I work for an essential business and most of our employees have had to come into work during the pandemic.
One of my employees has the ability to work from home but when they do work from home they are asking others at the plant to scan documents to them so that they can do their work. Their working from home also puts undue stress on the other team members because they have to cover while they are out. There have been several instances lately where they have texted me the night before or that morning and said that they need to work from home due to childcare issues. Other employees feel that the person is taking advantage of the situation. When I recently completed their year end review I mentioned the extra work that I and the other staff members have to do to cover for them when they are out and the sense of frustration that it brings to the team. They mentioned yesterday that their children would be off of school but they felt that their spouse would be able to stay home. Last night I got a text that they would have to stay home because their spouse could not. I'm looking for guidance on how to approach them about this
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3 Comments
3 Comments
Anonymous
02/05/21 at 3:35AM UTC
This should be addressed as a company policy issue. What policy does your company have governing working from home? Did your company outline how work will be performed from home?
I would discuss how to handle this with HR since working from home is not available to everyone. At a minimum, everyone working from home must have access to all documents and resources required to successfully work from home. If this is not the case then either the company needs to accommodate them if the company allows working from home or working from home is not available and Personal Time Off should be used to cover the days not spent working successfully from home.
If there are childcare or eldercare issues occurring due to the pandemic, the company needs to make their stand very clear in the form of written policy. No company can survive making individual exceptions as a rule. The accommodations need to be well thought out and fair and communicated in writing.
The staff need to be told that support to personnel outside the office is not permitted unless approved. Scanners & printers should be provided to the work from home folks so they are not disrupting those in the office. Again, all of this is the responsibility of management to accommodate or not as part of their guidelines.
User edited comment on 02/05/21 at 4:07AM UTC
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1 Reply
Anonymous
02/05/21 at 9:20PM UTC
Unfortunately, there is no work from home policy which I've brought up to our plant manager and IT leads.
User edited comment on 02/05/21 at 9:20PM UTC
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Anonymous
02/05/21 at 10:29PM UTC
Unfortunately that leaves you in a jam. If management does not have policies or written guidelines your staff is free to make up the rules. Currently the rules include support for the WFH group by the in office staff.
I would find a way to highlight the issue.
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