My group at work has a project that is taking up a massive amount of time. Luckily, it’s not a job that requires us to be in the office, so my boss has offered to let us work from home every other day or so, as long as we go in to the office every other day to check on other work. This will last through at least the end of the year.
Sounds great, eh? I’m so excited! No makeup! No hair! (Actually, no shower, but maybe I shouldn’t admit that.) And no rush hour!
However, two of my coworkers are upset. My boss made a casual (and completely unofficial) statement to the effect that, since we were saved the driving time, that we could add an extra hour to our workday, and work nine hours from home.
For me, that’s a no-brainer, because a) my workday averages 10-12 hours anyway, and b) I’d much rather work an hour in the comfort of my home than commute an hour coming to work and driving home. But my co-workers are upset that we would be “expected” to work 9 hours, since our salary is based on an 8-hour workday.
Dopers, what do you think? Like I said, it was completely unofficial - the boss is not “demanding” that we work 9 hours daily. (And really, this project is so massive that we should be working as much as possible to get the darn thing done). But since he’s being nice and saving us the drive time, is it unreasonable to spend said drive time doing work instead?
I think it’s more of the idea of it more than anything, that he would “expect” more than an eight hour workday. I don’t mind at all, especially since I work extra hours willingly anyway, and since I’m thrilled at the trade-off. But these co-workers are offended that there would be the expectation of working hours above and beyond the salaried hours solely because they are working from home instead of the office.
Would he normally pay you for the drive time? I think not, and I also think your co-workers are justified in their annoyanceat the suggestion, unofficial or not.
Do people who live farther away have to work more than nine hours, to match their commute? Do people who live closer work less? I’ve moved to within 1.7 miles of my workplace. I could walk it in less than an hour. I can drive it in eight. Including walking from the parking lot to my desk.
Not that I’d get upset with a boss who took a shot at the argument. And if there was a real need, I’d probably chip in. But I’d be more likely to chip in because the team needed it than because someone was trying to chisle an extra hour out of me. He’d better be prepared to not be upset when I laughed at the idea.
It would not be a reasonable demand. How long it takes anyone to get from home to work is none of the company’s business–they certainly haven’t considered it their business in computing paychecks thus far, have they? As mentioned above, some might have a five minute commute and some might have a two hour commute. In this light, your coworkers concerns are understandable.
The flip side of this is, the company doesn’t have to allow the working at home. If they insisted everyone come in each day, there’s not much anyone could do about it, is there? And clearly the employees benefit from not spending the travel time and personal preparation time they normally do.
So the boss’s suggestion, while obviously coming from the company’s interests, is not unreasonable when viewed in context. I think it would behoove your coworkers to try to look at the big picture. They seem to be getting upset over a principle that doesn’t fully apply in this situation.
My inclination would be to split the difference–work extra time equal to half my normal daily commuting time.
Dunno what field you work in, but in many industries, salaried employees are expected to work more than 40 hours a week whenever the work demands it (within reason). Its the price you pay for not punching a time clock and thus being able to take a long lunch now and then, or be a little late without getting in trouble, or cutting out a little early before a holiday.
You all made some valid points, and I can definitely see both sides. And it’s not a huge deal, I was just curious. The statement by the boss was very casual, along the lines of “Go ahead and work from home - I’d rather you spent time working instead of driving.” And, of course, it kind of escalated from there, and turned into a co-worker saying “So now I’m expected to work an extra hour just because I’m not driving to the office.”
Kalashnikov , you’re right about the salary issue - sure, I work a ton of hours over my 40, but my work has very flexible hours, my boss has comped both of my vacations so far as a reward, and occasionally, on really slow days, I’ll surf the web. It all evens out.
Then again, some people believe in an eight-hour-only workday, and I understand their arguments as well.
If you are getting stuff in exchange for working extra hours, no problem. It’s the bosses that pay you $X per month, then expect anywhere from 40 to 60 hours for the same dollar amount (and no perks) that I have a problem with. Which seems to be most of them these days.
It sounds like he was kinda expecting people to work more than 8 hours per day before they started working from home anyway, and this is just an excuse to ask people to put in the extra hours needed to finish the job.
Originally posted by Yllaria
I’ve moved to within 1.7 miles of my workplace. I could walk it in less than an hour. I can drive it in eight. Including walking from the parking lot to my desk.
You must drive really, really slow.
No, but downtown Stockton has some long stop lights. (yes, she meant eight minutes)
Well here’s what’s expected of you if you had my last job:
-Work any number of hours they ask of you. 50 a week is typical but weekends or 70+ is not uncommon.
-Work from home, or the local office, or an office thats an 1.5 hour train ride away
-Travel Sunday to the client, Fridays back to the office by plane train automobile or car. Live out of a suitcase. Weeks, months and even years at a time.
-If you are not on a project , you can be called on to work on ANYTHING that ANYONE sees fit to have you do. Write sales proposals, sort envelopes, or just sit there just so they can have you around if they need you.
-Your overriding evaluation metric is the % of hours you bill to clients. You have no control over getting staffed on a client or the number of hours you can bill.
-By the end of the year if you do not do all of the above with a smile, or if you do not meet the arbitrary and vague performance standards or if the economy just sucks or if you are too specialized or not specialized enough you can be ‘counseled out’ (fired).
So I really can’t feel that bad abour someone bitching over having to work an extra hour or two FROM HOME. Jesus H. Christ, how hard is it to work a couple of extra hours from home with Oprah or your CD player playing in the background! Not to mention that it sounds like your boss is doing you a favor by letting you all work from home!
I swear…some days I think I should just get a job with one of these BS companies where it’s perfectly acceptable to whine about working an extra hour or two.
My feedback: 14 hours worked today. It was awesome! I woke up and stumbled straight to the laptop. No shower and no girly getting ready stuff or anything!
Then I decided that the bed was much more comfy. So I moved the laptop to the bed, got under the covers (still in my PJs), and worked pretty much all day straight, with my dog snuggled next to me on the bed - she’s very lazy. It was soooo quiet - no ringing phones, no noisy co-workers. I was able to concentrate so much better, and I got into “the zone” and got a TON of work done.
Analysis: definitely worth the extra hour “asked” for, especially considering I went a few over anyway and barely even noticed.
Tomorrow, alas, I return to the office until Thursday. Should one of the co-workers gripe to me, I shall laugh in his face!
I would be pissed off at the boss. I mean, I work some damn long hours for a multinational corporation and have for many many many years. But I don’t think that allows the boss the right to say I need to do more hours if I work at home. Dang, I get the job done already, don’t be crossing that line.
It doesn’t matter. If you are good, you can do 10 hours worth of work in 6 hours and lounge out the rest. If you are lousy, it will take you 1o hours to do 6 hours worth of work.
It is the amount of work you do matters, not the amount of time you spend working - or pretending to do so.
