NEED HELP! Hourly Employee wants to work at home

coz

We have an hourly employee who will be on maternity leave in December through March. Her baby is due in December. She is using her sick and vacation days to cover that period of time. However, she wants to work from home two days a week after the baby is born and submit a time sheet for those two days each week until March 2009. Therefore she will get to keep some of her vacation days.

We live in Missouri. Can we legally do this? Do we need to put something in writing? If so, what should the document say? If we do this for her will we be obligated to do this for all our employees?

NaeNae55

I am not from Missouri, but I have never heard of any law that forces you to allow employees to work, or not to work, from home.

Do you currently have a policy on employees working from home? If not, now is the time to make one. Whatever you decide with this employee, you will need to do with other employees in the future. For instance, you might have to allow an employee with a broken leg to work from home.

BTW, few employers allow hourly employees to work from home. The position must be something that is easy to track so that you know that the employee is indeed working the hours they say they are.

Good luck!

Nae

davids

We have allowed employees to work at home on occasion. Obviously, the type of work has to be such that the employee can perform the tasks from home. The employee will essentially be on the honor system as far as reporting the number of hours worked. However, the supervisor should closely review the employee's output to ensure it is commensurate with the hours reported.

Here's the downside. First, will the employee's home worksite be ergonomically appropriate? If you write a policy, include a provision that allows you to inspect the worksite (this provision usually stops people from requesting to work at home). An employee working from home can file a workers' compensation claim. In fact, at a previous employer, we had an employee trip on the stairs as she was heading up to her home "office." It ended up being an accepted workers' compensation claim (although you do want to check your state's regulations and consult with your workers' compensation carrier).

Second, because she is attending to a newborn, her work hours will most likely be scattered throughout the day. Is the type of work she performs conducive to this type of schedule? Can she perform at an acceptable level with constant interruptions?

I agree with Nae that you will be starting a practice that may lock you into allowing others to do the same (assuming their type of work can be performed from home). However, is that a bad thing? If it allows the employee to be productive and helps the employer, why not allow it? It does put responsibility on the supervisor to monitor the employee's production.

Celeste Blackburn SPHR

You should be able to find some helpful information here:
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/topics/telecommute.html[/url]

That's our "Hot Topics" section on telecommuting. It should give you some ideas on everything from ergonomics to wage and hour issues.

Celeste Blackburn

Dutch2

Another quick point is to make sure this is what the employer wants and not just the employee. As stated by others you will be setting the stage for others depending on what you do. Be sure to get a release from her physicain that she is fit to preform the duties required of the position.