There are two bits to these sorts of cases. One was the specific, as in what's in a contract, what's the wording, what have you agreed to and what haven't you agreed to.
Then you've got the moral question; the big picture, the team spirit and the attitude.
Work from home is a symptom of all that is wrong with productivity and very few do productivity as poorly as this country.
Covid wrecked the workplace. It allowed for work from home to be invented.
Not literally, but generally for a period it was all you could do.
From that moment a seed was planted, and the seed has grown into a mindset.
Over a remarkably short period of time the idea became a habit, a right and, for some, the norm.
Not just that, but so entrenched did it become in the minds of some that what was once not even an idea became something to be outraged about if the spectre of it ending was even uttered.
Even though you have spent the vast majority of your working life going to the office.
No one jumps on a get-out-of-jail card quicker than a union.
I don’t know what was, and wasn’t, said at the ACC. But what I do know is work from home has become a gargantuan piss take.
Don’t get me wrong – you save on the commute, the cost of parking, and you don't have to worry about hoping the bus is on time.
It all makes sense from a selfish point of view.
The Australian case even had the woman moving miles from town so she could drop her kid off at the special school they had selected.
Westpac said that was a lifestyle choice, which unquestionably it was, but tough luck said the court and the woman won.
So maybe ACC are onto a hiding to nothing. Let's see.
But specifics aside, work is a quid pro quo and taking the mickey, which is what work from home is now that you aren't locked down, isn't a balanced relationship.
It’s a material shift, born of necessity, and then abused.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
Work from home is a symptom of all that is wrong with productivity and very few do productivity as poorly as this country.
Covid wrecked the workplace. It allowed for work from home to be invented.
Not literally, but generally for a period it was all you could do.
From that moment a seed was planted, and the seed has grown into a mindset.
Over a remarkably short period of time the idea became a habit, a right and, for some, the norm.
Not just that, but so entrenched did it become in the minds of some that what was once not even an idea became something to be outraged about if the spectre of it ending was even uttered.
Even though you have spent the vast majority of your working life going to the office.
No one jumps on a get-out-of-jail card quicker than a union.
I don’t know what was, and wasn’t, said at the ACC. But what I do know is work from home has become a gargantuan piss take.
Don’t get me wrong – you save on the commute, the cost of parking, and you don't have to worry about hoping the bus is on time.
It all makes sense from a selfish point of view.
The Australian case even had the woman moving miles from town so she could drop her kid off at the special school they had selected.
Westpac said that was a lifestyle choice, which unquestionably it was, but tough luck said the court and the woman won.
So maybe ACC are onto a hiding to nothing. Let's see.
But specifics aside, work is a quid pro quo and taking the mickey, which is what work from home is now that you aren't locked down, isn't a balanced relationship.
It’s a material shift, born of necessity, and then abused.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
I’ve been working from home either wholly or partly for 14 plus years. It’s normal in the it sector - so normal it’s been in my last three employment contracts.
However government/ public sector employees take the piss when they’re in the office….but at least they had to turn up to push a couple of buttons. Now they “work” from home and laugh about how many less buttons they have to push.
So imho if it’s in your contract then you’re probably in a high trust position and if it isn’t then you should just go to the office like you’re supposed to and get a private sector job where you’re measured on actual results.
You actually can't slack off if you work from home mike, as every stroke of your keyboard is monitored. I think it is mainly the social aspect of mingling with actual humans and having a face-to-face conversation with a human that is lost.
Blah Blah we should ignore technology and live in the past is all I can read from this whiny little article.
Not my job to buy my lunch in town to support "hospo" sorry.
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