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Home working - Colleagues working from each others homes

Rhianon Jones

Hi all

 

Your thoughts and opinions very much welcome.

We have picked up a trend of employees holding meetings at, or working from, each other’s homes.

They all have an office based but are allowed occasional home working (with manager approval) as part of our flexible working approach.

Other employees are openly sharing their view that they feel it is inappropriate for colleagues to work in each others homes – and our home working arrangements don’t currently cover this.

The line manager has now asked for me to advise on whether this is appropriate or not.

What I really want to tell them is – you decide as the manager whether you think it’s appropriate or not, but I know this will shortly be followed by a request from our management team to put a policy in place to cover this.

On the one hand I feel that if it is something that works (i.e. the job is getting done) and everyone involved is happy with the arrangement, then what is the problem?

But I wonder if I’m missing any obvious or common pitfalls that maybe we should be looking to risk assess?

I look forward to hearing your views!

Rhianon

  • Aside from in voluntary roles (where meetings in other peoples homes are very common) I haven't really come across it in the work environment.

    Few thoughts

    1) I would check with your insurers if they have any issues.
    2) There are potential (I put it no stronger) personal safety / security issues with people going into other peoples homes in the course of work. You would need to have covered these off with some sensible balances guidelines.
    3) There are also potential sensitivity issues / embarrassment etc.
    4) You need to manage the emerging them and us culture

    no fundamental red flags for me but needs managing
  • As well as the comprehensive list from Keith - they should all be working comfortably, too - not propping laptops on knees for hours on end on a sofa. Which might not be happening but worth an assessment.

  • We had a team doing this. They all lived locally to each other, but not the office and were completely home based and used to go to the managers house and sit round his kitchen table.

    We checked with out insurers who said it was "ok" and decided to allow it, but on the basis it was only that house, everyone was comfortable with it and they were sensible.

    It stopped when new people joined the team who were located further away

  • "On the one hand I feel that if it is something that works (i.e. the job is getting done) and everyone involved is happy with the arrangement, then what is the problem"

    I too don't see this as a particular problem, bearing in mind previous posters thoughts.  I do think its something the manager needs to get his/her head around and make the decision.

  • Do you know what the other employees' concerns are about working in this way?