Saving the commute is like 80% of the reason people want to WFH.

Choice A:
Wake at 6, shower/dress/grab something to eat, walk/bus/Metro/walk to office, deal with people, drink bad coffee, sign on to computer at 8:30.

Choice B: Wake at 8:25, pee, sign on to computer at 8:30.

No contest.

Anonymous wrote:In this set up you have to log in at at set tone and log out a set time and punch twice at lunch. We only allow punching in the system.

There is zero Flex Time, you can’t make up time.

It seems stressful. There is zero benefit to company. There is little benefit worker other than saving on commute. For instance can’t leave computer at all during day.

"Other than saving on commute" is the point for most of us, not sure where you think people are going during the day.

In this set up you have to log in at at set tone and log out a set time and punch twice at lunch. We only allow punching in the system.

There is zero Flex Time, you can’t make up time.

It seems stressful. There is zero benefit to company. There is little benefit worker other than saving on commute. For instance can’t leave computer at all during day.

Anonymous wrote:Workers who punch in and punch out on a set schedule at work want to do remote more. But exactly what is benefit to management?

They can’t work any extra time. Exactly 40 is allowed. My firm we do a clunky VPN on your home laptop or a cheap company laptop and no printing allowed and can’t save work to laptop. No where near quality of set up at physical office. Plus they have to fill out productivity logs, log on and check with supervisors to make sure working.

Sounds like a headache to managers. I WFH myself off the clock but when network issues, people not available, system down, laptop issues I work later or weekend etc. But on the clock sounds like an invite to get fired. They can’t make up time.

The way remote work goes for you is NOT how it goes for everyone. I work 37.5 hours a week. My VPN is not clunky, but smooth. We can print to a printer in the office or one we have at home if we have a home printer. We can save work on our system (saving on the desktop is discouraged, yet possible). We don't have to fill out any productivity logs or check in with supervisors. On Friday afternoons we submit a timesheet for that week saying how many hours we worked. The benefit to management of me working from home is that I am a happier employee, and because I have access to email at home, I am more likely to check in during off hours if I know something important is going on for one of my bosses.

This J1, J2, J3… guy sure has a lot of time on his hands.

If OP works there and writes like that, this company is a ghost ship coasting on fumes of past contracts.

Anonymous wrote:Workers who punch in and punch out on a set schedule at work want to do remote more.

But exactly what is benefit to management?

They can’t work any extra time. Exactly 40 is allowed. My firm we do a clunky VPN on your home laptop or a cheap company laptop and no printing allowed and can’t save work to laptop. No where near quality of set up at physical office.

Plus they have to fill out productivity logs, log on and check with supervisors to make sure working.

Sounds like a headache to managers. I WFH myself off the clock but when network issues, people not available, system down, laptop issues I work later or weekend etc. But on the clock sounds like an invite to get fired. They can’t make up time.

Sounds like you have a crappy it setup that's not your workers fault in fact good workers won't put up with that, invest in better it.

Also sounds like you want to take advantage of workers and force them to work more hours, there is nothing stopping you to request more work if they are exempt and I do work more than 40 hours as a fully wfh. What exactly are you doing at the office that you can't do remotely?

Anonymous wrote:I think this is the “everyone works two jobs when they WFH” poster. Same syntax.

Yep, wish that poster would get hit by a bus.

I used to work at a job that had very bad tech. Some WFH was allowed but getting your job done was was frustrating and clunky. Then covid hit and suddenly our network was great, they bought modern software, etc (hardware still old). Everyone hugely productive from home, measurable improvement compared to in-office. With RTO they elected to turn off whatever resources were supporting the good tech. It was 100% their choice to have nonfunctional VPN, no video call, etc.

I don't know how they're doing now because I left.

Anonymous wrote:Workers who punch in and punch out on a set schedule at work want to do remote more.

But exactly what is benefit to management?

They can’t work any extra time. Exactly 40 is allowed. My firm we do a clunky VPN on your home laptop or a cheap company laptop and no printing allowed and can’t save work to laptop. No where near quality of set up at physical office.

Plus they have to fill out productivity logs, log on and check with supervisors to make sure working.

Sounds like a headache to managers. I WFH myself off the clock but when network issues, people not available, system down, laptop issues I work later or weekend etc. But on the clock sounds like an invite to get fired. They can’t make up time.

Your company does not sound like it is resourced to move to a WFH model. They could:

- Upgrade their IT generally: Plenty of people use a VPN from home or wherever that works fine. Getting better hardware for remote employees would allow them to be more effective remotely.
- Change the way that time is tracked and/or implement very clear rules about work hours expectations: Again, plenty of people work for companies that are able to have clear expectations about WFH rules. Do people like a rule that they must remain green on Teams during their core hours? No, but the expectation is very clear. Other companies do not have those kinds of rules and focus more on deliverables to track whether people are doing what they need to do.

As for what benefit there is for management, the honest answer is that it is likely to be a mixed bag. Some people will use their time well, communicate well, and be more productive for all the reasons people say that WFH is better for them. Other people will use WFH as a way to avoid accountability and work less, creating more personnel work for management. If much of the staff works remotely, the company can save on office space. They may also face cohesion problems if people are not feeling connected. Trapping people in an office was definitely a way that people felt connected to their colleagues. That's the whole point of retreats, and many companies who are primarily remote take retreats together a lot in order to support cohesion. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Either way, it doesn't sound like YOUR company is very well positioned to be effective in this model, so I can see why you'd be down on it. But I think that the reasons it wouldn't work for your company are largely self-imposed, however justifiable they may also be.

I think this is the “everyone works two jobs when they WFH” poster. Same syntax.

Receuitment, morale, and retention, mainly. You're competing for employees on the basis of telework and flexibility as well as salary and benefits now. That's just reality. I decided not to take a transfer to a job I'd probably like better due to the higher in person requirement; if telework gets reduced, that calculus changes and I have more incentive to bounce.

Sometimes productivity- my coworkers and I definitely work differently at home (less chatting, more glued to our laptops, so mostly telework with one day in office seems good for "collaboration" so far). Also, I will regularly flex my hours to be available for a 4 PM meeting despite my 7-3:30 schedule, whereas if I'm leaving DC at rush hour you will never keep me late because it'll add an hour of traffic. But I don't think this is an across the board benefit to management.

Your post is incoherent. What are you trying to say?

What’s your question?

Workers who punch in and punch out on a set schedule at work want to do remote more.

But exactly what is benefit to management?

They can’t work any extra time. Exactly 40 is allowed. My firm we do a clunky VPN on your home laptop or a cheap company laptop and no printing allowed and can’t save work to laptop. No where near quality of set up at physical office.

Plus they have to fill out productivity logs, log on and check with supervisors to make sure working.

Sounds like a headache to managers. I WFH myself off the clock but when network issues, people not available, system down, laptop issues I work later or weekend etc. But on the clock sounds like an invite to get fired. They can’t make up time.