Yet another tricky situation I need advice on
J9JC
91 Posts
I am somewhat embarrassed to even post this, but I really need some input to make sure I am not missing something. We have an employee who has a child with an eye problem, he is 4 years old. He needs constant patching of his eye and her current babysitter will not make sure he keeps it on, thus making his potential therapy not as successful as possible. Against my advice, she was granted the ability to work from home while watching her child. The owners of the company like to be pretty accommodating, but I felt this was outside the level of accommodation we should offer. It has now been 3 months that she has been working from home. She is a non-exempt hourly employee. She had been granted until Jan 5, 2005 to work from home. The letters from the doctor state he will likely need patching until at least sometime this fall. Now management wants to not grant any further accommodation and ask her to come back into the office to work. Do we need to give a specific reason other than we feel we have been as accommodating as we can be, and we can no longer grant her the ability to work from home?
In my mind I see it as a babysitting problem, although I am sensitive to the issue, my nephew has been going through the same treatment for almost 2 years now, so I know a bit about this, but see that as immaterial. I feel like the company has made some changes to assist her and now it is her turn to make some changes if necessary to get the treatment her child needs. I would also like to not totally alienate her in this also. I am also quite concerned about the precedence we have set in this! So I welcome your comments. Thanks!
In my mind I see it as a babysitting problem, although I am sensitive to the issue, my nephew has been going through the same treatment for almost 2 years now, so I know a bit about this, but see that as immaterial. I feel like the company has made some changes to assist her and now it is her turn to make some changes if necessary to get the treatment her child needs. I would also like to not totally alienate her in this also. I am also quite concerned about the precedence we have set in this! So I welcome your comments. Thanks!
Comments
Our policy states that these things are discretionary and very much depend on inidividual circumstances and that some jobs can only be done at work.
Once the time limit was reached, the situation would require a formal written request from the EE to be reviewed to determine if it was still working as planned.
If the situation is no longer working for management, I would just be straightforward about that.
You know from your own experience that this situation can be managed around work. You might tell her how you do it just so she knows it can be done, but it is up to her to solve this.
In general, we are a very employee friendly place to work, that said, we rarely grant work at home privileges and have never done it for more than a day or two.
**When we do for others what they should do for themselves, we disempower them.**
Current plan is to deny her request to continue to work from home, and no she has not put it in yet, I am sure she will the 5th, she is on vacation today and tomorrow. Then we will grant her 2 weeks of the continued working from home arrangement to find alternate solution for her son. I will also remind her she can take Paid Family Leave, and we can see where it all goes.