Posted on 11/22/2022 2:12:34 AM PST by EBH
Some remote workers are playing hooky from their company’s homebase these days, and bosses are catching on.
The pandemic challenged the idea that the office was an important fixture of the workplace as people working from home were found to be just as productive. Some relished their newfound freedom away from their desks, giving rise to a growing crop of digital nomads life who worked from alternative living situations like a van on the road or from Airbnbs in countries offering digital nomad visas like Portugal.
But such flexibility has been curtailed as companies increasingly push for a return to the office. Some workers aren’t ready to give up their travels all that easily, preferring to maintain a better work-life balance and standard of living.
Enter what Bloomberg deems ‘stealth workers,’ employees willing to go the extra mile to hide the fact that they’re living more than an extra mile from their company’s headquarters. As Bloomberg describes it, these workers continuously bop around more affordable locations, using VPN to hide that they’re working abroad, logging in as early as 2 a.m. to disguise their actual time zone, and lying about their home address...
Tattling tax return forms are revealing employees’ secrets. Alex Atwood, CEO at Virginia-based recruiting app GravyWork, told Borchers one of his stealth workers who had worked in Texas and California, unbeknownst to him, cost him up to $30,000 in taxes and fees since GravyWork wasn’t registered as a business in those states. He estimated it cost him more like $500,000 between that and lost productivity from dealing with it all.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Good post.
The time and wear and tear (on you and your vehicle) in daily commuting was awful for many folks.
The last couple of years (before I retired) I worked almost all remotely—it was wonderful—and I was more productive than ever.
The extra sleep in the morning (time that would have been spent commuting) helped me to stay fresh and sharp.
I do restaurant back of house stuff. Usually communicate with customers and vendors direct via text. They all have my phone number. Then whatever I do is run through our software. I can do it all from anywhere with just my phone if I have to but I usually carry an iPad everywhere to make it easier.
One of the big problems that will happen due to WFH is when people quit or retire because bosses usually only know part of what an employee does and now they will know even less.
The other issue is that we only have the bordering states in our payroll software. If we hire someone from Georgia, they have to handle their own state taxes.
Some of us have been saying this since it started. Work from home is a scam for most businesses.
The workers are “working” maybe 10 hours a week, and it will not last.
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.