AIBU to expect people working from home to actually work?

[MelbourneWay]

I'm the manager of a small company in an essential sector operating from a number of sites. Most staff can't work from home, but trying to minimise social contact we allowed half the office to work from home. The result is that the staff working from home are doing very little work (we can tell when they log on) and the staff still left in the office are having to work harder than usual to keep up. I appreciate that most people in country are furloughed, but how do I get the staff working from home to actually do the job they are employed to do without appearing to be an evil employer?

OP listen to the pp's who have said there is a big difference between optical scanning (tricky, expensive, long term project as you know) and attaching a scanned document or link to a scanned document to a transaction record.

What accounting software do you use? It would be very unusual to not have this functionality. But if yours really doesn't, then some organised cloud based storage of the scanned documents that can be referenced back to the keyed in transactions would work. What cloud based system do you have? Does it really not have shared folders? If not, then get one that does pdq!

Reorganise the workload, so those not in the office do what is most efficient for them to do remotely and those in the office do the things they actually need to be physically present for.

You say it is essential service. Is it really? Could more of your staff be wfh if your systems were better set up? If so that is absolutely what management should be arranging. Staff travelling (by public transport? Please no) to open mailed invoices that could have been emailed is insane.

Penalising people if they aren't able to put in 8 full hours from home because of childcare or caring responsibilities is short-sighted and will come back to bite you, unless you are actually being forced to hire other people to cover the workload. They will not forget, and nor will their colleagues who don't have caring responsibilities (yet). If you ever want your employees to stay 5 minutes past their contracted hours or go a bit beyond their direct responsibilities, now is the time to offer them flex and engender their loyalty and gratitude. If you nickel and dime them on hours amidst a personal and global crisis, expect the same back when this is over.

We are also very paper based op, it's a nightmare to have to suddenly implement wfh when you're not ready.

If it's any help, we are FedEx-ing a box of paperwork to our accounts assistant regularly and she'll have to do the filing when we are out of lockdown. Not ideal but she can continue processing and paying suppliers.

How do they split the work at the moment? I would suggest they have their own suppliers and if they call, the people wfh have to call them back.

You are the boss just bloody tell them! Lazy sods.

Pay piecework. I only get paid for the words I translate. If I don't produce the words, I don't get paid.

It has been a sudden change. I know we have had teething problems with people struggling with technology and also with family commitments. As people settle into their new environments they will settle into their new roles.

Be sure that they arent logged in. I have noticed that our Outlook will show someone as 'away' when in fact they are working on something just not hovering in emails.

We are working week about in the office or at home in teams. I'd start clamping down on home workers. If you can see the times they are logging in then you can tell them.you expect them to be logged in for x number of hours a day. Also ask for a daily email report each day stating work they have completed

Pay piecework. I only get paid for the words I translate

You think OP can take permanent and probably FT employees, with contracts, and just start paying them on a self-employed piecework basis?

I think you need to ask the wfh staff members who have children or other family members to care for how much they think they can actually manage at home, and then give them that amount of work. Those workers will have to accept receiving that percentage of salary. So if they think they can squeeze in four hours around home schooling their kids, then they get half pay, or can take some holiday allowance. But if some of the wfh staff are not carers but are just fucking around all day, you should sack them, because that is obnoxious.

Well they dont call it "shirking from home" for nothing.

We get a report of how productive we are and also check on how many calls we have done in a day
So aiming for 150 phone calls a day, if I do much less there would be awkward questions asked. I'm working the exact same hours as usual with the same breaks and lunch - they're monitored so are scheduled in and I can't go over the allowance we get
We don't do zoom or Skype but no need for meetings as we are just doing exactly what we do at work, same job, same hours, same expectations. None of us WFH have children so no childcare issues

You tell them they either do the hours they are supposed to do, remotely from home or you will start docking there pay.

That simple. They need kicking up the backside and telling that you know the times they login and out

Your there to manage them. Not to be liked. They are effectively stealing. You leave this your culpable of allowing it

@monstiebags do you actually have any comprehension of what is going on right now? You do realise childcare options are only available to key workers if absolutely necessary, you can't send children to anyone else, what do you propose workers do? Take unpaid leave? What do you think that would do to the economy? Not everyone can be furloughed there are strict stipulations as to which employers and employees this suits. Please tell me you're not a a manager, thank god most of the employers I'm aware of have more common sense than demonstrated in some of the replies in this thread.

@keffie12 it's posts like yours that make me so eternally thankful for the employers and managers I have had. If I had someone with this attitude managing me I'd be foraging for blackberries to survive, I'm sure my direct reports would say the same. Honestly, why is good management so difficult for some people to grasp.

If you are not paperless & don't have a digital set up is there even a load of work the wfh can do?

I am pretty sure I do more work from home as I am not bothering to colleagues or traipsing to the coffee machine. And still find time for a 20 minute yoga or Joe wicks at lunchtime to get me moving. We all keep in touch and our work is monitored, if I lacked off, I would soon know about it

Some staggeringly bad advice on here which I'm pretty sure is actually illegal. Permanent FT employees can't just randomly have their wages docked or moved to completely new working conditions (paid piecemeal etc).

A lot of posters here are also blatantly ignoring the context this post is in. These aren't workers asking to work from home and then skiving. These are people following the government advice for the medically vulnerable to stay home and away from potential infection and do what work they can from home. To, you know, reduce the number of people dying. Employers are being told repeatedly to support this as best they can. I don't think dragging medically vulnerable people out of shielding/social isolation and back into the office or docking their wages as "punishment" is really in the spirit right now.

@bluepeace our eldest and youngest son both are working from home, remotely now! If they didnt login and out of work for the correct hours per dsy and over the week there would be serious questions asked and they would be spoke to severely.

Yes our eldest has a young family too! So whilst our DiL is at home it is not easy working at home with 2 noisy young toddlers who don't understand what's going on.

I didnt say they had to logon, at a certain time. I said they need to be doing the hours they are paid for. It isn't fair on other staff who are.

Yes I am fully aware this is an unprecedented times however they do have options

If the person in question is a single parent and can't work from home, because of childcare or the like, re situations of parenting, there are options of 80% pay if they can't put the hours in because of family life, until things return to normal.

They need to be discussing the options with the employer. Not ignoring the hours they are supposed to work

So yes, I would have been better saying the manager needs to speak with them about the situation first.

Then pointing out that they are being paid for XYZ hours and they need to do those hours because not doing them is not fair on the other staff and will cause resentments when they return to work.

An arrangement needs to be made that if they dont stick too, then further measures will be taken.

Though why the hell the employee ignores the situation and doesnt talk to the boss is beyond me. Ignoring the situation makes matters worse

I’m working from home and have a daughter who needs help with school work. It’s tough but I’m probably doing just as much work as normal if not more.
Working from home can be challenging, it’s hard to be motivated so if they struggle with motivation anyway that only makes it worse. We have set up a group chat on Facebook messenger and we video call together twice a day, those in the office and those not just for a sense of teamwork still.

You will have to get firm with them, is there a way you can allocate/divide the work and check in with them to see how they’re doing, this may encourage them to pull their finger out? Be honest with them, they may be at home but they are still being paid to do a job and it’s unfair on those still in the office, and it’s up to you to support them!
Good luck

My company had a test of a certain no of people working from home before social distancing was fully implemented and businesses started closing to test how things would work and report any issues - perhaps you should have had the foresight to do the same?

Have to actually asked for their feedback on the challenges they're facing and try and brainstorm work arounds? We've found regular team calls, even just a 15 min catch up afew times a week helps keep people feel they are still connected and on work time. Managers have been calling individuals every week or so to see how they're doing.

I really like the recommendation that you put single parents onto the 80% furlough. It's a great opportunity to fuck people over in a way you might gave struggled to do so openly pre corona.

I really hope people in these kind of businesses share their experiences so we can choose not to use them in the future.

Ask them to submit a list of tasks that have been done at the end of each day.

It depends if they actually get on, what their circumstances are. For eg I'm at home and not much to do because I can't get online. I'm waiting for equipment but so is half the country. Atm I'm going to the office 2days a week to check my emails and stuff. The rest of the time I imagine I look unproductive but once I get my equipment I'll be far busier.

Really like the linked in quote earlier - we're staying at home and trying to work.

I'm normally all for home. Working. Have never done it more than one day a week but have always been v productive, using it to write a report, do online training, make loads of calls - so basically all planned and always just me in the house.

At the moment i am trying to do it with a 1 year old child, a partner in mental health crisis and a global pandemic. It's not the same. I have had 2 weeks dependents leave to try and get my partner to a better place and start home working again next week. I am willing to spread my hours over six days (usually work three) but have to have a day off or i will go under.

The health of the workforce is always important, especially now. Plus i think people are being a bit naive about how bad it might get, we are nowhere near peak. People will get sick, they will lose family in terrible circumstances, they will have anxiety and stress on a societal level that we have never experienced before.

It's hard to negotiate this as a manager, especially with archaic systems and a recognition that you need to build your own skills. Is there anybody you can speak to for help for yourself? The team at work will need to do jobs they don't fancy but you do need to recognise that they might feel resentful at being the ones taking the risk and also doing grunt work. Thank them properly. Get treats for the office.

For home workers, ask them what the blocks are, work to combat them, discuss terms in a group call, follow up with individuals.

Ignore idiots who say vulnerable people will need to work in the office. And especially ignore idiots who claim how people react in a time of crisis tells you everything about their work ethic as i don't believe they have any previous experience of a global pandemic and are therefore chatting rubbish.

You tell them they either do the hours they are supposed to do, remotely from home or you will start docking there pay.

Pretty sure it’s illegal to just dock pay without going through appropriate channels first.