Working from home
KMoore1
44 Posts
Is there a legal way to ask a telecommuter if she has childcare during hours of work?
KMoore1
44 Posts
Comments
we have a few employees with telecommuting arrangements. One of the key questions is whether they have personal obligations outside of work that would make it difficult for them to dedicate the time and effort to work during our core hours. I rattle of a list of examples that include family obligations, outside distractions and what not. We then explain that just because they are working from home does not mean they can run errands or take care of personal matters during the day. The rest seems to be covered under performance measurements. I have only had one guy take advantage of our telecommuting arrangements (he was 'moonlighting' as a real estate agent who showed a fellow employee on PTO a very nice condo).
i agree that you should steer clear of child care questions. you
should lay out the requirements of working from home and ask whether
the employee can meet them. otherwise you might be accused of discrimination. for example, she might feel you are treating her differently than you would a male employee that wanted to work from home. do you ask all male employees whether they have child care arrangements when they work from home? the eeoc created guidance for this type of discrimination.
http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/caregiving.html