In my area (northern NJ) our local public schools and camps were closed for about a year with virtual half-day classes, but opened up in May and are offering many in-person summer school classes to address learning loss. The Governor said schools must offer five full in-person days this fall. It will be much easier for parents of young children to go back to work.
My office goes back next week with paraprofessionals expected in five days a week and professionals 3 or more days. My boss said staff with personal issues could discuss it with him. I have enjoyed not commuting to work and saving on dry cleaning but I am more efficient in the office than working from home.
Yes, my staff consists of research assistants and phlebotomists. Research visits in general have been on āholdā till July, so phlebotomists will have to show up if visits are scheduled, will be allowed to do data entry from home if not. RAs will take turns WFH/office so we have phone coverage M-F. So if a phleb has to call off (child care fell through?) It is a PTO day, if an RA has the same, she is mostly WFH so can still work and not use up PTO. But prior to Covid, everyone was in office full time.
I saw an interesting article today about how important it is for people early in their career to be in the office - so they can socialize, learn corporate culture, and be truly mentored. However, these things can only happen if the more experienced people are also in the office with them!
Child care was not your problem to figure out pre Covid- it was the employees and as long as child care is up and running in your community I think while you can be somewhat flexible if there is an issue it should not be your concern. Iām with @deb922 in that if someone is trying to work and do child care at the same time something - work or child attention- is probably suffering.
Give employees warning of course of when they will have to be back.
My employee has decided to offer āflexible work arrangements ā. This cannot be wth 5 days a week. It can include 1-2 days from home or 4 10
Hour days or flexible hours at the office - all have to be reviewed and a form signed by both the employee and admin. These will be reviewed on a periodic basis to ensure productivity, dept changes. So we know when we sign an agreement it will be reviewed again at a particular time (probably 6
Months) and reevaluated or renewed.
Being honest, I know that wfh has many advantages for some - including me. But we also had workplaces and teams for a reason and workplace fidelity needs to be near the top of the importance list.
Finally, donāt forget that all this wfh was brought on by a terrible thing - Covid- it is a positive thing for our nation that we are getting past that. Keep this positivity in all your messages with your team.
Our company is going back in the office June 15th with California fully reopening. Employees were told to talk to their managers about hybrid office/wfh schedules. Those of us in the accounting department are going to be in the office 1-2 days a week. We can do all of our work from home, but it is good to be in person for things that come up day to day.
DHās office is still WFH- they can go in but the company has made it a PITA. Supposedly this week things will be more flexible, but DK yet if heāll be allowed to use his desk, or if they are taking their desks away.
I work at/for a community health clinic. Our office opened 2.5 days a week a while ago with very strict Covid protocols (one-way halls, masking when outside of oneās individual office, assigned bathrooms, submit a questionnaire before entering the building) and I work 1.5 of those three days, at the office on Wednesdays 11-8 and from home the other three days of my work week. I moved to the Brooklyn neighborhood where the clinic is physically located on 3/31/20 because my commute was very difficult but by then the office was closed. I use my office day for casual interactions with my colleagues, my weekly one hour supervision session, and to see some clients who either/or canāt do Zoom so we have to do sessions on the phone, and/or really need face-to-face interaction to benefit fully from therapy. I used to see them in a big conference room, masked and distant, but I have started seeing those who are fully vaccinated in my small windowless office.
When we first reopened it was wonderful to have mask-to-mask contact with a few of the people I work with. Most of the other therapists were fully wfh but now more and more of them are coming in one day/week. As soon as the office opens from 9 to 9 on Thursdays, I will come in for my 11-8 schedule which will let me schedule my clients who do better in person every week. And it will be nice to see the staff who come on on Thursdays!
I think for many bosses/companies work from home meant being āon callā 24 hours a day. I saw this with my daughter, once they could do everything from home, some of her bosses were always working and expected her to be doing the same. When you are physically in an office, I think the expectation is that you work when you are there (although sometimes you may stay late to work) and you donāt work when you are home. I hope this attitude returns once people return to their offices, even if they only return a few days a week.
People worked from home before Covid. I used to tell my employees when they worked from home it didnāt mean they didnāt need childcare. They had to be fully available during office hours. During Covid, people didnāt want to send their children to daycare and didnāt want people to come into their homes, so we were more flexible with the employees. At the same time, I found most people were online and working, but maybe with screaming children in the background sometimes.
Now everything is fully open, whether people are working from home or in the office, they should have childcare arrangements taken care of.
D1 is going back to work tomorrow after being on a maternity leave. She will be working from home for a short period, but she has a fully time nanny to come to their apartment.
My office is going to be open after 4th July. We didnāt have work from home policy before Covid, but my boss said that he is going to be flexible. I donāt plan on going in for more than 3 days a week, if that.
I have to say, we worked more hours from home than when we were in the office, a lot more productive and efficient.
I technically worked from home for the last 20 years. For the last 5, I went to the office about 1/3 to 1/2 of my billable hours. I was a contract employee, however, so my hours were my choice, except for meetings with the office staff or with clients.
FWIW, I found a hybrid model extremely efficient. After working from home most of my career, I was surprised how much time is āwastedā in the office with unnecessary meetings, employee chit/chat, etc. At the same time, we also had some great impromptu discussions and decisions made while together at work, so cost/benefit probably balances over time.
The above hybrid worked well for me personally. It also had disadvantages. Office politics and internal networking often happen during those impromptu discussions, lunches, and after-work happy hours. As a contract employee, it didnāt really matter to me. It might to others. especially new hires.
It was also rare to find the above hybrid choice before Covid. It will probably be more available going forward. Both sides just need to know that choices will likely have costs (personal as well as financial). I personally believe having that choice and flexibility are usually the better path.
I donāt think all offices/workplaces are fully open yet, and many workers with small kids who cannot get a vaccine are still reluctant to use outside daycare and may not be able to afford in home nanny/childcare. Hopefully employers are still understanding and flexible with employees with young kids. Also, where I live, school is now out, so until/unless there ar other activities available, it is even harder for some WFH folks here.
Our office had a lot of flexibility and many people worked from home at least 2 days per week. Those of us in the office had to do more of the āemergenciesā because when there was one, the first warm body they found had to do that assignment. Need an attorney for a meeting on the 3rd floor at 3? Oh you go, it will only take 15 minute (sure!). Phone calls from a client? Whoever picks up the phone gets to answer.
On your chart, @oldfort, I think the WFH people could add Let the dogs in/out. getting coffee, chatting with the mailman, throwing a load of laundry in wedges to their pie too.
Many employers installed software so they could check on their employees. It let them know when the employees were really working. There are employees suing their employers because they were fired for not being logged in or working during their workday. One claimed she had children at home so couldnāt do her job all day. Even after being warned, she still didnāt make arrangements for her kids. Well, thatās an unemployment issue and employers donāt have to keep employees who do show up for work.
āIf the employees where getting their work done then why does it matter if they did it at night.ā - Because many jobs require real time collaboration with coworkers.
Most of my coworkers have been back in the office for some time. One observation was that remote employees tend to be responsive but are much less likely to discover and address a need. In most roles, that initiative is required to be a good collaborator and to be successful. The employees who have chosen WFH may also be choosing a career dead end. This isnāt necessarily the case at every company but our culture and work needs require everyone in together for a meaningful period of time each week.
I would not ask about childcare but give plenty of time for folks to meet expectations. And I would be willing to try to work with employees who were struggling with what was required provided a transition was in the works.
Definitely! To be fair, a lot of us never took a lunch break at the office.
Iām not going back (recently retired, it was planned before Covid), but I would like to say a word about child care. I have read articles that it is still an issue. Many child care providers went out of business in 2020 and there are long wait lists in many areas. A full time nanny is nice to have, but not affordable for many people. Of course, our country needs to get on board with some sort of child care help for working parents.
There are certain aspects of my job where I need to be on site (and have been since January actually). But I found the Zoom meetings so much more efficient and easier to schedule than the on site meetings. We didnāt have to worry about commutes or childcare early or late in the day, etc. Never before could we have meetings at 8AM bc too many folks were getting children to school etc. and couldnāt get on site by then. This year we could just do an 8AM on zoom. It really helped. And I think the parents (myself included) really appreciated the flexibility.
Starting in July we are all going to be back to ānormalā working on site with few exceptions. Iām kind of annoyed that we canāt do some of the easy meetings by zoom.
