FTA: ... ... The last quote there I think glosses over one of the real upsides to working remotely : you aren't tied to a strict 9-5 8hour day. If you feel like shit today and decide to stop...
FTA:
According to deJuliis, the SSA has found that its backlog of pending cases has fallen by 11% since March 23, when the agency instituted wide-scale telework, and that calls from recipients are answered more quickly.
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"Actually, there are studies that have been done, including studies in government agencies — small-scale studies, to be sure — but they have shown that productivity does rise when people get to work from home," she says.
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"The really good workers might be sitting there at their home desk, wherever that is," he says. "And they're supposed to stop at 5 o'clock, and they look at their watch or their computer and they realize it's 7 o'clock and they've still been working, because they get into things and they start getting stuff done and they just keep on going."
The last quote there I think glosses over one of the real upsides to working remotely : you aren't tied to a strict 9-5 8hour day. If you feel like shit today and decide to stop working at 3, your co-workers probably won't even be aware of it. If you decide that you're feeling very productive and want to keep burning through dinner, they probably won't notice that either unless you're emailing people.
When you don't have to go to a specific place outside your house to do work, it becomes easier to jump in and out of. When you don't have the social expectation to be at a specific physical location during a specific period of the day, you can be more flexible with when you work. Five plus weeks into this global experiment, I'm enjoying a lot of flexibility involving getting small things done around the house during the day, while also getting work done. I can split my work day into as many tiny or large pieces as I want, with only actual meetings determining when I have to be at my desk at a particular time. I realize I'm also fortunate in this regard, as my job doesn't focus on communication like a managerial position might. If I want to walk away from my code and go play video games for half an hour, I can just do that.
It's funny. I read that quote and saw it as a downside: people working unpaid overtime. I doubt the person who works an extra 2 hours one day is going to take those 2 hours off another day. Some...
"The really good workers might be sitting there at their home desk, wherever that is," he says. "And they're supposed to stop at 5 o'clock, and they look at their watch or their computer and they realize it's 7 o'clock and they've still been working, because they get into things and they start getting stuff done and they just keep on going."
The last quote there I think glosses over one of the real upsides to working remotely : you aren't tied to a strict 9-5 8hour day.
It's funny. I read that quote and saw it as a downside: people working unpaid overtime.
I doubt the person who works an extra 2 hours one day is going to take those 2 hours off another day. Some people will balance out their hours so that whatever extra hours they work one day, they'll take off another day. But other people will find themselves working an extra hour or two every day, with no compensation or time off in lieu.
Working from home is good, but we can't let it turn into yet another way for employers to rip off employees.
My job has solved this by basically saying that any work done outside of normal hours is automatically paid as overtime. That way we are all still available during normal work hours but if...
My job has solved this by basically saying that any work done outside of normal hours is automatically paid as overtime. That way we are all still available during normal work hours but if something needs to get done ASAP, people are compensated appropriately while not worrying about having to balance out with time off.
Granted, my job has a highly flexible schedule to begin with so I'm used to working a week where I hit 40 hours by Thursday and I'm off all day Friday.
FTA:
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...
The last quote there I think glosses over one of the real upsides to working remotely : you aren't tied to a strict 9-5 8hour day. If you feel like shit today and decide to stop working at 3, your co-workers probably won't even be aware of it. If you decide that you're feeling very productive and want to keep burning through dinner, they probably won't notice that either unless you're emailing people.
When you don't have to go to a specific place outside your house to do work, it becomes easier to jump in and out of. When you don't have the social expectation to be at a specific physical location during a specific period of the day, you can be more flexible with when you work. Five plus weeks into this global experiment, I'm enjoying a lot of flexibility involving getting small things done around the house during the day, while also getting work done. I can split my work day into as many tiny or large pieces as I want, with only actual meetings determining when I have to be at my desk at a particular time. I realize I'm also fortunate in this regard, as my job doesn't focus on communication like a managerial position might. If I want to walk away from my code and go play video games for half an hour, I can just do that.
It's funny. I read that quote and saw it as a downside: people working unpaid overtime.
I doubt the person who works an extra 2 hours one day is going to take those 2 hours off another day. Some people will balance out their hours so that whatever extra hours they work one day, they'll take off another day. But other people will find themselves working an extra hour or two every day, with no compensation or time off in lieu.
Working from home is good, but we can't let it turn into yet another way for employers to rip off employees.
My job has solved this by basically saying that any work done outside of normal hours is automatically paid as overtime. That way we are all still available during normal work hours but if something needs to get done ASAP, people are compensated appropriately while not worrying about having to balance out with time off.
Granted, my job has a highly flexible schedule to begin with so I'm used to working a week where I hit 40 hours by Thursday and I'm off all day Friday.