Microsoft tells staff work-from-home is now ‘standard’ – with caveats galore
- Reference: 1602489311
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/12/microsoft_work_from_home_policy/
- Source link:
The company late last Friday [1]outlined its new “guidance” on what its “flexible workplace” will look like even after the COVID-19 pandemic recedes enough to make returning to offices safe.
The guidance comprises the following three points (with Microsoft’s emphases):
Work site (the physical space where you work, e.g. office, center, home, mobile): We recognize that some employees are required to be onsite and some roles and businesses are better suited for working away from the worksite than others. However, for most roles, we view working from home part of the time (less than 50%) as now standard – assuming manager and team alignment.
Work hours (the hours and days when employees work, e.g. workday start and end times, full- or part-time): Work schedule flexibility is now considered standard for most roles. While part-time continues to be subject to manager approval, our guidance is meant to facilitate an open conversation between a manager and employee regarding considerations.
Work location (the geographic location where you work, e.g. city and country): Similarly the guidance is there for managers and employees to discuss and address considerations such as role requirements, personal tax, salary, expenses, etc.
While this guidance will spawn a thousand gushing LinkedIn posts, form the basis of a hundred over-long webinar presentations and be referenced in more than a few TED talks, it’s far from a total embrace of working remotely.
Less than half time at home is not revolutionary and comes with a big caveat of managerial approval.
While encouraging open conversations about flexible working hours, there is no guarantee they will be approved or mention of criteria considered reasonable.
The third point seems to hint that Microsoft could follow [2]VMware in adjusting salaries to match the cost of living in whatever locale employees choose to inhabit, which in practice has meant reducing payments.
A memo from the distant future... June 2022: The boss decides working from home isn't the new normal after all [3]READ MORE
The Register is also aware that Microsoft has encouraged customer-and-partner-facing employees to work remotely and at odd hours for years anyway, because time in-office is time away from customers and partners. Microsofties of The Register ’s acquaintance often don’t mind that freedom, and have also told us of Microsoft being keen for its staff to prove the power of its productivity platform by using it outside the office whenever it is sensible to do so.
Microsoft has also invested in shared spaces like WeWork for staff to use as drop-in offices.
Which makes this new guidance not much of a New Normal, and perhaps more a statement of flexible working being more favorably-looked-upon thanks to the experience of the last few virus-ridden months. With novel coronavirus infection rates spiking again across Europe and North America, further evolution of the policy may yet be necessary. ®
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[1] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/10/09/embracing-a-flexible-workplace/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/12/silicon_valley_wages/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/19/future_history_of_work_from_home/
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Commuting
Did they pay "compensation" when they required staff to work in the office pre-lockdown? Nope. Then nope they won't.
Re: Commuting
Just wait for some boss or beancounter who wants to reduce your pay based on less travelling time because ' that was a consideration' in calculating your pay and now you are at home.
The other thing that came up in a conversation recently, was a friend whose bosses are paranoid about staff proving that they working the hours they say rather than, I don't know, watching the Telly tubbies with the kids or something.
How long before a boss wants video surveillance in your home work space, or a tracking anklet?
WFH will not ultimately be any more or less of a blessing than going in to work, everything boils down to the beancounter's First law of acquisition, maximising profit.
Re: Commuting
Working as an employee isn't just about you - it is also about the team and the companies goals, for eg having employees build each other up.
And importantly the contract terms that agreed on expectations.
They don't owe you any "compensation" for you to secure your workplace obligations, it's in your contract - you are free to move right next to the office if you wish to save time to meet your obligations that you signed up for. You live 2 hours from the office, and you could choose to live 5 hours away or a minute away. You knew the commute time when you took the job.
You'd have a point if you signed up to a home working contract and then they asked you to commute to the office.
Or you do not want to work from home, as you signed an office working contract.
It's interesting that if the employer altered contract terms retrospectively, you'd be up in arms (and rightly so), but here if the employee wishes to alter terms retrospectively, it should be honoured??
Double standards, me thinks.
Re: Commuting
This isn't a problem for existing employees, because they signed up for 100% commuting. For remote roles, this could be a useful thing to establish in offer letters.
WFP
Article in the news today about pubs in the UK offering a desk and WiFi with unlimited tea or coffee for a tenner per day. Thought that might be apt for MSFT, given how the words "pissup" and "brewery" always come to mind ..
Commuting
For those that are required to commute in to their workplace, will they provide compensation ?
Personally I would gain between 1.5 and 2 hours a day if a didn't have to commute. Personally I don't like working from home but I definitely enjoy the extra time that it puts at one's disposition..