What if you work from home and have no Wifi?

[Honeysucklelane]

We both work from home, DH’s work has an office he goes to once or twice a week. My work has no office and we’re all remote.

Our Wifi has gone down, DH is provided with a work mobile so he’s been able to hotspot to it to do work today. We can’t both use his hotspot.

I haven’t got a work mobile or any way of connecting to Wifi for work tomorrow - unless I go out and spend money sitting in a cafe or somewhere with Wifi.

Just curious to know what other home based workers do in this situation? Do your employers expect you to find alternative Wifi? Do they accept you can’t work through no fault of your own? Does your employer provide or pay for Wifi for you?

Thanks, I did last year but had forgotten about it this year.

What do you save on not commuting? That could be put towards events like this. Glad all sorted now

Yes, lack of internet connection was something that was discussed as part of the homeworking consultation process - the company takes the hit. We can’t just nip off to a library or cafe or a friend’s to work.

I'm not in the corporate world but everyone I know is expected to meet the cost of their wifi if they wfh. Even my investment banker family member. Really interesting that some companies pay for their employees' wifi. Surely they'd have it anyway!

Expectation would be to work elsewhere or to take holiday / unpaid leave until fixed

My work has no central office I can go to, but my phone is provided as an intrisic tool I need to do my job and work already pays for sufficient data allowance that I could easily work from a mobile hotspot for a few days. I would be 100% expected to sort out any wifi issues before the data allowance ran out.

@Underlig yes, I had a conversation with a school mum who said she's been working in Costa all day and thought, that would be lovely but secure connection! It's funny how different workplaces allow such different things, she was outraged that I couldn't work wherever I wanted 😀

I’m suprised from the responses on here that so many employers don’t seem to provide staff with back up solutions, and they’re expected to use their personal mobile data or other peoples’ wifi.

My employer closed their office a few years before I joined, presumably they’re saving a lot of money on rent, utilities, broadband, phone lines, cleaners, loo rolls, tea / coffee etc. I might ask if I can buy a prepaid dongle or something on expenses for use if the Wifi goes down.

I’m suprised from the responses on here that so many employers don’t seem to provide staff with back up solutions, and they’re expected to use their personal mobile data or other peoples’ wifi

Mine don’t pay for my primary broadband, let alone a backup.

We do have a 4G backup now. Another household expense.

Did they maintain salaries after closing their offices because presumably many employees have saved money on commuting costs, even if it means their household bills have increased.

I save £5 a day on commuting and am paying for my phone and WiFi anyway. I think if I asked my work to contribute they'd tell
me to be in the office full time rather than 1/2 times a week so I'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face!

@Honeysucklelane just remembered you can connect your laptop to the ee wifi if you can pick it up and buy either a day package or week or month etc

Just curious to know what other home based workers do in this situation? Do your employers expect you to find alternative Wifi?

Yes, if it is ongoing. If it is an hour then there's sometimes bits you can do off line, or just decide to take a break then.

Do they accept you can’t work through no fault of your own?

Well, you are able to move, and work elsewhere. Libraries, cafes, pubs, friends' or relatives' houses.
Or
Hotspot
Or
Dongle

There are lots of options.
If you choose to wfh in a job that relies on wifi then you are expected to manage that. In the same way that if you WOTH, you are responsible for getting in to the office / hospital / site that you work. If your car breaks down, the onus is on you to have an alternative way to get to work - you don't expect the boss to come out and pick you up, or to reimburse your train fare.

Does your employer provide or pay for Wifi for you? No, because it is something you have anyway. It doesn't cost me anymore because I wfh, I pay a fixed price.

This has happened to me a couple of times when there's been a fibre issue. Our options are: hotspot from your phone (I do have a work one, others would need to use their own), go into the office, take a days leave, work elsewhere (I go to the local library sometimes anyway, but if I had confidential meetings to a friend's house). I don't feel it's the employers problem to solve really.

I find this really interesting. Of course you should use AL if you can't work.

What do you think happens if someone's car breaks down? You either find an alternative way to get to work (which you self fund) or you take AL. You don't just sit at home doing nothing on work time 🤣

I have paid a fortune for taxis before and it didn't cross my mind that my work should pay 🙈

This happened to me, so I went to my friend's house round the corner and worked there for the day. She even brought me lunch

I go to McDonalds. Their public wifi is better than most corporate ones. If I have to do something confidential, I bring a screen protector and headphones or stay in the car. We have a lot of them close to each other so when my 2 hours is up I go to another one. I put the travel time in my diary. Some Costa / Starbucks will often let you work there for the whole day but their wifi isn’t as good.

Another option is to ask your local university if you can use their library (many have to give access to locals) as many have communal areas you can use as work places. But there are often time restrictions.

If everything fails I have to take ‘remote work technical failure’ leave. If I take more than 2-3 of these in the year then work is supposed to review my wfh entitlements. But in reality management just tells you to take AL after that.

If it's a couple hours I'd just make the time up but if it's longer I'd be expected to find an alternative, either commute into the office, or go to a friends or go to a cafe with WiFi. Our local pub offers unlimited coffee between 10 and 3 and use of the WiFi for £10, you might even be able to expense it

When my WiFi went down I emailed my manager and submitted a holiday request for the day. It's my problem, not my employer's.

Those saying use public WiFi, this may not be secure and could be in breach of your company's IT policy so check before logging in from a cafe or library.

Go to work!

If your WiFi is down because of a fault with your provider they may be able to send you out a hub you can connect to mobile data until it's fixed.
BT has done this for me when our WiFi went down, so might be worth contacting them.

Ummm yeah, I don’t have a ‘work’ there is no hub / office / HQ, we’re all at home.

We would be expected to provide own hotspot...from own phones and top up as necessary..