Exempts on sick leave

GJohnson

Does anyone have a policy re exempts who are out on sick leave but claim to be working at home?

My feeling is if they are home sick they should not be working.

We have an IT Director who can access our systems from home. He was admittedly "out sick" for a number of days. He doesn't feel that he should be charged for sick leave as he states that he was performing work and getting things off of his "to do" list while at home.

I can see where we might contact him if our systems were having a problem as he currently does not have a trained back up. If we have not contacted him, then I would expect that he should be resting and getting well.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

ray a

We allow it, especially for directors. When the VP does it whenever bad weather hits, it's hard not to allow others to do it. In fact, this morning I had an email from a director saying he was working from home due to a cold. These guys all get paid 40 regardless, so it doesn't make that big of a difference.

There have been some special cases that we've allowed it for lesser exempt ee's. For example, a buyer had a worker's comp case and was unable to work continuously, so we set her up to work from home and agreed to pay her reduced hours during her convalescent time until the doctor released her to work full time. We figured it was a choice between getting zero work from her or at least getting something from her. We did something similar with one other exempt ee.

stilldazed

We don't have a policy for it, but we allow it also for directors & above (top 3 levels of organization). I generally encourage those working from home to sign & date or email in or something in a manner that can confirm their 'working status.' Because of their exempt status and the need to pay them on a salaried basis, I find that the issue becomes less that they happen to be out of the office and more that we can demonstrate that they were 'virtually present' & working.

best wishes

NaeNae55

We also allow it. Many times an employee is able to perform their duties with frequent breaks/rest periods. Also, they might have something contagious, but feel unable to just lie there and rest.

I always struggle internally when a certain manager stays home and 'works' from there in order not to use up sick pay. Perhaps it is just my particular situation, but I never see the evidence that the person did anything constructive. However, the person of power here believes that anyone who is at exempt level is deemed to be worthy of a certain amount of trust. Until someone proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are not worthy of this trust, we will continue to allow sick exempt employees, especially managers, to work from home.

Good luck!

Nae