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A company which has ended its policy of allowing workers to work from home is apparently still expecting workers to respond to work emails while you are at home.
Bugger IT Consultancy Service Inc recently ended its policy of allowing workers to work from home at their discretion, a move which has not proven popular with employees.
Employee Simon Williams told us, “I invested in turning my box room into a home office during lockdown, and in there I do a full day’s work, every day. I’ve also met every target I’ve been given and my appraisal was glowing – so yes, I’m a bit pissed that suddenly I’m expected to lose 3 hours every day commuting to an office just to make our corporate landlord feel a bit better.
“To top it off, they’ve made clear we’re still expected to be available to work at home when they need it, outside of office hours, just not when we want to.”
Chief executive of Bugger IT, Derek Walden-Smythe, told us, “This isn’t about us making life more difficult for our employees. It’s about making life better for the people who own our office building – which may or may not include some of my friends.
“It isn’t that working from him isn’t possible – it’s just that we don’t want you to do it.
“We also want to see people at their desks, because myself and the executive team are inherently lazy individuals, and so we simply can’t trust a worker to complete their assigned tasks if they are in the same location as a sofa and a television.
“But of course, we will have no issue emailing you out of hours and asking you to work from home, if we feel like it. Mainly because you don’t get paid overtime, so it’s like free labour to us – so win-win.”
Simon ended by telling us, “It’s their call, ultimately. If they want me in the office every day, then so be it. But they should know that after I leave the office my laptop will stay closed and I won’t be checking emails or taking calls until I’m back at my desk at 9 am the following morning.
“If they still think we’re all more productive working solely ‘in the office’ after a few weeks of that, I’ll eat my employee manual.”
