Telework abuse - would you report?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
FFS is her job to read and respond to your email? I often get messages at 2pm Friday that I don't respond to until the Monday or even later. B/c my job requires other work product than jumping on emails. If you need to reach her, call her. And you better not be calling just because you have your panties in knot, it better be truly urgent -- or your number will be blocked and right fully so

And that SAHM gossiping with her husband, she is a peach with a pit.

Whoa, there. Easy with the blocking and the knotted panties. OP said that the coworkers have things they need her input on and that this happens often.

OP - that needs to be your focus and not the telework.

Anonymous wrote:"Jane, Larlo and I were talking about how we would like to close out the email chain on this issue and get this client issue settled before we head home for the weekend. Can you give your final input by COB Friday?"

For really important questions, I thought this was spot on. Include whoever is relevant to the topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I would not say anything. Truth is, karma is a peach with a bit. If you mention it, this could shut down telework opportunities for others, including yourself.

Karma would suggest balance, but there is no win here. We had telework shut down for six months while they audited this guy that we all knew had been using telework as time off. The audit took forever because they went through YEARS of timecards (who knows that they were even looking for). Before we could telework again, we had all kinds of forms, online training, lectures. Damned if you do...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my colleagues teleworks 2x a week on Mondays and Fridays and is never available early or late in the day. A colleague with a SAHM who lives in the same neighborhood reports seeing her at the playground/library etc routinely on these days.

Is there any way of broaching it with them to let them know their presence is being noted? Or should we MYOB?

Op, are they seeing her those days, or the times when she is missing? There is difference! If she is teleworking, she cans still take lunch hours to the library or park, isn't that true?

Colleague's SAHM wife reports seeing this person out and about with her kids in the late afternoon. She runs into them because she is out with her own preschool/elementary aged kids at the same places. So if my colleague is to believed, there is no doubt in our minds that she is not at home working.

Geez, so many pathetic nosy people who need to get lives in this story!

[Anonymous]

Don't operate off of hearsay evidence from some bored gossipy housewife who clearly has no life.

[Anonymous]

Go to the manager and say exactly what you posted here

Person X does not respond to my emails after 2 PM until the following Monday at 10 AM.

This negatively impacts my ability to do my job

Don't talk about telework or anything else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to the manager and say exactly what you posted here

Person X does not respond to my emails after 2 PM until the following Monday at 10 AM.

This negatively impacts my ability to do my job

Don't talk about telework or anything else

Does it really though? I find this hard to imagine -- that OP's emails are consistently so important they require an immediate response.

I work part-time and flex-time and ask for advance warning if there is something coming up that requires immediate response. If you email me at 2 and MUST HAVE a response by 5 that day, you might well not get it and that's your own fault.

[Anonymous]

I telecommute full time for a non profit. I work four hours in the evening three days a week. Maybe that is what she does. A friend of mine telecommuted and worked evening hours so she could finish her graduate degree classes during the day. She was a Fed. She worked it out with her supervisor.

It annoys me when people think that Monday or Friday telecommute days mean a longer weekend.

[Anonymous]

Wow this thread has evolved into a bunch of telework-abusers trying to justify their abuse of the system. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You don't get paid to pick up your kids/do laundry/clean your house/take time off/go to the park/etc. while others are actually working during telework hours.

[Anonymous]

Report it. These abusers are not doing anything to help the system and the honor system almost never works in holding people accountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow this thread has evolved into a bunch of telework-abusers trying to justify their abuse of the system. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You don't get paid to pick up your kids/do laundry/clean your house/take time off/go to the park/etc. while others are actually working during telework hours.

Seriously - do people in this thread not have any work to do? On days that I'm teleworking, only on an ad-hoc basis, I'm fielding calls, emails, sitting down and working on projects - you know, work. There is no time for the park, laundry, etc. My desk phone forwards to my cell phone. I could go on and on. This person in question is clearly just warming a chair and taking up space in a position that could probably be eliminated or reduced to part-time, if they are only working 3 days a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow this thread has evolved into a bunch of telework-abusers trying to justify their abuse of the system. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You don't get paid to pick up your kids/do laundry/clean your house/take time off/go to the park/etc. while others are actually working during telework hours.

You are right. I literally don't get paid for that time because my telework days are part-time days, which many people seem to forget. I am done at 2 and can go anywhere I please on MY OWN TIME.

[Anonymous]

If this is actually impacting your work, that's one thing. But if it's just suspicion because you don't 'hear from' someone until 10am, MYOB.

I telework every Friday, but I treat it as my report writing day, unless someone calls me for something. So often, people won't see emails from me because I'm only actively fielding urgent requests, and am otherwise working on things that you wouldn't 'see' unless you're my supervisor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: It is a Fed job with strict 8 hour schedule with some flexibility (arrive at 7,leave early type of thing).

We don't hear from this person on their telework days before 10 am and after 2 pm on her telework days even though there are things we need her input on. No overtime allowed, so we don't expect to hear anything after 5 from anybody ever.

So this is what you focus on. If there is something you need her input on, you send her the email asking for it, including the deadline for the input. If you don't hear back from her, consistently, then you let your manager know that you are having trouble getting Larla's input on projects in a timely manner on her telework days and it's holding up the work. It doesn't matter whether or not she's abusing her telework or has a leave agreement or whatever...the problem is that you're not getting the information you need from her. So focus on that.

[Anonymous]

I would assume that her manager notices this as well? Leave it up to management to deal with unless it affects your job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow this thread has evolved into a bunch of telework-abusers trying to justify their abuse of the system. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You don't get paid to pick up your kids/do laundry/clean your house/take time off/go to the park/etc. while others are actually working during telework hours.

Seriously - do people in this thread not have any work to do? On days that I'm teleworking, only on an ad-hoc basis, I'm fielding calls, emails, sitting down and working on projects - you know, work. There is no time for the park, laundry, etc. My desk phone forwards to my cell phone. I could go on and on. This person in question is clearly just warming a chair and taking up space in a position that could probably be eliminated or reduced to part-time, if they are only working 3 days a week.

I work hard on telework days too -- but yes I throw in the laundry. And maybe take a walk at lunch time. I take a walk when I'm at the office too.