Work From Home Part 1: Agreements With Employer

Agreements on when you'll go dark and the work you'll do.

With the Shelter In Place guidelines extended through the end of April, informal work from home agreements may need to undergo a more formal scrutiny. 

Previously, employee eligibility and suitability were checked before a trial period and a review were instituted. Now, many people have been quickly moved to longer term but temporary work from home

Previously, childcare and pet care could be managed so work from home hours and practice could more easily be structured. With remote schooling and closed doggie day care, childcare and pet care need to be fitted in with work responsibilities.

Since we are going to be working and schooling from home for at least the next month, have conversations with employers/employees and housemates about what this will look like.

The biggest decisions the employers and households need to make are: 

1. which days and hours you will be working (full attention), 
2. when you will be monitoring work (phones and emails), but will multitask with other obligations
3. when you will be dark to work unless it is an emergency. There will also need to be an agreement for how emergencies / priority items will be communicated and designated so appropriate decisions can be made.

Common elements with company work from home agreements include:

• work hours, assignments, and responsibilities (work, monitoring, and dark hours)
• pay, benefits, and attendance
• leave needs approval
• overtime needs approval
• Equipment and workspace approved for use
• What if anything will get reimbursed
• What if any HR policies apply
• Tax and legal implications
• How work will be evaluated
• Record retention and protection
• Termination of work from home agreement

Check the following for agreement templates and language examples:

• Berkeley: https://hr.berkeley.edu/policies/policies-procedures/university/telecommuting/model-agreement
• Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM): https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/policies/pages/telecommuting_policy.aspx
• Global Workplace Analytics Template: https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/sample-documents/sample-telework-agreement
• Think HR Template: https://www.thinkhr.com/hrhotline/alerts/Sample%20Telecommuting%20Agreement.pdf

See Part 2: Elements to Discuss and Decide While Sheltering In Place

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