Working at home
Ty
40 Posts
I have an employee who had a baby and after a few months has decided she would like to stay home with the baby. The company (without my knowledge)has told her they may have her work part-time at home, my problem is this some of the other women in the office who have small children feel they would like to work from home also. If we follow thru on the first employee's request could I be faced with a discrimination claim from the other women who don't feel this is fair. I have not been told officially that this is going to take place, but thru the grapevine employees have come to me and questioned is this legal and if so can they also do it. Oh worthy ones out their please assist with this one.
Comments
We had several employees who wanted to work at home and had always refused. Then we were going to lose a very valuable employee who was relocating due to family circumstances. We allowed him to telecommute and it worked out wonderfully. The issue was reopened.
We reviewed the jobs in our company which could possibly be opened for telecommuting (in our case, it meant that greater than 80% of the work could be done without access to hard materials in the office). We determined that we needed at least 75% of the people in any eligible position to work at the office.
Next, we set standards that employees who wanted to telecommute and who held jobs that were eligible, would have to rate a 7 or higher on a self-direction evaluation (the employee was very involved in determining that evaluation and we had clear definitions of what type of performance was expected at each level).
Then we opened it up on a first come (who met the standards) basis (still leaving 75% attendance working at the office), with 30, 60, and 90 day reviews with HR, employee and manager meeting as a group. The reviews were to identify not only how the employee was performing, but how we were supporting them. At each of the reviews we documented any performance problems and stated our standards. The plan was that at the ninety day review, employees who were consistently meeting standards would be and were allowed to continue, and employees who were not would be brought back into the workplace with a clear understanding of the improvement which was expected in the next 30 days. (The idea was that if the improvement was not seen, the employee would be terminated, but we never had to use it).
Eventually it settled down to 3 employees (5 tried out of an eligible 32, but the other two came back to the office at their 30 day review at their own volition) telecommuting, employees feeling good because they had a choice and us retaining valuable skills that were tough to get in those economic times.
A lot of work, but it gained a lot of positive reaction from employees who felt they were heard. As a note- we did not allow single days of telecommuting, except at a managerial level, because the alternative was that those managers would take the day off and we needed their expertise...and of course, that became the new thing most wanted by employees. 8-|
To answer today's question, though, you must evaluate whether or not the work can get done in the different way and whether or not you want to listen to the "she did it, why can't I debate". If the answer to either of these questions is "no" then the answer is sorry we can't. The working world, though, is going in the direction of flexibility, because society is changing.
Just curious...who will be taking care of the baby when the employee is working? Is it a full-time position? Is there a set schedule? We have our transcriptionists work at home and it has been great for both sides. We cannot be flexible as far as their work hours - they have to work a regular day shift. A few years ago we had a transcriptionist who we suspected was taking care of her new-born during work hours - which we of course did not allow. We made an unannounced visit and found out that she was. I'm interested in hearing what your company is thinking regarding the baby's care.
Interesting question; you know I never even considered that part I don't think the Director or operations manager did either. That does put a new light on the idea. In this day and age you have to think of everything and what response we will receaive from other employees. Thank you I will definitely look into it.
We have tried it the other way (with hourly personnel) and found that they were not available when needed. The had to "run out" to do this or that which they could not have done if confined to the office. They also seemed to have more child care and school functions they needed to attend to. The upshot was they wanted a full time salary, but work part time hours in order to care for children or to attend school functions.
We also encountered a lot of resentment among other hourly individuals who would have liked the same "deal". Consequently, our CFO was going to have to resign to move back to Indiana, but we were able to work out a deal with him so that he could work remote. He travels physically to our office one week a month and is assessible to phone or email any other time. In fact, I can pick up the phone, dial his extension and talk with him the same as if he were in the office. Unfortunately, (and I think somewhat unfairly) he took a rather hefty pay cut in order to do this. He really is much more effective in this role where he can't be interrupted as much. So...it can work.. I think it depends upon the individuals involved, their responsiblity level and their motivation level.