AIBU to think parents should not “work from home” on Sports Day

[OxfordMum2020]

Some parents are going to WFH from the athletics stands on sports day? Is this normal?

Surely you either take the day off as annual leave/unpaid leave or you don’t attend Sports Day?

A gym near to me has a wfh laptop shelf where members can park their laptop and a staff member will come and get you if you get a call! I have concerns for the information on the queue of laptops some of which are left unlocked.
I agree with you. At the least there should be a few hours of time to make up or part of the day taken as annual leave.

Fine to wfh, go to sports day and make the time up (assuming you have a flexible work policy) or book a couple hours A/l . There’s few jobs where it would be acceptable to work from sports day- teacher/ta at that school, childminder?
in your situation id say no and tell them to request A/l

Ok you are the manager.

What is your workplace policy on this? Follow it. If employee is not complying with the policy deal with it.

That is what you are paid for.

Tell them at that is not acceptable them. If you are the manager, your job is to manage.

Just because you might not have had the option doesn’t mean everyone else should be denied it too.

If it were a weekly/monthly occurrence, then yes it would be a bit cheeky. However I don’t think it’s unreasonable to allow people a slightly less productive day a few times a year so that parents can attend sports days/assemblies etc

I saw a lady shopping in Morrisons last week!!

She had her laptop balancing on the trolley handle and was talking through her headset.

She must have had her camera off and been on mute most of the time but it was shocking and shows how little she cares about the job.

I don’t know why she wouldn’t have it on her phone even, at least then the people around her wouldn’t know what a piss taker she is.

It’s annoying as I know some people who wfh and are really professional but then you get the idiots who ruin it for everyone.

Our sports day was 45 mins long, I was back at my (WFH) desk before 10am and I made up the hours at the end of the day by not having to do the 1hr 15 min commute but still picking my child up from after school club at the same time as normal. I’d usually do 9:30-4:30pm on an office day so technically my manager got almost an extra hour’s work out of me, at probably a more convenient time for her, vs a normal day.

Indeed. There are three baffling things about this: Firstly why didn't the OP see fit to mention at outset that it was somebody she manages that was doing this, secondly why didn't she see fit to mention at outset that we were talking about the longest sports day in history, and thirdly why does it matter what MN thinks - she's their manager!

That’s what annual leave is for or asking the employer for flexibility to make up the hours at a different time.

Tell them to take it as annual leave, then. You're their manager. Bit weird to come on Mumsnet moaning as if there's nothing you can do about it. There clearly is.

Personally, if it was someone in my team I'd be happy enough for them to do it, as a one-off. The alternative is them missing their kids' sports day and being miserable and resentful about it (not unreasonably), or taking a day's leave and being unavailable for anything at all. If they're happy to send emails and write a few reports from the athletics stand, I'd be fine with that once a year.

No you aren't being unreasonable at all. I suppose it depends on the normal expectations of the role, but I can't see how that's reasonable for a whole day.

For my child's sports day I arranged to go for the 1.5 hours and make the time up and asked to move a meeting that was scheduled then (but if it had been a really important meeting I would probably have had to miss the sports day). It got cancelled due to weather anyway.

At my last workplace the WFH policy only covered your "home" not working from unspecified alternative work place.
If I was to say work at my parents house for the day I had to inform my supervisor and outline how the set up there complied with the office policies to allow me to work without issues - adjustable chair, proper desk, quiet working environment without distractions and ideally a second screen. You had to work normal office hours UK time and during the day local time. If this was to be for more than 3 days it needed approval from a level above.

Working from home flexibly to allow attendance at sports day around work commitments fine. Working from sports day not fine.

If there's not already a written procedure I'd look at writing one. People can be entitled, my work clarified the policy after an employee tried to claim that working in the UAE visiting her husband who had moved their for work counted as "home"

If I say I need to work from home because it’s sports day I don’t literally mean I’ll be stood at the sidelines with my laptop in hand 😂 I would use my dinner break to attend and be working from home before and after. Or I would have prearranged with my boss that I would be at sports day for say 1.5hrs and would make the time up at the end of the day. Literally just to save the commute to/from the office which seems pointless when the school is next door to my house.

our is all day so 915 - 3.15

I wfh and booked the morning off. Because I put sports day in the leave request my boss very kindly deleted my leave and I had to run back after it finished and start work early instead of having the morning.

that's not really working from home, that's taking the day off

It totally depends on the job. I can do my job perfectly competently with no detriment to my employer or customers from pretty much anywhere including an athletics spectator stand. My DC only need me to cheer/pay attention for 5 minutes at a time. My DP's job couldn't possibly be done like that, but mine can. It's none of your business unless you are the employer of one of the people in question, just because you couldn't do your job under those circumstances doesn't mean they are in the same position.

Id definitely ask anyone I manage to take it as leave if they suggested this as I doubt they would be concentrating properly and it sets a precedent.

What is your job? Perhaps I need to change jobs ...

We all know these people are taking the piss. It would annoy me as well. MN is too soft on people who do this.

I work from home but put it in my calendar and minus the the hour from my timesheet . I need to take a full days leave but also obviously don't take the piss and say you're working for hen you're not.

Personally I think they are taking the piss and if someone I managed said this to me I would tell them to book the day off instead. I would absolutely accommodate a few hours away, with any urgent/essential work caught up on afterwards. But you can’t say you are unavailable for the entire working day and expect your manager and rest of team to be ok with that.

I disagree, there will be many who work just as hard from home. Then there will be those who do the minimum in an office. Not everyone is the same.

If managers were capable of managing, which many are not, then the difference between workers and slackers would result in different treatment.

I don’t see how you can fully be in attendance for a sports day and fully working at the same time. Unless you are a teacher and this is your schools sports day.

Many jobs ( there will be some) don’t have set pieces of work that must be completed by close of play each day. Many have roll over work and tasks that get completed over a period of time.

Why do you care? They are trying their hardest to juggle as working parent. Not everyone has oodles of AL if you have the basic entitlement you can’t even cover half the school holidays. Why does it matter as long as they aren’t having full confidential teams meetings from the stand why does it matter that a parent is trying to hold down a job while showing up for sports day??