To Allow Telecommuting or Not?

A lot of office places are grappling with the pros and cons of allowing their employees to telecommute. In this age where cost-cutting is a premium, minimizing used office space and allowing employees the flexibility of working from home seems to be growing in popularity. But with it comes pitfalls such as chance of lost productivity, a lack of oversight, and decreased amount of teamwork and camaraderie, among other negatives.

FINS has the 5 worst and best things about telecommuting from an employees side. The last negative is one to warn employees about if the option is given to them: "It could totally backfire. We hope it doesn't, really, but it's hard to know how you'll do working at home until you make a real commitment to it. Spending all day at home could leave you feeling cooped up, it can create tensions in your family life, especially if there's not a well-thought-out system in place, and you could find yourself really overwhelmed, or really bored."

If you allow co-workers to work remotely and issue them a smartphone, beware of the legal implications of overtime having to be issued to those workers as Workforce Management writes. The article cites one case from the Chicago Police Department but warns that it is "one of a handful nationwide in which employees have claimed overtime pay for smart-phone use—and apparently the first involving public employees. But lawyers say such cases are a clear warning to employers to put a smart-phone usage policy in place before they end up in potentially costly litigation."

And lastly, if you plan to have your employees work in the office or out of it, Monster.com has some tips for successful meetings (H/T Wendy). Warding off the "meeting vampires" is the key to making sure that meetings are effective and efficient.

The Complaint Department

Somebody's got a case of the Mondays!

Here's a list of seven employee complaints for this Monday:

1) Your employer is watching over you...even as you work at home (an article about telecommuting surveillance from the Wall Street Journal's Career Journal): click here

2) Your former employer is delighting in your layoff (well this Workforce Management article says that if they do, they're going to hell -- Management hell): click here

3) Your former employer is suing you (this may turn out really, really poorly according to the Laconic Law Blog): click here

4) My employer is making me copy on both sides of the paper among other money-saving operations (Fistful of Talent talks about Budweiser's integration into InBev...a good article also about combining cultures in company's and HR's responsibility in that): click here

5) The superstar employee on my team is getting $20-$25 million in severance (while this is probably not your company, this article is an interesting view on the Brett Favre situation in Green Bay from the HR Capitalist and how they blow the term "Golden Parachute" totally out of the water): click here

6) My young co-workers are hopping from job to job and making more money than me (Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 has an article confirming job hopping among Gen Y/The Millenials): click here

7) I just have lots of complaints (well About.com's Human Resources blog compiled a list of the top ten employee complaints): click here

March On

Marching on here on the first workday in March as we update you on some Human Resource news that we had previously touched on here on the blog...

First from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and their study titled "2008 Flu Prevention in the Workplace Study" say that 33% of offices send their employees home if they come to work sick to battle against presenteeism...but just 10% actually offer the employee the telecommuting options that would allow them to work from home: click here

While most of them (59 percent) say their companies offer free flu vaccine to employees, other options are reported. Eighteen percent of companies encourage employees to get a flu shot offsite and 10 percent will pay for it. Nineteen percent offer shots onsite, but at employees' expense. Three percent do the same, but subsidize part of the cost.

"Employers recognize the benefits of keeping their employees healthy and productive during work hours," said Susan R. Meisinger, president and CEO of SHRM. "Flu season is a real threat to all businesses, so prevention is top of mind for HR professionals."

Educating employees on preventative measures to reduce the spread of flu at work is an initiative reported by 47 percent of HR professionals. Other common prevention efforts include making hand sanitizer and tissues easily accessible (52 percent).

Lastly, we turn to another one of our fellow bloggers for advice saying to make sure to protect yourself from lawsuits which can be costly, time consuming and bad for business and your company's public image: click here

Sick? Work From Home

I finally caught it.

I felt like I was in a horror movie being chased by the killer the past few months as I'd seen colleagues, family and friends go down with the winter bug. I'd done everything to avoid it from quarantining myself from the sick, to loading up on Orange Juice and Airborne, to washing my hands with Purell.

But I got sick anyways. And when it hit it wasn't a mild cold or a virus, but a nasty infection.

Many have to make the choice in this situation whether to go to work or stay home. Many, according to a CBS News report from 2005 (click here), choose to go into work--something called presenteeism:

Although it's done out of job dedication in many cases, it really doesn't help to have an employee in the office who is spreading an infection to others, in addition to not being able to work as well due to their own illness. Some experts say presenteeism can actually result in a greater loss of productivity than absenteeism.

I chose absenteeism, or staying home from work. But instead of making it a sick day off. I've parlayed my days off into opportunities to telecommute. We've talked a lot in this blog about telecommuting, but this seems to be one of the cases where it truly does seem to work.

Although the source (Telecommute Connecticut) may be a little biased in this article (click here), this passage from Jen Jorgenson, a spokesperson for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) is important to note:

Companies may want to encourage telecommuting rather than have employees come in to the office and use their computers to get work done and infect everyone else around them, Jorgenson said employees who telecommute when sick can continue to be productive without making others sick.

If you're having a hard time figuring out if you're too sick to go to work, this Medicenet article that was a feature on WebMD, can help you figure it out: click here

The New York Times (click here), Baltimore Sun (click here), and Asbury Park Press (click here) all give the same message: if you're sick, stay home!

Human Resources can have a role in this by encouraging employees to work from home when sick instead of stressing on them coming in and fighting through it while spreading the germs and giving them access to things like laptop computers and VPN access so that they can access all their files from home.

And this issue is not just a United States one...sick days cost British businesses £ 34 billion according to this article by the Daily Mail: click here

Thirty nine per cent of workers say they are completely bored when they have to take time off sick, and wish they were back at work.


Wouldn't it be better to take those bored workers and give them something to do when they are home?

Bad Weather? Don't Commute; Telecommute

It is snowy and rainy here in New York....and commuting to work is really bad so we start out on this Wednesday with the StatesmanJournal in Oregon telling us that when the weather turns, people should embrace the telecommuting option: click here

Next, following up on a previous blog entry, a FOX Business article about proposed changes to the FMLA: click here

Uh-oh...here comes that HR chick--said the Orlando Sentinel in this article whose title may irk a few of you: click here

Lastly, Management-Issues from the UK asks what is it about HR that has it rising in importance in so many organizations: click here

Human Resources in Education

Education Week says that Human Resources of teachers is a weak spot that needs to be fixed: click here

Next, from HR Daily Advisor, word that quicker pay increases may save your best new hires: click here

Lastly from Reuters, continuing our previous theme, more information on how telecommuting can hurt office morale: click here

Don't Make Work Your Primary

Although it may be Primary time, the New York Times starts us out by letting you know that making it's time to take a Secondary look at talking about your politics or wearing your campaign button at work, among other topics in this Q&A: click here

We go back to the New York Times for an old article still prescient about job growth fading fast: click here

The Business Review (Albany) has an article which says that telecommuting can hurt office morale: click here

From the Boston Globe's BostonWorks Ask The HR Expert we get some answers in this Q&A about Benefits and Compensation: click here

Next, from HR Daily Advisor, they post the question: Is coaching the new management? click here

Lastly, some HR Management news from Occupational Health and Safety has news that the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) President/CEO is about to retire: click here