Maybe working from home isn't a good idea?

[PanthersATL]

Good idea for employees, maybe not a great idea for employers: 

A German court has ruled that a man who slipped while walking a few metres from his bed to his home office can claim on workplace accident insurance as he was technically commuting.

The court noted that the employee usually started working in his home office “immediately without having breakfast beforehand”, but did not explain why that was relevant to the case. However, later it said that statutory accident insurance was only afforded to the “first” journey to work, suggesting that a trip on the way to get breakfast after already being in the home office could be rejected.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/09/fall-on-walk-from-bed-to-desk-is-workplace-accident-german-court-rules

[Moose Hoover]

hmmm...what would the breakfast been had he gotten breakfast? That is the most important key to understanding this scenario.

[Anybodyhome]

The key words being

4 hours ago, PanthersATL said:

claim on workplace accident insurance as he was technically commuting.

In this country your commute is not considered part of the job, in that you're not "on the clock." Salaried employees may have something different in their employment agreement or contract, but typically the commute back and forth to your domicile is not covered under workers compensation.

And to those who went from an office setting to working remotely from home, I would think there were stipulations regarding work hours, as this is the key factor in determining liability.

Edited December 10, 2021 by Anybodyhome

[LinvilleGorge]

In coming years I think working from home is going to become more and more the norm as old dinosaur "butts in seats" management retires and new management sees opportunities to save tons of overhead by getting rid of all these office spaces that honestly just aren't necessary with today's technology.

 

 

[Shocker]

What about your company forcing you to return to office and you getting disabled by Cov-id?
 

[PanthersATL]

12 minutes ago, Shocker said:

What about your company forcing you to return to office and you getting disabled by Cov-id?
 

Company health insurance would cover that, I suppose...

[PanthersATL]

14 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

In coming years I think working from home is going to become more and more the norm as old dinosaur "butts in seats" management retires and new management sees opportunities to save tons of overhead by getting rid of all these office spaces that honestly just aren't necessary with today's technology.

There are a lot of conversations/collabs that are missed by not being in the same space and having hallway meetings or casually running into someone and saying "oh, YOU remind me of this idea blah blah blah" thing.

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, PanthersATL said:

There are a lot of conversations/collabs that are missed by not being in the same space and having hallway meetings or casually running into someone and saying "oh, YOU remind me of this idea blah blah blah" thing.

There's a lot of talent that gets lost due to relocation too. And there's a LOT of talent that will get lost in coming years to companies that are willing to offer remote working options and the companies that will suffer those losses are the ones who will not.

[Floppin]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

There's a lot of talent that gets lost due to relocation too. And there's a LOT of talent that will get lost in coming years to companies that are willing to offer remote working options and the companies that will suffer those losses are the ones who will not.

Yep, my mother is fairly high up at Lowe's on the IT side and (currently in charge of the software side of hardware infrastructure) and she's had massive trouble hiring people because originally the higher ups were refusing to offer guaranteed remote positions post pandemic. They have only recently relinquished into letting her offer a hybrid remote offering after losing out on serious talent that they had offered positions to.

Edited December 10, 2021 by Floppin

[Moose Hoover]

1 hour ago, PanthersATL said:

Company health insurance would cover that, I suppose...

only if you bow the knee

[onmyown]

21 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

There's a lot of talent that gets lost due to relocation too. And there's a LOT of talent that will get lost in coming years to companies that are willing to offer remote working options and the companies that will suffer those losses are the ones who will not.

Yep. A ton of companies never even looked out of state. Which was really dumb. I got hired across the country over Zoom and phone interview. Before COVID. Two years later my boss told me it was one of the best moves he’s made but he hated going out of state and it was extremely risky hiring someone that far away.

On to teleworking. Studies have shown employees are much more productive. The caveat is there is less supervision, so it falls on the company to do their due diligence and hire people that don’t need to be babysat. Management needs to be more keen. As someone with strong work ethic, I see this as a plus. I need the company putting in this work for a better environment. I’ve gotten noticed more for my work.

I telework about 50% of the time and those days I get so much more done. It takes me an hour to commute. Plus an hour to wake up, coffee, shower and get a suit on. Plus another hour to get back home. If I am in the office I take a lunch hour. Then add in settling in the office, saying hi to everyone, getting in the zone etc. 

Simple math. That’s a 12 hour day all included but at least 4 hours of not working. When I telework, I head straight to the laptop with a coffee. I work and eat lunch. I’m usually done 2 hours earlier working 6 hours straight with no breaks. That’s a 5 or 6 extra hours of time I get filtering out the bullshit. The same amount of work completed. That’s is A LOT of extra time I get for a better quality of life. Less pollution and traffic. It just makes sense. 

The only drawback I feel is there is no disconnect from home and work. This benefits the employer. Because I am home and working I am always working. Few hours here and there. Being done at 5 or 6 doesn’t mean anything, I’ll still pick up the phone even on weekends.

But it’s a trade off. Now I have decompression time for 30 mins after work. I still save time. And I’m willing. It should have been done a long time ago. The time has come for people that put their head down and work, management and HR to be more attentive who they’re hiring, and as studies have also proven a butt in a seat all the time is often not the ‘hardest worker’ and is just an illusion.

Edited December 11, 2021 by onmyown

[GOAT]

I would work from home all the time if it wasn't for my crazy loud kids / dogs.

it's nice to go into the office and kill it with the boys, and keeping work / home separate.

there are pros and cons, when my kids are older and I have a better home office situation I will prob fully transition.

[Wes21]

On 12/15/2021 at 11:42 PM, GOAT said:

I would work from home all the time if it wasn't for my crazy loud kids / dogs.

it's nice to go into the office and kill it with the boys, and keeping work / home separate.

there are pros and cons, when my kids are older and I have a better home office situation I will prob fully transition.

I am a different person at work than I am at home.  So working from home full time would be weird at first.  I like the disconnect.  I also don't have personal and family photos in my office.  Again, because I like the disconnect.  But as you said, I do not have a legit home office to work from.  I think if I could walk into a dedicated work space I could probably disconnect as I crossed over the threshold.  We have a remote co-worker who is out in California.  She has a she-shed style home office that was built on to the back of her house.

On 12/10/2021 at 3:56 PM, LinvilleGorge said:

In coming years I think working from home is going to become more and more the norm as old dinosaur "butts in seats" management retires and new management sees opportunities to save tons of overhead by getting rid of all these office spaces that honestly just aren't necessary with today's technology.

I am definitely looking forward to the boomers retiring in mass, so the new generation can rethink some of the things we are doing that's dumb.  We had one boomer senior manager who just retired who would come into the office each day at 5:15am.  Why?  Just because that's what he's always done.  Since he was about to retire, they drastically decreased his workload.  So he was coming in super early to do absolutely nothing.

Until the recent surge of the last few weeks, our President was forcing us to do in person company meetings.  Just because boomers like getting that in person time.  But we are sitting there in masks.  So you can't really see people's faces, and its hard to hear them.  And when we were doing zoom calls, it became painfully clear that zoom meetings were significantly more productive because you aren't talking about things theoretically...people can pull up what you are talking about on the computer instantly and you can sort thru it in real time.  Not "take a look into that after the meeting and we will circle back later in the week."

[thefuzz]

"If I'm being seen, at least they know I'm working".

I encounter that a LOT in my business, it's typically the folks who get the least done who love to be around the others in the office.

That's not me, I don't want to say hello to anyone, don't need to discuss the Cowboys over coffee, don't need the "office environment" at all.  I want to get work done and go home, if I'm doing all those things, with constant interruptions I'll just never get it wrapped up.

In no way can you do my business before 10 or so in the morning...still...a lot of the bosses want butts in the door at 8...just stupid and archaic.

My next "job" I hope to be outside about 50+% of the time, and I'll own the company.

Good luck you guys.