Posted on 01/28/2022 11:52:44 AM PST by ShadowAce
The Omicron surge has forced businesses to again delay a date for a return to the office. And that means a delay to an inevitable showdown: between workers and managers over remote or office-based work.
To a degree, every business will have by now adapted to the reality of a hybrid workplace and the fact some staff will remain home-based while others will come back to the office.
Any business that cannot offer a hybrid workplace will face problems in recruitment during this worker shortage. And problems in developing in-house, the skills of managing a modern workforce.
For work at home advocates the future looks rosy. With the current jobs boom it looks certain that they'll get what they want – either at their current employer — or somewhere else.
But will workers agree to allow their employer to monitor their home office activities? Is it something that can be refused or not? How is the home different from the office where people can be seen to be working at their desks, engaged in meetings, and logging into their IT systems?
Do remote workers have a right to refuse to be monitored?
Digital.com released a survey late last year that found widespread use of remote worker monitoring software especially in IT (77%) and advertising (83%).
One in seven workers hadn't been told about it.
Working from home might not be such a wonderful thing when you consider that people worked harder – a 10% boost in productivity was reported in the survey after the software was installed.
Being away from the office can be very isolating and cause anxiety by being out of the informal communication loops.
Further anxiety comes from the jobs that aren't hourly paid – how many hours is enough to prove your worth? You'll be competing against the unknown productivity of your colleagues.
You'll feel pressured to go the extra distance especially since 88% of employers said they had fired people based on their remote work reports.
Work from home might even become the norm for some organizations because if done right, they get a lot more productivity – and also they can confidently outsource some of their operations for big savings.
The home could easily become a dismal backwater for remote workers, always-on and always watching. I'd rather leave all that at the office, imho.
I work at home. Full time. Everyone in the company works from home. Owner/department manager decided to do a time study. Listing everything we did that day. My first one I wrote every single thing I did that day….including….bathroom break 5 minutes….fixed me a cup of coffee, 2 minutes. I transcribed it all into an email and at the bottom put…..all this time study did is waste about 1 1/2 hrs of my day. They never asked me to do it again. 😂
“I transcribed it all into an email and at the bottom put…..all this time study did is waste about 1 1/2 hrs of my day. They never asked me to do it again. 😂”
At a small company, you can actually reach someone. In a larger organization, that bit of common sense would go unnoticed.
I’m from the world where they gave you a job, if you did it, you got paid and got more work to do. If you didn’t, they got rid of you and got someone who would do the job.
They didn’t worry about the time you “wasted” decompressing with coworkers, or just collecting yourself, as long as you did your work in a timely fashion. I also worked in an environment where I was on call and those calls came any time.
Now, there is little to no latitude allowed for being human. You fill in the boxes in 15 min increments and it makes them happy, without regard to real accomplishment. On the flip side, nearly no one is fired. As long as you jump through the hoops, you keep your job. In my opinion, this is much worse.
I be retired...no longer have to worry about it.
Agreed. I’d much rather be judged by my accomplishments than by how well I tolerate fools.
“I was never drug tested for any of my regular positions in the tech sector.”
It is SOP for most direct positions. If nothing else, the health insurance company wants to know.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.