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?

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.

So we discriminate against single parents who are sole earners keeping their family afloat? Great idea

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.

Is it fair that the nursery I sourced and paid for is suddenly shut? Is being having to work full hours while also caring for children fair? While others who have no dependents don’t have this pressure? Of course not.

These are unprecedented times and parents are suddenly been asked to do a virtually impossible job. Employers need to be cognisant of that and make some allowances.

Now is absolutely not the time for employers to be demanding their pound of flesh, but working around their employees other commitments, focusing on critical work and getting that done, not mindless presenteeism and discrimination.

My husband is now working from home - three weeks in and he seems to be busier than ever! Easier for us as we don't have children....

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.

Are you saying that your grandchildren are being looked after by their mother, whilst the father tries to work but finds the noise etc distracting? Now imagine your DIL is a key worker out of the house, or your DS is a single dad. Now imagine your DS just being distracted by the little tykes, he's actually having to teach them/care for them all bloody day alongside working. Now how much work do you think he gets done? But yep, definitely put him on furlough at 80% pay if he's not up to it. I'm sure they'll be fine.

Maybe those not managing to work and care for children during the day can reduce their hours, it’s not right they are paid for a full day and not working it

So how do you feel about those who have to stay home for 12 weeks and can’t do their job from home. Should they be paid less? Two of my colleagues have to stay home, do I feel bitter that they’re getting paid for having 3 months off. No! Because it’s for their safety and these are unprecedented times. Nothing is normal right now and everyone has to adapt.

Some people really just need to realise that this is an unprecedented crisis situation and many people are not going to be able to perform their normal work role as effectively as they usually do because of it. Schools and nurseries are shut. There is nothing the parents of small children can do about that, all they can do is their best to work around them.

People with vulnerable health cannot be travelling to offices at the moment. That is not their fault. Employers need to get real and be more flexible. People without children or health issues really need to be able to try and put themselves in the shoes of those who do. If I had a colleague who had toddlers at home while I could work from home in peace I wouldn't be bothered that I was working more than them because it would be much easier for me to do so. It's not like they're watching Netflix with a cuppa while the toddlers run riot.

In OP's situation or similar where there are no workers with children, just workers who cannot come into the office for health reasons for then it is reasonable to set out firm expectations of what they should be doing. However, those workers need to be provided with work they can do from home, not penalised because they can't physically do the work that is being done within the office. What is the point of logging in and sitting at a screen if there's nothing they can actually do?

Re changing invoices to digital. There are loads of free phone scanner apps that will convert them to PDF.

That would be a quick simple and cheap solution temporarily.

Dh's office have a set rota for those wfh (which is now everyone bar those furloughed) who need to visit the office to collect and return files, deal with post etc.

They are allowed to visit the office at a set time each week for up to 1-2 hours maximum.

It means that files etc aren't just sat at home and no one knows what's happening.

They also have departmental and partner meetings - at least once a week - via Teams or Zoom. And they have what's app groups and are in constant contact.

The communication is vital to keep everything going.

None of dh's department had ever wfh before and it wasn't really anything the whole business did before. But they've adjusted really well, despite being heavily paper based. It's been a learning curve but the management have really dealt with things well overall.

Communicate and manage is key.

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.

Are you saying that your grandchildren are being looked after by their mother, whilst the father tries to work but finds the noise etc distracting? Now imagine your DIL is a key worker out of the house, or your DS is a single dad. Now imagine your DS just being distracted by the little tykes, he's actually having to teach them/care for them all bloody day alongside working.

Well said. Some people just have a total lack of imagination. Most households with children have two working parents, not the luxury of one non-working parent who can keep the children occupied while the other parent works.