The "Working from Home" line

[design_mom]

I am a "remote employee" so I work from home every day and was hired to do so. However, I'm expected to be online/available by phone during "core hours" unless I've let my boss know. It's not generally a problem to flex my hours from time to time for an appointment, etc. but the expectation is to communicate with my team.

I have been working from home pretty much exlusively since 2012, and I think it works out well for me. I have an office area set up and I generally go there/stay there for most of my working hours. I will throw in a load of laundry in the morning and fold it at lunch, etc. but I don't watch TV/clean the house "while I'm working."

For my coworkers who were not hired as remote employees. They are allowed to work from hme one day per week, and from the office the rest. Same availability rules apply to them when they're working from home.

 

[Nennie]

I work from home 3 days a week, and I love it! Everyone in my office works from home anywhere from 1-4 days per week. It's not abused, and everyone is actually more productive at home. Less interruptions, but more importantly, we all know what a gift it is to be able to work from home, so we aren't going to screw it up! LOL!!!

For my office, working from home, means working from your home. No working from the car, from a hotel, from someone else's house, etc. Get caught working from somewhere other than your home, and it's a serious violation, subject to discipline and loss of work from home privileges. I sometimes wish working from hotels were an option, as there are times my husband travels for work, and I'd like to go with him and work from the hotel room while he's doing conference stuff, but I'm not complaining b/c working from home is truly a gift. I love being able to wake up, log on, and work in my jammies. I can throw in a load of laundry if need be, or go grocery shopping on my lunch hour. I also have the option of working from home on weekends, and earning comp time so that I can take a day off during the week. It's a great benefit, which is why I can definitely see myself working well past retirement age, b/c I really love my job and the flexibility it gives me.

 

[Txmom23]

I’ve been a remote employee for five years. In the beginning we were a small start up and being 100% remote allowed us to hire the best talent, regardless of geography. We were recently bought by a much larger company with brick and mortar sites but none near my home. Thankfully their culture is very remote friendly.

I’m salary so there are days that I don’t move for 9 hours and other days that I can end early. I don’t complain during the high pressure times and don’t feel the least bit guilty during the slow ones. I absolutely get more done at home and still feel very connected to my team. If you hire great people, you don’t need to have them under your nose in an office to make sure they are working.

 

[Katie Dawn]

My company doesn't generally have a "Work From Home" policy where people plan to stay home on a regular basis. It's more used as a "try to get some work done when you can't come to the office." So for instance my kid is sick and I gotta stay home with her all day. Or I have an illness so won't come in due to being contagious, but I don't feel so terrible that I can't work from the house. Often when kids are sick you spend most of the day cuddling on the couch with them because they don't feel up to much else. That makes it easy to work on emails on the laptop next to her on the couch.

BUT, when I've worked from home in these situations I've never been able to get in a full 8 hours. I usually end up putting maybe 4 hours on my timesheet if I'm home with my child, maybe as much as 6 if I'm home alone without the kiddo and really able to focus on getting work done. I do end up doing laundry or cleaning or just taking a break and watching TV. But I reflect that honestly on my timesheet.

Basically it's a way to reduce the amount of sick leave (if I'm sick) or annual leave (if my kid is sick) that I have to use, and helps me not be quite as behind when I get back. This is something I think nearly all of us who have "office jobs" at my company have done.

 

[Christine]

My company doesn't generally have a "Work From Home" policy where people plan to stay home on a regular basis. It's more used as a "try to get some work done when you can't come to the office." So for instance my kid is sick and I gotta stay home with her all day. Or I have an illness so won't come in due to being contagious, but I don't feel so terrible that I can't work from the house. Often when kids are sick you spend most of the day cuddling on the couch with them because they don't feel up to much else. That makes it easy to work on emails on the laptop next to her on the couch.

BUT, when I've worked from home in these situations I've never been able to get in a full 8 hours. I usually end up putting maybe 4 hours on my timesheet if I'm home with my child, maybe as much as 6 if I'm home alone without the kiddo and really able to focus on getting work done. I do end up doing laundry or cleaning or just taking a break and watching TV. But I reflect that honestly on my timesheet.

Basically it's a way to reduce the amount of sick leave (if I'm sick) or annual leave (if my kid is sick) that I have to use, and helps me not be quite as behind when I get back. This is something I think nearly all of us who have "office jobs" at my company have done.

Interesting. Where I work (federal government), if your child is under a certain age (and I can't remember what that is), you cannot use telework to take care of them. I believe the age is around 7 or 8 years old. If they are very young children that would need your full attention to care for, then telework is not allowed in that case. It's a tough one to enforce but they do try where I am. If you have an older child, even one who is ill, that needs minimal attending to and you just need to be home with them, then that is okay.

I recently stayed home and teleworked 3 days in a row because my pet had surgery and just needed not to be left alone for a few days. It was handy for that.

 

[BingoJoe]

I have a company and lots of people work from home all the time. There are certain meetings etc that people have to be in for but otherwise we are flexible.

I have also sacked people for not actually working at home when they should have been.

For our type of work it is easy see who has not actually been working so there is no jeopardy for the business in letting people have freedom.

 

[DisneyHardin]

[QUOTE="Katie Dawn, post: 60495164, member: 146386"
Basically it's a way to reduce the amount of sick leave (if I'm sick) or annual leave (if my kid is sick) that I have to use, and helps me not be quite as behind when I get back. This is something I think nearly all of us who have "office jobs" at my company have done.[/QUOTE]

This line really caught my eye. You aren't allowed to use sick time to take care of a sick child? You have to use vacation time?

 

[nkereina]

I have been working from home pretty much exlusively since 2012, and I think it works out well for me. I have an office area set up and I generally go there/stay there for most of my working hours. I will throw in a load of laundry in the morning and fold it at lunch, etc. but I don't watch TV/clean the house "while I'm working."

Same here. Although, I do have a TV in my office and will put that or the radio on for background noise. For as many pros as working from home has, one of the cons is that it does get lonely. I'm lucky that I have the option to go into the office as well, but during times I work from home multiple days in a row, I do get a little stir crazy and miss that human interaction. I've also found that I have less camaraderie with my co-workers and don't get to know them quite as well working remotely.

 

[soccerdad72]

[QUOTE="Katie Dawn, post: 60495164, member: 146386"
Basically it's a way to reduce the amount of sick leave (if I'm sick) or annual leave (if my kid is sick) that I have to use, and helps me not be quite as behind when I get back. This is something I think nearly all of us who have "office jobs" at my company have done.

This line really caught my eye. You aren't allowed to use sick time to take care of a sick child? You have to use vacation time?[/QUOTE]

At two or three companies that I've worked, they explicitly had that rule - sick time was only to be used for personal illness. Fortunately, where I work now, sick time can be used for taking care of family members.

 

[tvguy]

This line really caught my eye. You aren't allowed to use sick time to take care of a sick child? You have to use vacation time?

At two or three companies that I've worked, they explicitly had that rule - sick time was only to be used for personal illness. Fortunately, where I work now, sick time can be used for taking care of family members.[/QUOTE]

We switched to PTO this year, so vacation and sick time are the same thing. Although if you are sick for 5 consecutive days, they will put you on short term disability with a Doctor's note so you stop using time.
And I thought the FLA was a good deal until I realized you have to use up all your vacation, sick, holiday and PTO time before it kicks in.

 

[Sleepy425]

Wow, I've never seen 'work from home' as a slack day. My spouse works from home when he can and it's a day of conference calls, answering emails and producing documents and it starts at 7am and usually ends at 6. The only difference is when the dogs bark, the associates hear it and he can get up and raid the frig.

All of my husband's customers know it is him calling before he can say hello - my birds love to yell when someone is on the phone, and they are so loud it is hard to go to a part of the house where people wouldn't be able to hear them.

 

[DisneyHardin]

At two or three companies that I've worked, they explicitly had that rule - sick time was only to be used for personal illness. Fortunately, where I work now, sick time can be used for taking care of family members.

I had no idea that there were places that wouldn't allow you sick time to take care of sick kids. That probably makes it hard to plan vacations since you would need a good bank of days stored up in case your child got the flu or something.

 

[mom2rtk]

I had no idea that there were places that wouldn't allow you sick time to take care of sick kids. That probably makes it hard to plan vacations since you would need a good bank of days stored up in case your child got the flu or something.

Not really that uncommon.

 

[soccerdad72]

Although if you are sick for 5 consecutive days, they will put you on short term disability with a Doctor's note so you stop using time.

I think that's a pretty standard STD policy with all companies across the country - over 5 days out and it kicks in.

I've had a few staff in the past who only seem to get 'sick' for 4 days at a time.

 

[mom2rtk]

I think that's a pretty standard STD policy with all companies across the country - over 5 days out and it kicks in.

I've had a few staff in the past who only seem to get 'sick' for 4 days at a time.

Some companies don't even offer short term disability.

 

[tvguy]

I think that's a pretty standard STD policy with all companies across the country - over 5 days out and it kicks in.

I've had a few staff in the past who only seem to get 'sick' for 4 days at a time.

We had a lot of people who were sick 2 days when the "Doctor's Note Needed To Return to work " rule kicked in. They raised it to 3 days this year with the shift to PTO.

 

[siren0119]

My position is not "technically" a flex time/remote position, but a decent amount of what I do can be done from anywhere and my boss is extremely flexible about the hours and locations I work. It has made it possible for me to work on days when I might want to attend something at my kids' school for an hour midday, or work on days when I'm having a fibromyalgia flare up and driving in + sitting at a desk would cause physical issues, but working from my couch or bed allows me a bit more stamina for the day. I know it's an unusual situation and I'm extremely grateful for it, so I am VERY careful not to abuse it.

 

[Katie Dawn]

Didn't mean to derail this thread with my comment. But here we are, so I'll respond!

This line really caught my eye. You aren't allowed to use sick time to take care of a sick child? You have to use vacation time?

That's correct. Our policy is to use sick leave for the employee's illness/doctor appts/procedures but annual leave for a child's sickness/Dr appts/procedures (spouses too... Anyone other than the employee.)

We switched to PTO this year, so vacation and sick time are the same thing. Although if you are sick for 5 consecutive days, they will put you on short term disability with a Doctor's note so you stop using time.

Yes, DH's job has PTO, not annual and sick leave, so regardless of who is sick it's all PTO. My company has talked about switching to PTO several times over the years but has never pulled the trigger.

I had no idea that there were places that wouldn't allow you sick time to take care of sick kids. That probably makes it hard to plan vacations since you would need a good bank of days stored up in case your child got the flu or something.

It certainly can! At my company if you are out for either your illness or a child/spouse you can miss 2 days and just use sick/annual leave like normal. On the 3rd day in a row, though, you have to submit paperwork and FMLA is started. So if my kid was out a full week for flu I would need to get documentation from her doctor and I would be put on temporary FMLA for that week. The good thing about this is that once I'm in the FMLA category I CAN use sick leave for family members. So it's not the week long flu that gets you... It's all the little 1-2 day illnesses they get here and there that can eat away at your annual leave balance.

My Mom was in a serious wreck almost 3 years ago and I was on intermittent FMLA for 4 months. I blew through all of my sick and annual leave. (I'm not complaining about that. I was thankful to have the time available to use!) But it took me quite awhile to build my annual leave up enough for us to take a week vacation because I kept having to use little bits here and there when my daughter was sick. But it makes me extra thankful that they let me "work from home" when she has little illnesses so I can reduce the hours I use up. Not having to use up as many annual leave hours is really helpful.

At two or three companies that I've worked, they explicitly had that rule - sick time was only to be used for personal illness. Fortunately, where I work now, sick time can be used for taking care of family members.

That's great!

So maybe I cursed myself. I wrote my original comment before my daughter had gotten up to get ready for school. When she did I realized she didn't feel well, so I'm now home using annual leave as I type. I'm obviously not staying on task very well today so won't be "working from home" like I usually do!

 

[MJ6987]

So I found out today at the office that there are certain people, not in my department, that work from home every Friday. I also heard that a few of them pretty much treat as if they have a 4 day work week. I was talking to one of the persons and they told me that "work from home" means two things

1) be available to field phone calls and emails
2) get your work done and don't miss deadlines

Some of them even use it as a long weekend and work from the passenger seat on a Friday while they travel to their vacation destination.

I'm actually not upset about this more than I am jealous. Anyone else have the same office policy or do you think this is just abuse?

(I'm in the UK working for part of the Government). Working from home for part of the week is becoming the norm for our organisation. Partly because we want to maintain a small office “footprint” with “hotdesking” so there wouldn’t physically be enough desks if everyone was in the office, but also because people can be more productive if they are working part of their week at home. Better morale as they are commuting less and less distractions for getting certain types of work done. We tend to co-ordinate when our teams comes into the office and, as a result, we plan to do more collaborative teamwork type stuff on those days.

The most important thing is delivering results and getting the work done (your point 2 really) not “where you do the work”. This is going to become more and more the norm imo.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I'll go back and read through the last 4 pages when I have time, but holy cow!

I "work from home" 4 out of 5 days a week, and work on average 10 hours a day. There is NO time to slack or just monitor emails/not work.

My company gave us the choice one day - either move across the country, or lose your job. My department was one of only 4 in our division that was allowed to stay intact, but since they were closing our office building, we were forced to go remote.

We work harder now then we did when we were in an office, for the pure reason of not wanting anyone to say - this isn't working, we will just fire you guys and re-hire down south.

I rearranged my entire house and made my kids share a bedroom so I could take the 4th bedroom and turn it into a home office. We are completely set up how I was in the office - I have two monitors and my laptop, I have SKYPE and conference call access, plus all the rest of the modern-day tech convenience. We have another division's office about 45 minutes from me where we meet as a team once a week in person, but the rest of the time we are all at home working. I usually start at about 6-7am and work until about 5. There are days I barely leave my chair.

We also have 6 people in our department that live across the USA, in different time zones, so they don't even come in with the rest of us once a week to our office location.

Perks of working from home are definitely big in some ways. I can set my alarm for 6:55am and still be logged in and on available status 5 min later at 7am. I don't have to wear make-up or even get dressed if I don't want to. I waited all day for the dryer repairman to show up today without having to take a day off. If one of my kids get sick at school I can run up, pick them up and be back before anyone noticed I was gone. If I need to finish something and it's getting late, I can just finish it and not worry about getting home to make dinner. I can log off when I'm done at 6:15 and 90 seconds later be chopping up broccoli for the steamer. (which is literally what I did yesterday!)