Skip to main content

How you can convince your boss to work from home?

Before this 2020 pandemic it was more difficult to request work from home, especially for us in Trinidad and Tobago. During this lockdown, many companies locally are forced to act and consider work from home options. Hopefully this trend continues beyond the lockdown, fingers crossed.

First of all, we must recognise that work from home only applies to some classes of workers, mostly back office workers.

Next, you should decide how much work from home you should request, at least initially. If full work from home seems like a harder ask then consider some days work from home. Office days would be for tasks that can only be performed in the office. If you share your job function with others then you can alternate with coworkers, so that someone is always in the office. Even half days can be beneficial.

Do your research so that you can list the advantages and disadvantages and case studies. Be prepared to make a formal presentation to your boss. Know about the technologies and resources that would be required for you to work from home. Get input from your IT department. Pay attention to return on investment, disaster recovery planning, performance management and available options.

Let your boss know that once performance management goals are being met and the job is getting done then it should not matter where you are working from. Productivity is linked to employee well being. Happy employees are less likely to look for another employer. When employees win then employers also win.

Let your boss know that this does not have to be a permanent decision. At the very least give work from home a try for a few months to see that it can work. A phased approached can be adopted. Employees can present work from home as a proposal and have it go through that approval process. Get the input of an expert who can vet your proposal.

Finally, don't give up, keep trying. Get coworkers, union, employee assistance programme and others involved. In some cases, persistence and patience would be needed. Look at all avenues for making your voice be heard.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Giving

It is 237pm and I have decided to write. I drank a strong cup of coffee. It is hot outside but cool inside in the AC. I have no topic but I feel like writing. I love giving charity. Who knows it, feels it. The world would be a much better place if we all shared with one another. If we helped one another. If we only take as much as we need and leave the rest for others. If we prioritised needs over wants. We are going to leave it all behind when we die. We cannot carry anything into the grave except our deeds. One of the easiest ways to give money to charities is through SMS codes. The telecoms should have a system in place where charitable causes can sign up for an SMS code to accept donations. Long ago I remember seeing the donation tins at the supermarket. We should have more of those. I think more people would give more if they were presented with more opportunities to give. The nlcb booths could be outlets for making donations. Linx machines could be points for making donations. AT...

Technology in Trinbago

It is 205am and I have decided to write. I was doing some research and trying to update myself on what is happening in the tech space in Trinidad and Tobago. Nothing stood out in particular. I went looking at what other Caribbean countries were doing that we could adopt. I think there are opportunities in that. Then I decided to focus my energy on coming up with a list of things I think could be done with tech in Trinbago. 1. Feeding a startup culture. Ease of doing business. Make it easy to start and run a business. Support for businesses that earn foreign exchange. 2. Launch the work from home policy. 3. Have a similar policy for online schooling and home schooling. 4. Tech literacy focusing on cybersecurity and keeping safe online. 5. What would it take to get Paypal and CashApp supported here? 6. Support and encouragement for tech bloggers and tech youtubers. 7. More hackatons and a yearly developer survey. 8. Facilitating contact and communication between local techies and big tec...

A simple prayer

It is 200pm and I have started to write again. I abandoned my last blog post. I did not know what to write. I still do not know what to write about but I am still going to write anyway. I was thinking. What if there was a clock where a day was 100 hours and an hour was 100 minutes, what would be the current time in Trinidad according to that clock? 58.82 would be the time according to my friend — 5+8+8+2 = 23. 58.33 would have been the time I started — 5+8+3+3 = 19. If you are familiar with my writing you know that 19 and 23 comes from my book Love Letters. Nice but what to write about? I was thinking about a simple prayer. What would be a simple prayer? What would be the simplest prayer? My friend says that "thank you" is a simple prayer that carries so much weight. What about a prayer that is an acronym of the word simple? That forms a grammatically correct sentence. [insert s word] in my prayer like [insert e word]. Share, save, soul ... ease, every, eternal are some words...