Re: Not permitted to be productive at home

[Jean Hollis Weber <jean -at- jeanweber -dot- com>]

Karen E. Black wrote about the refusal of her boss to allow her to work at 
home, requiring her to take a sick day instead.

FWIW, I had a similar problem years ago and solved it by saying to the 
boss, "I am not too sick to work, but I am unable to come in to the office. 
I can either work at home and thus keep from getting behind with my part of 
the project, or I can take several sick days and get behind and hold up the 
project. You choose." Funny thing, the boss chose to approve my working 
from home for a few days, and even thanked me for being so helpful and 
considerate. Obviously, not all bosses will make that choice.

A similar thing occured when a colleague broke his leg. The cast he had to 
wear didn't stop him from working at home, but he couldn't get to the 
office. Again, the fact that his input was valuable to the timely 
completion of the project was the deciding factor.

Telling someone to take a sick day when she's willing and able to work from 
home seems silly to me, as it effectively encourages all staff to lie 
if/when they need to stay home for some reason, whatever it might be. OTOH, 
if your contribution isn't seen as essential at that point, then having you 
take a day off may actually make sense from a manager's point of view (in 
fact, it might help the project's budget, if sick pay comes out of some 
other bucket of money).

Of course, one could argue that bosses could use this sort of thing against 
you by _requiring_ you to work at home when you really are too sick to 
work, but that's a different problem.

Regards, Jean
Jean Hollis Weber
jean -at- jeanweber -dot- com
The Technical Editors' Eyrie  http://www.jeanweber.com/


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