they still demanded that I frequently show my face around the office in spite of state-of-the-art communications and video technology.

    I cannot see a large W2-crowd working from home any time soon, exactly because of the suspicion-factor. It's common to the relationship.

    So they don't trust me to work from home, but they give me the keys to the kingdom for the enterprise data, and probably the HR & Finance data. Oh, and in the middle of the night, I'm perfectly entrusted, encouraged even, to jump on to work and fix any problems, remotely. I'm also good for doing remote maintenance on weekends. I'm "trusted" all those times, but that 9-5 period, I'm just out to rip off the company... This is my fundamental problem with this approach. If you trust me enough to give me control over your databases, then I think you can also trust me to work from home.

    Amen!

    The same thing happened to me in a law firm called <Name changed to protect the innocent> with some kind of discriminating culture. Some people can work from home but only outside working hours while someone else can work wherever they like during working hours.

    Maybe I'm paranoid but I would remove the name of that LAWFIRM. Which can certainly find a way to sue you over what you just wrote.

    Also how did the issue got resolved internally, if it ever was?

  • Thanks. Nothing was resolved, I was ripped off and forced to leave as well. You know they are professional and good about this.

  • I am currently working from home and have been for over 2 years now. But my current employer although happy with my work has given me an ultimatum of moving and being in the office or leaving. So even when it is working, Corporate is not too keen on the idea.

    I have also found that because I am currently working from home I have missed new jobs because of the fear that I push to work from home again.

    Personally I find I am as productive and also they get the added bonus that I am willing to put in extra work at odd hours because why not.

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