WFH favours the work shy

[BorisBooster]

How are managers going to manage the work shy ?

Some parts of my job mean our team needs to go into the office. We agreed that we would be in on certain days together in order to talk matters through and stop the endless zoom calls etc. One particular member does their own thing. In addition often ( more than rest of us) making excuses not to be in office - sore throat, waiting for test etc.

They could be a responsible employee but their track record prior to Covid was poor.

I'm having a rant because the Covid situation has just allowed them to be even more work shy and managers don't manage !

My whole company works from home as standard (including years pre-Covid) and we have no problems with productivity or effective working. I personally do way more work at home than I did in an office.

Oh this again.
It is easy to avoid work in an office. Personally, I think it is easier than when working from home.
But seriously, why are you fighting workplace change? Hybrid working will soon be the norm.

Good for them. I don't get people who will kill themselves for an office job. Sorry.

Its a skivers charter. Always has been.

@dropitlikeitsloth it's normal for my industry
The screen and call recording is for auditing so my manager doesn't view that unless a phone call needs to be listened back to

@hivemindneeded

Ime, WFH people need to be very self-motivated. It's the ones who sit around the office all day sipping tea and checking on each others' projects and stopping for endless birthday cakes to be cut etc who put in half the amount of hours each day. (I worked in a very slack office.)

I once worked with someone who on top of her 37 hours a week role, did 30 hours overtime! It was a 9-5 job! How she got away with saying she worked twelve hour days in a 9-5 job is beyond me but she did this for a year!!! I sat beside her. She was never at her desk and when she was, she was eating from a stash of food in her drawer. . She was constantly on breaks, eating in the work restaurant or walking around the office on her way to or back from 'meetings'. She did very little work yet got promoted to management. Bums on seats mean nothing!

Decent managers look at what people are achieving. Bums on seats means nothing. And what you can achieve can be measured wherever you do the work.

ETA In the large offices I worked in, you always knew the lazy managers. They usually arranged to have higher screens around their cubicle or computers and made absolutely sure they sat in the inside seat nearest the wall in an open plan office, where they faced oncoming people so nobody could walk up behind them.

It had nothing to do with screen privacy!

I don’t have any difficulties managing my team from home. A good manager can manage performance anywhere. A shit one will be shit anywhere.
It’s not WFH that is the issue.

@fairynick

WFH has taught me that what takes my colleagues and I 9-5:30 to do in the office, takes me about 4 hours at home. I put in 5 hours work a day, so my output is actually better than the start of the pandemic, and then spend the rest of the day wiggling my mouse to keep my Teams open, and just watch Netflix.

Start a meeting, don't invite anyone. Teams stays on, the laptop screen stays on. You can change your status to free at the top so you don't look constantly tied up too. Damhik! (Got any Netflix tips?)

My h has worked like a dog - previous travel time is now used as work time. Some colleagues have taken advantage and dossed. One just got fired/managed out because of it.

You need to start record keeping, then speak to HR about lack of productivity/attendance etc.

I suspect a colleague got fired. It was obvious he was dossing. It wasn't so obvious in the office.

Then you've got piss poor managers who probably weren't managing their people properly anyway

I've worked from home for years and work longer hours and am more productive than my colleagues who commute into the office when allowed. So it really pissed me off when people suggest, however indirectly, that I'm work-shy......