Boss Believes That Employee Is Not Doing Her Duties While Working From Home, Calls Her Out As She Can Be Offline For Up To An Hour
It is no secret that the coronavirus pandemic has brought significant changes to the life of mankind, and we have not yet fully realized just how big they are. For example, if before 2020, working on-site was considered the absolute standard for the vast majority of occupations, now, after only two years, many employees are not ready to give up remote work.
For example, Apple recently stated that they expect workers to come to the office at least two days per week, as Bloomberg tells. Thus, remote work is gradually becoming the new world standard. Of course, the work-from-home system has many advantages, primarily for employees, but on the other hand, there are always people who abuse it. This is especially evident when an employee working remotely is required to be regularly in touch to resolve important work issues.
A similar story was told by the author of a post in the AITA Reddit community, who works as a team lead in a law firm. The original post got about 15.8K upvotes and over 3.3K comments from people interested in this narrative.
More info: Reddit
The Original Poster works as a team lead at a law firm, supervising nearly 20 employees
Image credits: Nenad Stojkovic (not the actual image)
So the OP’s team has been working on a schedule of 4 days at the office and 1 day at home lately. According to the author of the post, one of the team members, called Sarah, asked them to change their schedule to 3 days at the office and 2 at home. Sarah’s request was motivated by the fact that she has two children who need to be looked after.
Image credits: u/Born-Replacement-366
One of the employees asked to have two days of work at home, but the OP rejected her request
However, the OP, after deliberation, decided to reject this request. The fact is that Sarah is not the only employee of the company who has children, and everyone works according to the established schedule, never complaining. In addition, before the pandemic, Sarah had absolutely no problem coming to the office not four, but all five days a week.
Image credits: u/Born-Replacement-366
The OP noticed that Sarah’s Skype status was often “offline” or “away” while working from home
Sarah, apparently, was offended by this decision, and therefore discussed it with her colleagues for a long time, trying to find out what they thought about it. And so strange things began. The OP noticed that on days when Sarah worked from home, her Skype status was often “away” or “offline” during business hours.
Image credits: Rocco (not the actual image)
The problem was that Sarah was an important member of the team, she was a senior and one of her responsibilities was to be available for questions from clients and stakeholders. And just one of the stakeholders, as the OP admits, in a conversation once noticed that he could not contact Sarah for a long time to resolve their issue, and even suggested that she was on vacation.
Image credits: u/Born-Replacement-366
Sarah’s behavior significantly affected the whole team as she was a senior
In addition, Sarah was salaried, not hourly, and her behavior significantly affected the work of the whole team. For example, when you need to solve some urgent problem, you may need her consultation, and the woman may well be unavailable for an online talk at that time.
Image credits: u/Born-Replacement-366
Finally, the OP talked to Sarah and asked her to be online during work hours
All this led the OP to the idea of talking to Sarah about her behavior and the inadmissibility of being offline during work hours. As the OP themselves admits, during the conversation, the woman was defensive and sarcastically apologized for “not responding to messages immediately.” She also said that if the work is done, it does not matter whether she’s online or offline.
Image credits: Ogyioshisan (not the actual image)
The OP countered that part of Sarah’s job is to answer questions on time, so they ask her to be online while working from home from at least 10am to 5pm (with a lunch break, of course) so people can get in touch with her. In addition, since Sarah is a senior, other employees may follow her example, which will generally have a poor impact on the teamwork.
People’s opinions in the comments were divided, though the majority supported the OP in their decision
We must also say that the opinions of people in the comments to the original post were divided. Most, of course, noted that employees are evaluated not only on the work done, but also on teamwork, reliability, engagement, etc. And in this regard, the fact that Sarah is often unavailable for answers during working hours just upsets colleagues and clients, worsening the atmosphere in the team.
On the other hand, there was also a point of view that “presence monitoring” is not productive. According to some commenters, many people, in order to complete their immediate work task, must concentrate as much as possible, and not be distracted by constant messages. From this point of view, of course, the OP is not entirely right in criticizing Sarah. Although, for sure, everything should be perceived in the context of a particular team and particular work process.
We, on our part, would like to know your opinion on this issue. It is possible that many of you also work remotely, so if you share your experience of working from home, it will not only be interesting, but also useful for others.
I worry in our society that a minority of unreliable work-from-home employees might end up ruining this option for majority which can work from home just as productively.
Usually those in charge who want to end work from home and bring everyone back into the office are the ones that have the ability to come and go from the office as they please.
Nothing to do with the matter at hand however, which here in Britain is known as 'taking the p**s'
Not necessarily, but you don't seem to consider that more likely than not they're in those positions because they've already demonstrated a track record of accomplishing their tasks without supervision. If you can't handle that, or a position that requires physical presence due to the nature of responsibilities, you're probably not qualified or it's not a job for you.
So your attitude is “well I had to do it, and now so do you?” I’m not a fan of that way of thinking. Obviously, there are some jobs that require a physical presence- like a receptionist or cashier. I’m not talking about those. I’m talking about bringing people back to the office for “collaboration”. When everyone still ends up stuck in their cubicle on zoom meetings- just in an office.
Again, not the issue here but a general and wider add on to a quite specifically articulated situation. I'm not a fan of that way of thinking
Agree.
I totally feel the exact same way. Like always, the stupid and the lazy people of the world drags the rest down and no one has the balls to say "ok Susanne, you have to come to work from now on, you're constantly going missing and not doing your job". You always get bosses that are too scared to single someone out so they make the whole department suffer. My wife goes through this every time they get a trainee, the last one was in training for 3 years, never had to answer calls, never had to do more than 2-3 papers per day while my wife processes 3-400 per day then she went to a different department with a raise, now she's got another doing the same thing and this one brags about how she didn't pay attention or watch the training videos while also calling up my wife and asking her the questions that could've been answered with the training videos. Can we move past this? This thing where we are protecting the lazy people's feelings? I've dealt with this as well through my whole life.
Darroll, I would suggest your wife stop answering her questions. I am a retired director of a multinational corp. People like you mention have been around for decades. Taking advantage of people like your wife while promoting themselves to management of their own greatness. Very few members of management pay close enough attention to the scammers like this. Yes, I consider them scammers because they aren't capable of doing the job effectively while having others do the job they were assigned. Not giving credit where it's due.
I've actually had one get physically violent after being called out on his lazy behavior. That's fine though, 3 people shouldn't have to suffer because of 1 that's always worthless to those around them. It was actually easier with them in a sling.
I've seen this happen in my work place, a worker kept getting caught reading a gangster love novel instead of painting, he got fired and ended up throwing his drink in the bosses face, this is the same person i tried being nice to by offering him food from the sandwich stuff I'd buy and bottled waters but i stopped because he was using half a pack of meat on one sandwich and taking 4-5 waters home with him a day because i told him "help yourself". Some people are lazy and selfish and don't care because there aren't many consequences for it.
She talked to her boss and for about 2 weeks the boss was on the workers case about not working and now it's the same thing, no one saying anything about it. The problem is when people like that are hired they're told, "if you have any questions just ask ******", then when you stop answering questions it's like telling them how to do the job incorrectly at least that's how my wife's job sees it.
This is precisely what is happening. Many employers working from home actually get more work done because they are good planners, disciplined and committed to excellence in their jobs. And mums.
Employees, not employers....typo
Yep. I wfh shortly during COVID, I was hourly and getting a hold of the salaried employees had me pulling my hair out, especially if I needed them to sign/approve documents but had to wait til midday. Or they’d work late, but since I was already off, I couldn’t respond or continue my work til the next morning, and so on and so on. Wfh can work perfectly and without interruption for some people in certain positions, but it depends on the person and their position.
Sounds like people that need to be office rats forever so they can be supervised like children, then. Slack ain't there for fun.
I feel the same way
They already are
You read my mind.
Yes...that's exactly right.
In my job I interact a lot with both wfh and in the office personal. There are some job that can be handled from home such as sales if the employee has the proper discipline. The problem is most people do not have the required discipline. While some people do very well as a whole I have noticed a serious decline in both proes performance and availability. I can see pretty clear that most people need to be brought back into the office. There are many advantages to people being in the office beyond availability such as open conversation people are far more likely to talk to their coworkers when they are next to them instead of having to call them. They are on site to see things first hand and deal with things face to face. The reasons for your crew to be in the office goes on and on.
WFH changes the location only, it does not change times unless discussed and agreed.
Getting the job done is the bottom line, and if she can do it from Mars, more power to her. If she can't, though, something has to change. WFH can be tough when you have two kids to look after - I tried, and couldn't do it. I suspect that Sarah is going to have to make some tough assessments WRT her work, and if she doesn't, the OP will be forced to.
I agree. Taking care of kids isn’t really a great excuse to work from home, unless it’s a once-in-a-while thing like a sick kid or school holiday. You’re being paid to work, not be a parent.
Yeah, that statement made me think she wasn't really working. I work from home and have a child. I have to have a nanny. There is no way I could WFH and take care of kids. That's exactly the wrong reason to WFH.
It kind of drive me nuts, bc when I WFH I'm absorbed by it completely for the whole day, I sometimes forget to eat - the idea that people are so disengaged that they are literally childcare when I'm busting my a*s... would explain a lot
Getting the job done is the bottom line? Not necessarily. For most, "getting the job done" INCLUDES being available to consult about projects with both internal coworkers and external clients during certain times of the day.
That's part of getting the job done. It's part of the job, and it's work that needs to be done. So getting the job done includes anything that the job requires getting done.
The Corp I worked for allowed the option of wfh over 20yrs ago. Yes, some moved out of state but a lot were still in the area. 1 of the rules was you had to have an office or area where you could lock the door. 2 reasons behind it. 1st if you were working on an important project, any paperwork, etc had to be locked up. The 2nd reason was if you have kids, you couldn't be babysitting them while at home. You are getting paid to work not watch your kids. Having been in management for a couple of decades, I agree with those. Your responsibility is to do your job not watch your kids. I question how effectively can you do your work while babysitting. The majority of people are not very good multi-processoring even though they think they are. Within a yr most people in the area returned to the office almost full time because they felt isolated and left out of what is going on in the office. It will be interesting to see how the wfh plays out as more & more go back into office.
Imagine adding on to that having kids taking online school. The number of parents who wfh and choose to have their kids do the same for school is frightening.
Sarah is not being paid to watch children, do laundry, clean house or anything else except what her employer has hired her for. She had no problem working from the office before Covid. Covid has given her an excuse to take advantage of her employer. This is why WFH doesn’t work for many. They think being at home gives them the right to do other things on the employer’s dime. That is stealing. People like Sarah will ruin the WFH experiment and force good workers back into the office.
I worry in our society that a minority of unreliable work-from-home employees might end up ruining this option for majority which can work from home just as productively.
Usually those in charge who want to end work from home and bring everyone back into the office are the ones that have the ability to come and go from the office as they please.
Nothing to do with the matter at hand however, which here in Britain is known as 'taking the p**s'
Not necessarily, but you don't seem to consider that more likely than not they're in those positions because they've already demonstrated a track record of accomplishing their tasks without supervision. If you can't handle that, or a position that requires physical presence due to the nature of responsibilities, you're probably not qualified or it's not a job for you.
So your attitude is “well I had to do it, and now so do you?” I’m not a fan of that way of thinking. Obviously, there are some jobs that require a physical presence- like a receptionist or cashier. I’m not talking about those. I’m talking about bringing people back to the office for “collaboration”. When everyone still ends up stuck in their cubicle on zoom meetings- just in an office.
Again, not the issue here but a general and wider add on to a quite specifically articulated situation. I'm not a fan of that way of thinking
Agree.
I totally feel the exact same way. Like always, the stupid and the lazy people of the world drags the rest down and no one has the balls to say "ok Susanne, you have to come to work from now on, you're constantly going missing and not doing your job". You always get bosses that are too scared to single someone out so they make the whole department suffer. My wife goes through this every time they get a trainee, the last one was in training for 3 years, never had to answer calls, never had to do more than 2-3 papers per day while my wife processes 3-400 per day then she went to a different department with a raise, now she's got another doing the same thing and this one brags about how she didn't pay attention or watch the training videos while also calling up my wife and asking her the questions that could've been answered with the training videos. Can we move past this? This thing where we are protecting the lazy people's feelings? I've dealt with this as well through my whole life.
Darroll, I would suggest your wife stop answering her questions. I am a retired director of a multinational corp. People like you mention have been around for decades. Taking advantage of people like your wife while promoting themselves to management of their own greatness. Very few members of management pay close enough attention to the scammers like this. Yes, I consider them scammers because they aren't capable of doing the job effectively while having others do the job they were assigned. Not giving credit where it's due.
I've actually had one get physically violent after being called out on his lazy behavior. That's fine though, 3 people shouldn't have to suffer because of 1 that's always worthless to those around them. It was actually easier with them in a sling.
I've seen this happen in my work place, a worker kept getting caught reading a gangster love novel instead of painting, he got fired and ended up throwing his drink in the bosses face, this is the same person i tried being nice to by offering him food from the sandwich stuff I'd buy and bottled waters but i stopped because he was using half a pack of meat on one sandwich and taking 4-5 waters home with him a day because i told him "help yourself". Some people are lazy and selfish and don't care because there aren't many consequences for it.
She talked to her boss and for about 2 weeks the boss was on the workers case about not working and now it's the same thing, no one saying anything about it. The problem is when people like that are hired they're told, "if you have any questions just ask ******", then when you stop answering questions it's like telling them how to do the job incorrectly at least that's how my wife's job sees it.
This is precisely what is happening. Many employers working from home actually get more work done because they are good planners, disciplined and committed to excellence in their jobs. And mums.
Employees, not employers....typo
Yep. I wfh shortly during COVID, I was hourly and getting a hold of the salaried employees had me pulling my hair out, especially if I needed them to sign/approve documents but had to wait til midday. Or they’d work late, but since I was already off, I couldn’t respond or continue my work til the next morning, and so on and so on. Wfh can work perfectly and without interruption for some people in certain positions, but it depends on the person and their position.
Sounds like people that need to be office rats forever so they can be supervised like children, then. Slack ain't there for fun.
I feel the same way
They already are
You read my mind.
Yes...that's exactly right.
In my job I interact a lot with both wfh and in the office personal. There are some job that can be handled from home such as sales if the employee has the proper discipline. The problem is most people do not have the required discipline. While some people do very well as a whole I have noticed a serious decline in both proes performance and availability. I can see pretty clear that most people need to be brought back into the office. There are many advantages to people being in the office beyond availability such as open conversation people are far more likely to talk to their coworkers when they are next to them instead of having to call them. They are on site to see things first hand and deal with things face to face. The reasons for your crew to be in the office goes on and on.
WFH changes the location only, it does not change times unless discussed and agreed.
Getting the job done is the bottom line, and if she can do it from Mars, more power to her. If she can't, though, something has to change. WFH can be tough when you have two kids to look after - I tried, and couldn't do it. I suspect that Sarah is going to have to make some tough assessments WRT her work, and if she doesn't, the OP will be forced to.
I agree. Taking care of kids isn’t really a great excuse to work from home, unless it’s a once-in-a-while thing like a sick kid or school holiday. You’re being paid to work, not be a parent.
Yeah, that statement made me think she wasn't really working. I work from home and have a child. I have to have a nanny. There is no way I could WFH and take care of kids. That's exactly the wrong reason to WFH.
It kind of drive me nuts, bc when I WFH I'm absorbed by it completely for the whole day, I sometimes forget to eat - the idea that people are so disengaged that they are literally childcare when I'm busting my a*s... would explain a lot
Getting the job done is the bottom line? Not necessarily. For most, "getting the job done" INCLUDES being available to consult about projects with both internal coworkers and external clients during certain times of the day.
That's part of getting the job done. It's part of the job, and it's work that needs to be done. So getting the job done includes anything that the job requires getting done.
The Corp I worked for allowed the option of wfh over 20yrs ago. Yes, some moved out of state but a lot were still in the area. 1 of the rules was you had to have an office or area where you could lock the door. 2 reasons behind it. 1st if you were working on an important project, any paperwork, etc had to be locked up. The 2nd reason was if you have kids, you couldn't be babysitting them while at home. You are getting paid to work not watch your kids. Having been in management for a couple of decades, I agree with those. Your responsibility is to do your job not watch your kids. I question how effectively can you do your work while babysitting. The majority of people are not very good multi-processoring even though they think they are. Within a yr most people in the area returned to the office almost full time because they felt isolated and left out of what is going on in the office. It will be interesting to see how the wfh plays out as more & more go back into office.
Imagine adding on to that having kids taking online school. The number of parents who wfh and choose to have their kids do the same for school is frightening.
Sarah is not being paid to watch children, do laundry, clean house or anything else except what her employer has hired her for. She had no problem working from the office before Covid. Covid has given her an excuse to take advantage of her employer. This is why WFH doesn’t work for many. They think being at home gives them the right to do other things on the employer’s dime. That is stealing. People like Sarah will ruin the WFH experiment and force good workers back into the office.