Employee asked me if she can "work from home" one day a week. Opinions?

[melodramocracy]

In this case, it's an online marketing position.
Her tasks could indeed be done from home, but the biggest concern would still be if someone still puts in the same effort.

Maybe I'll give her a month to try it and see how it works out.

Whether she's still doing her work would be pretty easy for you to determine.

I work from home pretty much every day of the week. My manager is in another state, and clients and contacts are all over the globe. There is zero practical reason for me to ever go into the office, and multiple reasons why, at least for me, staying home is incredibly superior.

I'm rather surprised that any IT division that isn't either directly customer facing or has a hands / feet hardware maintenance factor even bothers having offices.

[Celista]

Ahead of the curve companies like Nedap (Groenlo, software development) have let go of holiday and days off alltogether.
You choose when you come in, when you dont. When you want a few weeks off or when you want to work a 12 hour shift. You dont have a workspace, you choose one on a day by day basis. Productivity grew by 40% i believe. Because people would organicly choose to come to work when they were motivated too or when they were most productive.

It's "het nieuwe werken" and its one of the ways to stay attractive for young talent as an employee. As good talented programmers are scarse, and with the whole time > money rhetoric going around, i can see this becoming more and more common.

That said it requires the right branche and company culture to achieve this. You cant work night times when your expected to have client contact. However if your programming for a deadline, who gives a shit wether or not you do it between 12pm and 9pm? Or from 9 tot 5? People would have to be able to work from home, and in projects. With deadlines and a big ammount of self steering capacity.

Exactly. We have something similar at our office, our productivity and performance numbers rose significantly after implementation. Also employee job satisfaction.

It's one of the ways I knew Melissa Mayer was a shit CEO before her performance numbers started tanking, her policies flew in the face of cutting edge management techniques that had empirical support with little to no company downsides.

[Thoughtful Trolli]

In this case, it's an online marketing position.
Her tasks could indeed be done from home, but the biggest concern would still be if someone still puts in the same effort.

Maybe I'll give her a month to try it and see how it works out.

What if she doesn't put in the same effort,

but somehow still has more productivity?

Should we judge those we employ by their effort put in or their product completed?

[Varaben]

I think if you're a coordinator or project manager or something you probably can't be as effective out of the office. On the other hand if you're an individual contributor like a design engineer or do accounting you can probably be more efficient at home. I know I get constantly distracted at work by questions and people needing help, so a few hours or a day of quiet can help.

[Setheria]

If you're going to consider this, could I suggest some things to work through - based on my own experiences of working from home and managing others working from home (different situations I should clarify).

As others have mentioned, what's your own impression of this employee? If there were any pre-existing performance issues or concerns I'd be less inclined to consider this as an option. There is an implicit degree of trust in such an arrangement.

But if they are a good employee, you have a lot to potentially gain in goodwill & their commitment & engagement. Nonetheless, you need some logic and consistency behind your decision making. Eg, what happens when someone else see's this happening and also requests it?

A few things to think of doing, in no particular order:

Sit with the employee and consider (together) how you will monitor the work, quality, etc. What will need to be done differently in this regard? What do they suggest as an effective way to track productivity?

Agree on measurable outputs. What would you expect them to be able to show you to demonstrate they had done a reasonable amount of work on that day?

Consider what pre-requisites you want met before you agree to the scenario and document them (for this case and other potential ones)

Set and agree on a trial period. I'd be up front about this. Communicate any concerns or worries asap if they arise. Discuss examples of what the situation will look like if it's working well, or what would be examples of it not working well.

Personally, I've always been a subscriber to the idea that output > time a bum is in a seat. If they work hard and work smart at home, I don't actually care if they do it quicker and then watch TV, etc. Of course, that's all assuming the work doesn't have an aspect of 'on demand contact' or the like. Even if it does, it's still workable. Some of the most productive people I've managed worked from home.

[Puremallace]

It is called flex time. I was working M-F 8 hr and now I work M-Thu 10hr shifts. I had the option of working from home on Friday but with kids it was nearly impossible. I would offer her 10's as working from home you have to make sure her productivity does not drop and if it does then that is done.

[ItachiZaku]

I'm not a fan of it or a fan of those that do it, it's like a union - necessary evil.

[Deleted]

You might be amazed by just how many managers do exactly that (or judge them by "time spent" on something).

I work with a couple people who are the slowest workers I've ever seen. Yet they're absolutely adored by management for their "effort" and "dedication".

For some reason, instead of saying, "You spent 2 hours composing a short email? That's unreasonable, why did it take that long?" management instead says, "Wow, you put two hours into that email? That's amazing! Such dedication!"

On the other hand, we have employees who are productive enough that they have literally just run out of their own stuff to do some days and offer to help others with their workload, and management often comments on how it seems like they're not doing anything.

It's so confusing.

I've come to the conclusion that corporations are retarded. Work 50h but start after 8:30? You slacking.

Tell your boss he's wrong because he is and use argumentation and statistics to do so? You are in subordinate and need to know your position.

Create a prize winning concept? Fuck that. No time for that. Until management steals it and calls it their own.

Development time? How difficult is a website? It's some text on a page. Be done next week will yah? What do you want then? What does it have to do and why? Something good.

Why are you doing that? I've done it for 15 years like this. Why? What are you doing? I have no idea. I just fill this in there. But what is it used for? Beats me.

Ashshjfksm

[Celista]

You might be amazed by just how many managers do exactly that (or judge them by "time spent" on something).

I work with a couple people who are the slowest workers I've ever seen. Yet they're absolutely adored by management for their "effort" and "dedication".

For some reason, instead of saying, "You spent 2 hours composing a short email? That's unreasonable, why did it take that long?" management instead says, "Wow, you put two hours into that email? That's amazing! Such dedication!"

On the other hand, we have employees who are productive enough that they have literally just run out of their own stuff to do some days and offer to help others with their workload, and management often comments on how it seems like they're not doing anything.

It's so confusing.

Oh man. Where you do you work? I'd love to write an email in 15 minutes and tell your management how I spent four hours on it. lol

[Deleted]

In this case, it's an online marketing position.
Her tasks could indeed be done from home, but the biggest concern would still be if someone still puts in the same effort.

Maybe I'll give her a month to try it and see how it works out.

Here is a hint. Her productivity will drop.

[namecraft]

you could try it, and revoke it if nothing gets done

[netherflame]

This "working from home" trend seems to be gaining in popularity the last years, at least here in the Netherlands.
I never had anyone ask about this arrangement before though. Maybe because you mostly see it in the non-commercial sectors, not sure.

Anyway, the first thing that comes to (everyone's?) mind is that working for home is just a way to slack off. Especially if it's on friday.
I am also not to keen on having people work away from their collegae's, which seems counter productive.

What is your view on working from home?

What kind of work do you do? We all have a WFH day here at my job in IT.

[munkeyinorbit]

In this case, it's an online marketing position.
Her tasks could indeed be done from home, but the biggest concern would still be if someone still puts in the same effort.

Maybe I'll give her a month to try it and see how it works out.

How about instead of going to a fucking gaming website you do some research yourself. There are thousands of resources online just for that particular question. What if it fucks up? What are you going to tell your boss? Some randoms from a gaming website said it was going to work probably.

[zephid]

This "working from home" trend seems to be gaining in popularity the last years, at least here in the Netherlands.
I never had anyone ask about this arrangement before though. Maybe because you mostly see it in the non-commercial sectors, not sure.

Anyway, the first thing that comes to (everyone's?) mind is that working for home is just a way to slack off. Especially if it's on friday.
I am also not to keen on having people work away from their collegae's, which seems counter productive.

What is your view on working from home?

I really depends on what kind of work we are talking about. Some jobs are equally as easy to do from the comfort of your own home as it is from an office. If she can perform her duties from home I see no reason why you wouldn't at least let her try it out. If it doesn't work, you can always go back to how it used to be.

[callipygoustp]

This "working from home" trend seems to be gaining in popularity the last years, at least here in the Netherlands.
I never had anyone ask about this arrangement before though. Maybe because you mostly see it in the non-commercial sectors, not sure.

Anyway, the first thing that comes to (everyone's?) mind is that working for home is just a way to slack off. Especially if it's on friday.
I am also not to keen on having people work away from their collegae's, which seems counter productive.

What is your view on working from home?

I started having work from home days as far back as the late 1990s early 2000s. Currently I work from home as many as 4 days a week. Many of the guys I manage also work from home. I love it for me. I love it for my team. If the option was taken away I'd look for another job.

[Bodakane]

I recommend this to everyone that works from home in the beginning....wear socks and shoes.

You're more productive with them on.

I know it sounds crazy, but it's true.

[Symphonic]

As a video producer / editor, it would be awesome if my employer let me work from home most of the time, and only come in when we have a shoot scheduled or I need to put footage on a harddrive.

[Felnoire]

Simple really, if they are able to do the job from home aka no element needs them in the workplace for the day then give them a trial period to see if they've the discipline to maintain their work ethic while working at home. If they prove to continue to produce their work to the standards you require, you can approve it fully.
You increase the morale of the employees as they see you as willing to engage with them and work out solutions to their needs while you also ensure your 'generosity' is not being abused.

[Krawu]

This "working from home" trend seems to be gaining in popularity the last years, at least here in the Netherlands.
I never had anyone ask about this arrangement before though. Maybe because you mostly see it in the non-commercial sectors, not sure.

Anyway, the first thing that comes to (everyone's?) mind is that working for home is just a way to slack off. Especially if it's on friday.
I am also not to keen on having people work away from their collegae's, which seems counter productive.

What is your view on working from home?

At my part-time job people can request a so-called "home office" if they use it consistently and are willing to help out if there's a high influx of callers. If the job allows for an arrangement like this, I see nothing wrong with it.
But depending on what your company does, if she's working from home there needs to be some mechanism for quality control. At my office, this entails recording what the agent is saying on randomly selected calls, which doesn't happen for those working directly at the office. They have to sign an additional slip that the employer is allowed to do so when they receive the laptop that's used as a home office. There's also an agreement that the laptop may only be used for work related stuff and that it can be revoked at any time with no reason given, that the agent will pay for any damages to it etc.

If they don't use it consistently or aren't able or willing to help out the amount of hours they agreed to (or do sloppy work), the laptop usually gets assigned to another employee who can after 2 or 3 months.

It's a great arrangement for everyone involved, but it does require some setting up and building the infrastructure for it.

[Narwal]

Personally I like having a team available. I work in a large complex product, writing code, and it's important to have domain knowledge experts around to collaborate.

I believe that if we're going to create a truly work from home environment, it's going to require more than just access to a computer, the internet, and a cell phone. Companies are going to have to buy into setting up secure machines, capable of performing all interactions (easily) that workers take on per day. The technology is there, I don't know if there's a single source to get it all, and if those products have been thought of at the business level. Screen sharing with control option, video calling, document sharing, meeting spaces, etc... There are applications to do all these things. They just need to be more streamlined and business ready. Easy for a business to administer. At the end of the day, working from home or the office is going to be a financial decision by businesses. It's going to be easy to roll out, maintain, and be secure to protect business interests.