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Remote Work Legal Claims Fear of Firing and Return to Office

Remote Work Legal Claims And Rto
The exuberant joy of working from home has been replaced by the dreaded fear of getting fired for not adhering to return to office directives.  Often, all because of a few bad WFH who refuse to take the self initiative to perform in the absence of a face-to-face supervisor monitoring them 24/7. This article delves into WFH employee misconduct, what productive teleworkers can do, and the potential remote work legal claims related to possible firing of remote staff during return to the office  (RTO) corporate directives. You can skip to last section for possible claims to recoup damages if you’re in a hurry.

The risk is high of loss of remote work privileges: threat of legal action the answer ?

Elon Musk: Claims of Lower Remote Worker Productivity leads to Mass Firing

Telecommuter, do you think your head is on the chopping block? Do you sense a firing or layoff on the horizon? Sure, the threat of filing a legal cause against your employer could be a possible solution. But, there are other alternatives. Let’s think for a bit. What about living up to corporate expectations? But first. Let’s talk about how we got into this precarious predicament.

Working at home: a must do a must not do- what a quick turn in public sentiment

If we go back to the lockdown years of Covid-19, we’ll admit.  Employees reporting to the traditional office were apprehensive and then thrilled at the prospect of working from home. Do you remember the fretful days of anxiety?. Worried about catching a deadly disease (we were told) helped us to quickly adapt our work habits to staying at home. We purchased new devices, upgraded our internet speed, improved our digital literacy skills, re-arranged our living quarters and eventually became adept at tele-commuting.

As we did so, we grew to love the features of working for our employer while ,in the privacy of our own homes. No longer did we need to worry about the 1.0 to 2.0 hour one way commute (or more), fuel tank levels, lunch choices, and formal corporate business attire. Some introverts were energized by reduction of informal and spontaneous interactions with colleagues and supervisors. No need to avoid  the office water cooler, hallways, elevators and employee cafeteria.   We could finally relax, hunker down and focus solely on our jobs.

Little did we know, the remote work phenomenon was not entirely here to stay. Telecommuting each day of the five day work week isn’t the likely scenario nowadays. This is especially true by region and occupational title.

The risk of losing teleworking privileges grows by the day. Particularly with Elon Musk and Vivek Rameswamy breathing down the backs of federal, civil servant teleworking government workers. Change is definitely in the air.  Even if you don’t work for the federal government, there’s a big chance if you live in one of the states below you work for a private employer that allows telecommuting and hybrid working arrangements.

The proliferation of telework arrangements vary by region and state

The US Census reported a threefold increase in the number of workers telecommuting during the period 2019 (9 million) to 2021 (27.6 million).

At the same time, the data of remote workers working at home varied by geographical region. Here’s a breakdown by state:

  • District of Columbia, 48.3%
  • Washington, 24.2%
  • Maryland, 24.0%
  • Colorado, 23.7%
  • Massachusetts, 23.7%

Remote work is great feature but you gotta fight to keep it: External and internal opponents

The features of remote work is great. But you gotta stay in the fighting spirit if you want to keep these work benefits. Bamboo HR found 70% of employers surveyed intended to increase the number of days remote / hybrid staff report to the office. Some virtual staff members may choose to fight RTO by working harder, meeting deadlines, exceeding corporate goals and making themselves useful as an invaluable member of their employer community.  Others may choose the legal dispute route. We’d like to think of a third rail option. Where the bravest warriors take the battle to their nonperforming co-workers. Others may choose the legal dispute route. Not only must we battle  the nonbelieving WFH reformers, we may need to check the enemy within.

Productive remote employees detest working at home slacker colleagues too!

Here’s a recent post reflecting the feelings of top producing remote workers who loathe to work alongside or in teams with teleworking co-workers who misuse the flexibility remote work brings.

“My company started everyone on work from home recently due to COVID-19. I have two close work friends and we still chat regularly online. All of us take little breaks for non-work activities (switching laundry over, grabbing a snack) but I have tried to make sure I walk away from my computer no more than I do at the office. My friend, however, showers on the clock, goes to restaurants to get breakfast, cleans her whole house, walks her dogs… We have a minimum quota of items to produce each day, but she cherry picks the easiest orders to meet the goal.” Source: AskManager

Believe it or not, there’s so much that can be done to beat back slackers or those who quietly quit. We’ll explore a few ways in the next couple of sections.

WFH staff can use peer pressure to get slacking telecommuters to perform

In addition to working hard, maintaining productivity and keeping work quality high, there’s a slight chance that a few of your colleagues may be spoiling it for all of the telecommuters working hard everyday.  And, you know what I mean. Some of your peers may be slacking, overworking (a 2022 survey says up to 48% hybrid and remote workers work two fulltime remote jobs, 39% have a WFH side hustle), literally drugging out, and sleeping (or having s*x)  in bed while clocked in; earning a day’s pay and fair wage for no work output!

If you’ve noticed it. So too has your employer. But get this. Employee misconduct is not new. We found a 2013 Tampa Bay article sourced from the Washington Post where a reader posted a question to the ‘Career Q&A: Are your co-workers abusing ‘work from home privilege?’ The writer seeking career advice complained that his/her work colleague took care of her kids while working at home and reprimanded her child while on a work conference call..  The advice given was to be empathetic in most circumstances, and except one:

  • when required to pick up the slack of your ‘slacker’ co-worker, it’s ok to complain to your boss.

We have good news! Researchers have found worker productivity is contagious. High co-worker output can positively influence work peers to work harder. Further, increased exposure to employees who are well-trained and experienced has a positive effect on co-workers. So, guess what? If you are beleaguered by underperforming colleagues, you have other options besides complaining to your boss.

You can band together with your in-house employer network of associates and use peer pressure to influence the nonproducer to conform to high productivity corporate norms or go elsewhere. We have written about the tactics corporate insiders have used to oust ‘outsiders‘ encouraging them to leave their employer of their own volition.

What are some of the ways in which your telecommuting colleagues abuse telework privileges? See below.

Employee misconduct: Most common ways teleworkers abuse remote work privileges

  • Working two fulltime remote jobs (overwork) without notifying or obtaining permission  (if required) from primary employer
  • Wanting to earn a full-time salary while putting in part-time hours
  • Traveling and vacationing on company time without alerting employer or taking Paid-Time-Off (PTO)
  • Taking care of dependents while working (when it may be prohibited by the telework agreement)
  • Checking their personal devices for personal emails, personal social media likes/comments and updates
  • Taking frequent bathroom breaks, smoke breaks, lunch and snack breaks, tv and other entertainment breaks
  • Interacting in casual conversations on professional and forums like Slack, Github, Reddit, Quora, Linkedin
  • Taking twice as long to complete standard work projects and working slower than is expected (BBC gives an example where an audit used to take 3 months to complete that is now dragged out to 6 months)
  • Failing to respond to work-related emails, messages, chats and phone calls
  • Surfing online shopping, porn, news and other networks
  • Disengaging from colleagues during online meetings

Tips for staying out of the remote work firing line cross hairs

  • Be visible, show up on time, and perform to expectations
  • Refrain from frequent call outs and taking excessive PTO without prior notice
  • Act as if you are being surveilled (refrain from internet surfing, social media posting and ghosting co-workers)
  • Look the part of a professional (dress professionally, converse in a professional manner)
  • Follow up, follow through on your commitments and freely give positive feedback
  • Keep your significant others away from the video conferencing camera
  • When making work-related posts on Linkedin, Reddit, GitHub and Quora, do so during lunch and after work hours

Conformist teleworkers can’t do it alone: Remote employers need to enforce strident teleworking policies

No longer can employers rely upon the teleworking agreements hastily introduced in 2019 in response to the pandemic, a major overhaul needs to take place. We show some possible suggestions here with this telework policy infographic.

Cadillac And Basic Remote Work Policies Search Remotely
Cadillac And Basic Remote Work Policies Search Remotely

Corporate revocation of remote work arrangements

Remote teams have come to adore and remain attached to the enjoyable work features of tele-commuting.  As we said earlier, to keep and enjoyable work benefit you have to continually show that you are deserving. Why? Some employers are reeling with the managerial challenges introduced by the myriad of in office, mixed, hybrid, and location independent working arrangements. Rather than work out the team communication glitches and employee monitoring hick-ups, some companies have foregone the remote and / or hybrid options altogether.

An article for helping remote team leads improve performance problems related to remote staff:

Amazon, UPS, JPMorgan Chase, Dell Technologies, and Boeing according to Zerohedge are just a few employers revoking 100% remote work options.   Tech.co giving a more comprehensive employer list shows General Motors, Disney, Walmart, Dell, Activision Blizzard, United Parcel Service (UPS), Meta, Grindr, IBM, Ubisoft, Roblox, Infosys, Rockstar and Nothing as dismantling their remote work policies. Rather than maintain their wholehearted embrace of the work from home movement, corporations have directed a large segment of their white collar employee pool to return to office each day of the five day workweek.

Legitimate reasons for employer return to the office (RTO) initiatives (outside of employee misconduct)

Why? Yahoo Finance identified these reasons employers forbid full remote work:

  • New hires and new entrants to the working world need more in-person supervision to become fully competent in their jobs
  • Tele-commuters report the potential of increased problems than those in an in-office environment (this follows in part because up to 60% of employers divulged if they were forced to reduce headcount, they would scrutinize for cuts, remote staff first)
  • Telecommuters worked up to 3.5 hours less than their in-office colleagues with this time spent on sleeping and leisure
  • Potentially lower levels of productivity when 100% of staff worked from home compared to mixed location arrangements

Remote worker departures underlying rationale for RTO initiatives

Some employers aren’t quite ready to ditch remote and flexible working agreements wholesale.  This is the kicker. Some work from home staff just didn’t get the memo.  Many virtual staff are digging in their heels.  A few employers are responding with fierce lines in the sand drawn.

Another post to explore this topic in more detail:

Starbucks CEO threatened staff to adhere to its hybrid policy ( 3 days of the work week, reporting in office) or face termination.

Sometimes, employers will make good on their threats. Take for instance, Elon Musk who fired more than half of Twitter (now known as X) remote staff. It is possible that the forced return to office (RTO) employer directives could mask the unstated desire for companies to entice employees to voluntarily quit.

In fact, PRNewswire reporting upon a BambooHR survey indicated these underlying reasons for RTO initiatives:

  • 32% supervisors and managers divulge the main objective was to monitor and track employees
  • 25% at the vice president and C-suite level  executives hope for volunteer departures
  • 18% human resources professionals seek employee prompted departures

Potential legal claims remote workers could consider to refuse RTO

Virtual employees have found that they may have some legal recourse for which to buttress their stance. A few remote employees remain adamant in their refusal to return to the office.  How so?

In light of these recent remote employee developments, The University of Cincinnati Law Review cautions employers to tread lightly. Tele-workers may have possible legal claims in these instances:

  • when a position was advertised as fully remote driving the applicant to reasonably rely upon the employer’s representation that asserted the position was fully remote, and when terminated, they were harmed as a result
  • an at- will employee could stake a legal claim arguing that the employer misrepresented the job duties on the grounds that it is illegal for an employer to entice a person to accept a position while having made materially false representations
  • contract employees could sue for breach of contract on the grounds that the employer specified that their employment would be fully remote without having hedged against the possibility that the job could become an ‘in office’ position in the future

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