Sample work from home policies
Looking for sample work from home policies that might address how to resolve this type of issue:
Employees are required to come into the office 4 days a week and work from home on Fridays. The company is flexible when personal circumstances come up, i.e. meting a contractor, waiting on a delivery, sick child, etc. However, certain employees are taking advantage of this by wanting to save their paid time off for something else later, so they take a couple of days off and then ask to extend it by "working remotely." Or it can be they are out of PTO but still want to go to wherever their vacation spot is and "work remotely."
The company will definitely address the employees individually to ensure productivity/availability during work from home days, but to prevent this from happening in the future, I wanted to see if there were any sample policies that already addressed this type of scenario that you wouldn't mind sharing.
Thanks!
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The policy I developed identifies a specific remote work location by address and requires the employee to be at that location, available, and productive. The thing employers have to remember is that a workplace is a workplace, regardless of location, and all of the regular rules and requirements apply. If someone says they are going to telework while on a resort vacation and the slip and fall on the pool deck (while walking back to their work laptop of course), that can be a worker's comp injury. Here are some key provisions of that policy:
1. Employee will telecommute to the following alternative worksite:
__________________________________________________________
This is the employee’s (check one):
_____ Home _____ Other (explain) ___________________________________
2. Employee agrees to remain at the telecommuting location, accessible, and productive during scheduled work hours, to include communication through such methods as dedicated phone line, voice mail, email, fax, etc., and agrees to respond within ____ minutes/hours. Employee-initiated schedule changes must receive advanced approval by the supervisor.
11. Employee agrees to maintain a safe and ergonomically sound work environment, to report work‐related injuries to the supervisor at the earliest opportunity, and to hold the [company] harmless for injury to others at the telecommuting location.
