An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently. Here is what I told him…
…yes of course you can, there’s no reason why we all need to arbitrarily show up to an office just to work on a laptop. Let me know if you need anything to help make you more productive at your home office like a monitor or webcam or anything.
Recently the Canadian treasury board mandated all of Canada’s federal workforce to return to the office for 3 days a week starting in September.
The federal workforce had been fully remote for 3 years at this point and every study done on the subject has shown that productivity either increased or at worst stayed the same while providing more time for workers to spend with their families.
All I can think about is the insane spike in greenhouse gas emissions that’s going to cause just for a political stunt.
Unbeknown to the company Bob had found a Diamond mine below his backyard. So he weathered another few months saving money to rent his own excavator and pay a lawyer to deal with the excavation rights. Within four weeks of his own excavations he made enough money to buy his old company and make changes to management. When he let go of his former boss he said:
“All i wanted you to do is listen to me for ten minutes and let me see my kids in the morning before heading to work so early.”
I have a meeting later today for an employee who requested a reasonable accommodation to work from home for medical reasons, and it was declined (by the people who review the RA requests, not by me). The employee, like the rest of us, have been doing the job for over four years from home; how can anyone possibly make the case at this point that they need to come into the office?
The meeting description has a sentence in it that clearly states the medical documentation was sufficient to support working from home. So why are we having this meeting?
I, of course, completely support her request and will argue for it, if necessary. I wish I could come up with a similar justification for myself, honestly, but I cannot, and I’m not going to game the system and possibly affect people who really do need it.
(Our employer’s whole return-to-office thing is driven by outside forces that have little to do with our work. I suspect our leadership would continue work from home if they could. Unfortunately their supervisors do not agree.)
Sounds like you’re a good manager in a frustrating situation. Good luck with your meeting and hopefully you can talk some sense into whoever needs it.
I’m very lucky that my employer basically went totally remote first as soon as covid hit and made it clear it was a permanent change from the get go. I know many folks in this frustrating position of fully or partially in office mandates that really don’t seem to be required for the work.
An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently. Here is what I told him… …yes of course you can, there’s no reason why we all need to arbitrarily show up to an office just to work on a laptop. Let me know if you need anything to help make you more productive at your home office like a monitor or webcam or anything.
Reduce your carbon emissions. Stay home.
Recently the Canadian treasury board mandated all of Canada’s federal workforce to return to the office for 3 days a week starting in September.
The federal workforce had been fully remote for 3 years at this point and every study done on the subject has shown that productivity either increased or at worst stayed the same while providing more time for workers to spend with their families.
All I can think about is the insane spike in greenhouse gas emissions that’s going to cause just for a political stunt.
Reduce your carbon emissions. Don’t eat beans.
More like methane/sulfur emissions, amirite? 🤜
Actually beans are pretty carbon friendly, it’s the red meat you got to worry about.
It was a fart joke
Ooh I know!
An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently. Here is what I told him…
No
An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently. Here is what I told him:
“Bob, you drive an excavator, are you out of your mind?”
Unbeknown to the company Bob had found a Diamond mine below his backyard. So he weathered another few months saving money to rent his own excavator and pay a lawyer to deal with the excavation rights. Within four weeks of his own excavations he made enough money to buy his old company and make changes to management. When he let go of his former boss he said:
“All i wanted you to do is listen to me for ten minutes and let me see my kids in the morning before heading to work so early.”
The CEO: Well jeez, Bob, I wish you’d been more forceful, then I would have fired you and bought the property when you defaulted.
NLOS Excavator?
https://www.forconstructionpros.com/construction-technology/press-release/21603305/caterpillar-cat-caterpillar-rolls-out-cat-command-remote-control-for-excavators
I hooked up a webcam and controller board to the excavator and a PlayStation controller at home. How about now?
Bob, you give submarine tours to the rich. Are you out of your mind?
Quite sane. My tours cost 10 million each. But I’ll only use a little to buy
replacementadditional subs. The rest goes to food and homeless programs.Ok, who wants tickets?
Unfortunately this seems a lot more likely.
I have a meeting later today for an employee who requested a reasonable accommodation to work from home for medical reasons, and it was declined (by the people who review the RA requests, not by me). The employee, like the rest of us, have been doing the job for over four years from home; how can anyone possibly make the case at this point that they need to come into the office?
The meeting description has a sentence in it that clearly states the medical documentation was sufficient to support working from home. So why are we having this meeting?
I, of course, completely support her request and will argue for it, if necessary. I wish I could come up with a similar justification for myself, honestly, but I cannot, and I’m not going to game the system and possibly affect people who really do need it.
(Our employer’s whole return-to-office thing is driven by outside forces that have little to do with our work. I suspect our leadership would continue work from home if they could. Unfortunately their supervisors do not agree.)
Sounds like you’re a good manager in a frustrating situation. Good luck with your meeting and hopefully you can talk some sense into whoever needs it.
I’m very lucky that my employer basically went totally remote first as soon as covid hit and made it clear it was a permanent change from the get go. I know many folks in this frustrating position of fully or partially in office mandates that really don’t seem to be required for the work.