I try to be as progressive as possible with the work from home thing. Two of my staff take service calls so I need them to kind of be in the office to do that work. It’s the kind of job where collaborating with your peers in person works better. However, if they need to work from home that day they are fully salaried and set up to do that. They can take calls from a work call app on their phone and manage the schedule from home that day. We also have a new meeting room with cameras and microphones so people who are working from home can attend work related meetings.
I was a little wary at first but I get a lot out of those two. One of the staff members couldn’t find anyone two watch her kids for two days so I let her remote in from home. We had a big 3 hour meeting about the calendar and she rocked it out during that meeting. We were able to get a lot of work done even though she wasn’t there at all.
I think they appreciate that they have the option when it’s important. We pay them pretty well and I haven’t really heard any complaints about coming to the office or the work from home policy. As it stands I think we have struck a pretty good balance with it.
Their job is to take phone calls, they can do it just fine from home, but you’re still saying
" the kind of job where collaborating with your peers in person works better." ?
Are you sure that’s true and not just how you feel? because with slack, teams, etc you can chat, call, video call and post shared docs easily. Also it sounds like you manage a call center. One of them most WFH jobs ever.
Those assumptions are being made because there are several red flags in the post.
“I need them to be in the office to work” suggests this is not their choice, it is the employer’s choice and they have no real option to freely choose, despite being completely able to with their work call app /meeting rooms with cameras and mics etc.
They have an option only if they have a good reason like their having to watch their kids, this also suggests they cannot just freely choose to. They are required to provide a reason beyond basic convenience to work from home.
“They have no complaints” suggests they aren’t being given the option and need to provide a reason or contest an argument with them about WFH being easier on everyone.
The suggestion that “they are paid pretty well” indicates this has some bearing on working from home vs the office, but to me this reads as “this is compensation so we can have them come into the office”.
Whether they are paid well shouldn’t even come into question - can they work from home or not?
Tell them they can work from home full time and come into the office whenever they want. Do they come in or do they stay at home?
Can they not collaborate over slack/teams/chat/video call and post shared docs like we were forced to do during covid time?
If they legitimately cannot, fine - go into the office. But we have to get rid of this paranoia that employees need to be in the office unless there is a very specific in-person absolute requirement to be there.
Collaboration/camaraderie is a known common excuse managers use that often doesn’t make sense.
Yeah it’s not their choice because that was presented to them fairly at their interview and they agreed to the terms. We also pay them a generous salary because of this fact. You sir are the one who have made all the false assumptions here. Shame on you. I try my best to treat my staff fairly and treat everyone with respect. I get it, there are a ton of bosses who need to get ran through but I strive to be the example other should lead by.
Worst yet, you didn’t even have the courage to come directly engage me with these accusations, You attacked another user without even getting my input on the situation. Take a good look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself next time if you’re really going after the right man. Once you lynch someone you can’t take that back, so you better be sure they absolutely were guilty of what you are accusing.
Yes it’s true. They don’t just manage the calendar. They need to order parts for the service and make sure the picker lands them in the correct bay for that service tech. They also write the scope of work for the technician and I often have to use the whiteboard to explain how concepts work in our field.
We also have a training wall with all the parts setup on it. From the Main Service Panel to the A/C disconnect. We have have a utility meter set up. Once again we often use this training wall to explain concepts to my team and so they understand what the service tech is doing in the field.
I try to be as progressive as possible with the work from home thing. Two of my staff take service calls so I need them to kind of be in the office to do that work. It’s the kind of job where collaborating with your peers in person works better. However, if they need to work from home that day they are fully salaried and set up to do that. They can take calls from a work call app on their phone and manage the schedule from home that day. We also have a new meeting room with cameras and microphones so people who are working from home can attend work related meetings.
I was a little wary at first but I get a lot out of those two. One of the staff members couldn’t find anyone two watch her kids for two days so I let her remote in from home. We had a big 3 hour meeting about the calendar and she rocked it out during that meeting. We were able to get a lot of work done even though she wasn’t there at all.
I think they appreciate that they have the option when it’s important. We pay them pretty well and I haven’t really heard any complaints about coming to the office or the work from home policy. As it stands I think we have struck a pretty good balance with it.
Their job is to take phone calls, they can do it just fine from home, but you’re still saying
" the kind of job where collaborating with your peers in person works better." ?
Are you sure that’s true and not just how you feel? because with slack, teams, etc you can chat, call, video call and post shared docs easily. Also it sounds like you manage a call center. One of them most WFH jobs ever.
You make a lot of asumptions about him to bring point to your side.
I’ve seen a lot of small call centers that could only partially be “from home” (usually people rotate).
Also call center is so wastly wide term.
I’ve seen beautiful small call centers (usually in smaller companies delivering product).
Those assumptions are being made because there are several red flags in the post.
“I need them to be in the office to work” suggests this is not their choice, it is the employer’s choice and they have no real option to freely choose, despite being completely able to with their work call app /meeting rooms with cameras and mics etc.
They have an option only if they have a good reason like their having to watch their kids, this also suggests they cannot just freely choose to. They are required to provide a reason beyond basic convenience to work from home.
“They have no complaints” suggests they aren’t being given the option and need to provide a reason or contest an argument with them about WFH being easier on everyone.
The suggestion that “they are paid pretty well” indicates this has some bearing on working from home vs the office, but to me this reads as “this is compensation so we can have them come into the office”.
Whether they are paid well shouldn’t even come into question - can they work from home or not?
Tell them they can work from home full time and come into the office whenever they want. Do they come in or do they stay at home?
Can they not collaborate over slack/teams/chat/video call and post shared docs like we were forced to do during covid time?
If they legitimately cannot, fine - go into the office. But we have to get rid of this paranoia that employees need to be in the office unless there is a very specific in-person absolute requirement to be there.
Collaboration/camaraderie is a known common excuse managers use that often doesn’t make sense.
Yeah it’s not their choice because that was presented to them fairly at their interview and they agreed to the terms. We also pay them a generous salary because of this fact. You sir are the one who have made all the false assumptions here. Shame on you. I try my best to treat my staff fairly and treat everyone with respect. I get it, there are a ton of bosses who need to get ran through but I strive to be the example other should lead by.
Worst yet, you didn’t even have the courage to come directly engage me with these accusations, You attacked another user without even getting my input on the situation. Take a good look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself next time if you’re really going after the right man. Once you lynch someone you can’t take that back, so you better be sure they absolutely were guilty of what you are accusing.
Yes it’s true. They don’t just manage the calendar. They need to order parts for the service and make sure the picker lands them in the correct bay for that service tech. They also write the scope of work for the technician and I often have to use the whiteboard to explain how concepts work in our field.
We also have a training wall with all the parts setup on it. From the Main Service Panel to the A/C disconnect. We have have a utility meter set up. Once again we often use this training wall to explain concepts to my team and so they understand what the service tech is doing in the field.