Do you have to make time if you WFH and internet goes?

[Thewheelweavesasthewheelwills]

When I worked in an office if the internet went it was the up to the company to sort it out and we were not obliged to catch up time.

I now WFH and my internet went yesterday. I was wondering is that my issue or the companies issue time wise? I would think it is the employees issue and up to them to make up time. My way of getting to work now is via the internet so I need to have a good connection, same as my car needed to work to get to the office. In both situations you'd expect your employer to be understanding if there was an issue

I wasn't offline for long and worked a bit through my lunch.

I've had to use my hotspot as wifi is still down today but hopefully should be sorted soon!

YABU - not up to the employee to make up time
YANBU - It is up to the employee

I would guess that you'd have to use your hotspot but you could try to ask your company to pay you back for the extra data?

Do they have a hotdesking office you can go to short term?

Good question! Does your company have a WFH policy? That might have the answer.

I don't think my firm would expect me to make up the time for a short disruption but if it was ongoing for a while I would probably be expected to come into the office or find a solution.

I have an iPad from the company so can do emails and Teams calls if that happens which is very rare in my case.

I'm not sure the company should or would pay extra costs for data.

Using the same analogy of a car above, if your car broke down is it the companies responsibility to pay for a taxi for you? (Obviously some do, but not the majority)

Probably depends on the company. I can always do some planning or other tasks which doesn't need the network for all of it. I'd have to reschedule some meetings though.

At my job if your Internet goes down you have to take it as unpaid emergency holiday.

Do you have a work phone? If my internet goes down I use the work phone to hotspot so I’m using ‘their’ data not mine

Yes it's expected where I work. As you say, when I worked in the office I would need my car to get there, or if that was broken down /in for a service, I'd still be expected in the office.

I now work solely from home but only because I have ongoing health issues. Otherwise I would be expected to make my way into the office if I had no Internet.

I use my mobile data to hot-spot but unfortunately it's not great at home so I make the time up later in the day or week when WiFi is up and running again.

At my place it depends on your contract. We are all ‘hybrid’ so we’d be expecting to travel to somewhere with internet if ours broke down. It would not be their problem. People with ‘home’ as their pace of work ( only contracted pre covid) actually get paid for their internet and electricity etc so again, would still be their issue to sort but they would not be expected to travel to a site.

One of my employers pays me back for printer ink.

No harm in asking

I increased my data package for my mobile and can create a hot-spot.

Failing that I could run into the office if it looked like it was down for a longer period.

What would happen if there was a lengthy power cut?

Is there nothing in your job you can do without WiFi? DH and I have very different jobs but we both have reading, sorting, off computer tasks we can do if we are not online.

Do you have option to go into an office?
If I didn’t have Internet at my house I’d just go in.
If it’s their IT down then I do other stuff at home eg sorting paperwork.

What are you expected to do if the network failed in the office? Or are you 100% WFH?

Is there an office available? My BIL's company got rid of their office and made everyone wfh. I'd say that they need to factor in potential internet issues when they make a decision like that, and that should come into any discussions around how firm they are about making up time.

For me, I can hotspot from my work phone, and if it was a longer issue they'd expect me to just go into the office. It wouldn't be reasonable for me to say I couldn't work because of internet issues.

Does your company have a policy on WFH? At my workplace we are expected to go into the office if we are likely to have extended internet outage. Most people have tasks that could be done offline for a couple of hours, but if we have meetings, it is expected that we sort ourselves out to join them - hotspot laptop from a mobile, join meeting on work mobile, go to office (or even go somewhere else that has wifi).

If I lost internet at home, I'd hotspot from my mobile because so much of my work is online. I'd tell people in meetings that I can't turn the camera on for bandwidth, but could mostly carry on as normal.

My work is paperless, everything is on sharepoint so no internet means I can't access anything at all.

When the WiFi went down on the compulsory office day recently we all hotspotted off our work mobiles.

When it went down at home and looked like it wasn't going to come back I took half a days holiday.

We are 100% WFH with staff at opposite ends of the country plus a few on the continent. No office at all even before covid.

Sorry I was unclear, I have used my work mobile for the hotspot not my personal phone but my own phone as unlimited data anyway so it'd be fine. It's not as good for teams but we normally don't 'meet' more than once a day and my manager understands.

It's a small company people wise and I don't think we have a policy on it.

Also it's very flexible, I live in a very rural area I have lost power once or twice in bad weather. I do make up the time or if there is something I can do offline I do that, but very little can be done offline as the work is on packages which need the internet to run. But my manager isn't the sort to say I was offline for 2 hours 15 mins and demand to know when I would make back the time, she prob wouldn't even notice if I didn't send her a text

I wouldn't be expected to make the time up. I'd tether to my work phone anyway so it wouldn't be for long. If, for some reason, I couldn't tether then I'd just let my manager know until it was sorted.

I'm quite flexible so get flexibility when I need it.

On the occasions I've had home WiFi or power problems I've used my own phone as a hotspot and if it's still down after half an hour I'll head in to the office. My boss isn't one who watches the clock so there wouldn't be an expectation to explicitly make up the time.

If there are lingering power problems in the office then we'd head home. I'd like to say I'd do the same if there were network problems as well but it's my job to fix those.

No but if I'm having to travel somewhere for work and I wouldn't normally, I'd expect my employer to pay petrol costs. There is usual a £/mile rate stated in a contract for such events.

I pay £7 a month for a SIM that gets me unlimited calls and texts plus 20GB of data. That's been more than enough to cover the occasional outage.

Surely it depends if you still get your work done?
At a good company it should be more focused on output than clock watching.

If my internet dropped for a couple hours then I would work later to make it up if I needed but not if I’d got all my tasks I needed to do that day.

As a one off for a short time, we wouldn't be expected to make up the time.

If it was a longer period of time, we would have been expected to speak to our manager and probably make the time up.

If it happens frequently, we would be asked to work from the office (having reliable broadband is part of wfh criteria).