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Bosses mandated them back to the office. They took legal action instead.
Washington Post via MSN ^ | May 6, 2024 | Danielle Abril, Taylor Telford

Posted on 05/06/2024 5:29:09 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?

After more than two years of fighting against return-to-office mandates, workers are fed up with their bosses’ inflexible policies and are taking their battle to court.

Zacchery Belval, a designer from Connecticut who has congenital heart disease and severe anxiety, was fired after refusing to return to the office. Despite submitting several doctor’s notices about his medical need to work from home, his employer denied his request citing in-person job duties. Now, he’s suing the company in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut.

“They just said either you come back … or you’re fired,” Belval said. “It was literally screaming matches with management every day saying, ‘Hey, this is about health,’ and management going, ‘We don’t care.’” As companies across the United States increasingly take a hard-line stance on office mandates, an increasing number of workers are elevating their complaints to court and federal labor agencies like the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Workers argue that mandates can be unjust, discriminate against people with disabilities and is a retaliatory action against unionization efforts. Employers that have backtracked from flexible work argue that being in the office is necessary as it improves company culture, collaboration and productivity. The outcomes of these cases could be critical and force employers to reevaluate their policies, some lawyers say.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: labor; officework; pandemic; workathome
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To: ShadowAce
Well even if you work until 5PM (or whatever the time it is that work ends for the day), you will not have to commute home on a Friday or to work on a Monday.

So you are effectively extending your weekend.

41 posted on 05/06/2024 7:13:41 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (6,575,474 Truth | 87,429,044 Twitter)
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To: cymbeline
99% of my work is done on the computer which works as well at home as at work.

Even if I were to return to the office, my job would still be technically remote as the computers I do work on exist on a different floor than where my desk used to be (they have remodeled my workplace so I don't even have a place to go to anymore).

As a result, it's better for everyone if I just stay here and work.

42 posted on 05/06/2024 7:14:23 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack )
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To: SamAdams76
OK--I see your point now--and I agree with it.

Too many people see Friday/Monday as part of the weekend.

43 posted on 05/06/2024 7:15:52 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack )
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
I've got a friend that retired from a job in Connecticut last year and promptly moved to northern Alabama for the vastly increased quality of life vs. the hellhole that is the northeast. His wife is still working her Connecticut job remotely from Alabama now. It's a hospital pharmacy record keeping job that can be done remotely no problem. Her bosses have been making rumblings about requiring people to come into the office for a couple of days a week, mostly to show they can as far as I can tell. If they do that they'll promptly lose a valuable highly skilled employee because she's not going to commute to Connecticut two days a week, she'll tell them to stuff it.

The days of employers getting everything they demand are over, people are much more likely to quit than they were in the past if reasonable accommodations aren't made. I for one am glad of it, for far too long employers have been able to treat employees like crap for peanut wages. The dynamics have changed and people are much more willing to tell them to stuff it than they were in the past.

44 posted on 05/06/2024 7:16:44 AM PDT by GaryCrow
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

If management believes that in-office work is more productive, that is their policy. You’re welcome to refuse, they’re welcome to fire you. They can change their mind as they wish, it is ‘at will’ employment. The company has the right to determine their policy.

That said, firing somebody because of a health issue is an outlier case that shouldn’t be used to justify the norm, it should be handled on an individual case basis.

Lawyers overreaching imho.


45 posted on 05/06/2024 7:17:41 AM PDT by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing of poor moral choices among everybody)
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To: cymbeline
It isolates us.

It also insulates us from those who get offended at the smallest conservative belief.

46 posted on 05/06/2024 7:18:52 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: EVO X

That’s another issue: Many employees moved while WFH during covid. Now the companies want them to move back. No thanks.


47 posted on 05/06/2024 7:22:26 AM PDT by CodeToad (Rule #1: The elites want you dead.)
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To: Codeflier

Mental well being was another result of the clot shots.


48 posted on 05/06/2024 7:23:05 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: Bernard

IIRC Francisco Scaramanga “The Man with the Golden Gun” was one of the few Bond villains who could mostly WFH.

Here’s some numbers about deaths in the home;

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/deaths-in-the-home/introduction/

BS numbers or not, I’m pretty sure that insurers pay attention to them.


49 posted on 05/06/2024 7:25:18 AM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes” - Possibly Mark Twain.)
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To: cymbeline
Isolation is not always a bad thing. The nature of many jobs is analytical which is best done in isolation. People who tend to waste time at WFH are the same type of people who will waste time in the office.

It is not for everybody but too much management is too lazy to figure out who is and who is not suited to it. Thus, the mandates.

I actually know people who are so productive that juggle two WFH jobs. Neither employer knows about the other. They are different industries so if they are getting the work done, I don't see the problem. Some would disagree.

50 posted on 05/06/2024 7:26:33 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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To: FLT-bird

“There are just as many studies saying they can do their jobs just as well if not better from home as there are saying the opposite.”

Then remote learning should be just as effective as doing it in person. And it IS - for a small minority. For most? No.


51 posted on 05/06/2024 7:30:43 AM PDT by Mr Rogers (We're a nation of feelings, not thoughts.)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?; All

Ain’t HIPPA grand?

If I’m the boss and this guy is trying to sue, I’d love to see the medical records and if his claim is actually legitimate. Or did he find a sympathetic doctor that produced some documents. There are plenty of doctors that will give you ‘sick note’.

I’m not what ‘crippling anxiety’ is, but once again, find another sympathetic doctor, a psychiatrist, to whip up some nonsense and provide a sick note.

Boss has to pay bills on a office that isn’t being used. Cut the clowns pay to help cover the rent, utilities, etc.


52 posted on 05/06/2024 7:35:27 AM PDT by qaz123
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

I tried it for 2 yeas wit URRR. The downside is you will be passed over for promotions on a regular basis. Out of site, out of mind.


53 posted on 05/06/2024 7:37:09 AM PDT by DownInFlames (p)
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To: DownInFlames
The downside is you will be passed over for promotions on a regular basis.

I never was, but I worked for a small company that was well aware of contributions. My current employer is much larger, but my manager is also aware of my contributions.

54 posted on 05/06/2024 7:43:35 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: FLT-bird

“they could get their work done just as well from home”

The “just as well” part seems to be an issue. Employers I’ve known via church, Tea Party, etc., have said that the work done by from-home people (generally) is half-assed. A common thread, too, is that they were trouble makers when in the office, too.

Me ... been retired since 2008, and I guess I don’t really care how they work it out. Covid caused many problems, and there were positive unintended (by government) consequences, too. Move toward home schooling is one.


55 posted on 05/06/2024 7:44:34 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Navarro didn't kill himself.)
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To: Mr Rogers
Then remote learning should be just as effective as doing it in person. And it IS - for a small minority. For most? No.

I wouldn't be so quick to equate the two. No doubt some will take the opportunity to goof off. Others who are freed from the long commutes and the distractions of being in the office will be more productive.

56 posted on 05/06/2024 7:47:36 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: XRdsRev

Agreed.

I’ve worked remotely for over 20 years—if I don’t perform my services will not be required.

Fact is for a lot of us there is no 9-5—I’m basically available if needed from the time I get up until I am asleep and when i travel I usually put in 14+ hour days.


57 posted on 05/06/2024 7:52:00 AM PDT by Manuel OKelley
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To: CodeToad

Ditto. Youngsters know how to negotiate WFH...


58 posted on 05/06/2024 7:52:06 AM PDT by EVO X ( )
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

[[. They were hired for office work]]

Exactly! Who gives a rip if the workers don’t want to go back- fire em and hire office workers Instead if they refuse.

Hope the co panties don’t cave in like the universities are and capitulate to the demands of the workers. The workers do not run the company, the boss does, and when the boss says back to work, that’s it- either go back to work of find another job


59 posted on 05/06/2024 7:55:54 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: Bob434
The workers do not run the company, the boss does, and when the boss says back to work, that’s it- either go back to work of find another job

You are assuming that workers are commodities.

The worker leaves and finds another job. What does the employer do? Finds, interviews, hires, onboards, trains and then waits for that new employee to gain the experience the old one has in order to get productivity just back to where it was, never mind any improvement.

All those steps above cost money. You cannot just plug in a new body into a skilled position and expect equal results. Heck, I'm working with newly hired people who are quite intelligent, skilled, and willing, and it still takes months to get them up to speed on the job.

Basically, it's not as easy as you make it out to be, and workers do indeed have a say in how companies are run--at least they do in the better run companies.

60 posted on 05/06/2024 8:06:53 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack )
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