he had seen it coming and had been looking but it was the height of the recession and there was nothing to be had. When I worked in DC, I worked with some people who had truly remarkable commutes, including someone who lived in North Carolina and commuted by her small plane twice a week. If traveling to an office requires an overnight stay or a plane ride, for instance. Shes not commuting to a work location, she is traveling. She sues you, and you are forced to pay her back wages and possibly liquidated damages. I tend to agree with this. I suspect that selling a remote scenario to a company that didnt have remote workers wouldnt have been a win had she said, I want you to make this exception for me, plus each year youll need to pay for four round-trip flights, car rentals, and twenty hotel nights.. And whether they have to pay for more space depends on how full their office is. I wanted to leave Big City to move closer to family, but all my friends still live in Big City, so it seemed like a no-brainer to save the nonprofit money I could crash on someones couch on the few occasions per year that Id need to fly back, and I figured Id build my trips so I could spend the weekend directly before or after the work commitment in Big City too. However, you are required to pay employees for time spent traveling between job sites. If someone has the ability to perform all of their tasks from anywhere with a computer and a Wifi signal, then the location doesnt matter. Theres a high-risk person whos probably just never coming on-site again, and frankly, the rest of them could get away with that too were in a hot field, hiring is difficult, nobodys really inclined to go full Guacamole Bob on this one. Why should a remote employee get to have their travel covered when local employees pay out of their own pocket? WebIf employees traveled directly from their residence to their first appointment or directly home from their last appointment this travel was generally considered to be a commute. If you want to be like my boss and figure out a way for her to get her travel reimbursed, that would be lovely and probably appreciated. how can I ask to keep working from home long-term? Its worth it. Trust me on this! It never occurred to me that would not be a thing that I paid my own expenses for. Remote Work Policy Organizations should put in writing the key terms of a remote work arrangement, in what is often referred to as a "Telecommuting Agreement." My company has a lot of remote employees. Traveling from out of state is more expensive but probably works out to the same amount of money annually as a daily commute. But it doesnt seem like a raise was arranged in addition to the remote work scenario. I think you draw that line when you decide to hire a remote employee, or let one of your employees go remote, the same way you look at your office space when you hire someone to work in the office. For that matter, how possible is it that it already has created silent issues or envy? It would be like if you worked out a deal where you got an extra week of vacation instead of a raise in year X, and then later on arguing you should get a double raise because you didnt get one last year. I have coworkers at an office in Ohio who occasionally have to come to Chicagoland to our corporate office; their travel to Illinois is definitely covered. Do we have enough actual policy to be able to rely on functional rules or necessary conditions for evaluating or considering future similar requests, or can we reasonably defend this as an arbitrary, only-applies-to-this-one-position-ever kind of deal if challenged? Generally, you only have to compensate for travel time during an employee's regular work hours, unless they have to work during the trip. However, in reality, their department head often books the travel for them and charges the company for it. I jumped at the offer since I really wanted to be back in the smaller town I consider home that is a couple hours from the city the corporate office is located in. I run a business and pay those bills and they havent fluctuated based on how many people are in there. If you have remote workers who live far away and are reporting for infrequent meetings, then you might come up against another travel time rule. Live where you want, but you have to come in regularly on your own dime. I stayed in Florida and worked. Frankly, what a lot of employers do here in Australia is either put it on the company card, reimburse the employee, or add a travel allowance to the employees pay the allowance gets listed separately, its an approximation of the cost, and the expense of travel is claimed by the employee on their tax return at tax time, BUT any savings the employee makes on accommodation or whatever are basically a little cash bonus (on which the employee will have to pay tax at tax time but the employer doesnt need to deal with that). Is it legal for an employer to require a remote employee to pay for their own flight and hotel when they come on site four time a year? You might have to pay her the $20/hr you usually pay her, or you might have to pay her twice the minimum wage. My cars going to last me forever because I only use it twice a week. If the employees legal home office is the main office then the expenses for travel are commuting expenses. Webcontinue our examination of telework and remote work policies over the coming years as agency operations evolve, and as the Federal Government further defines a broad vision for If the manager says you no longer need to come into the office 4 times a year she could still come in 4 times a year if she wants to. If remote workers located outside the locality pay area of their office are required to come in by the agency, the agency must pay the travel costs, Shriver said. How adaptable and sustainable is our current arrangement if applied to others? If the employer NOW pays for flights to the office for other employees, then I could see the argument. If they want us in more often than the four times a year agreed, they will cover the extra travel (for instance for additional training or something). Informal telecommuting or remote work arrangements, such working on the road during business travel, do not require the completion of USFs Telecommuting and I suppose the rationale is that if your contract was as a remote worker (therefore your work address is your home address) they would pick up travel expenses to go another office on a business trip (say a satellite office). A cross functional team met the past few months to draft a new travel policy impacting our remote workforce to ensure we are compliant with IRS It depends. The less frequently you require the employee to report to the office, the more likely you will be expected to pay for their travel time. The remote work policy outlines the guidelines under which employees can work remotely as well as their responsibilities. The company here is being cheap, particular given the uselessness of the visists. I dont get what the issue is. Its possible that the manager is assessing some things that require her presence, and that employees themselves arent likely to be aware of. Hey, guess what! However she consistently gets a lower COLA raise than everyone else because company says they factor in COL in her area. This company also covers the cost of public transit for local employees. Remote Workers And I was grateful! I proposed that we try it out for six months and re-evaluate, that Id institute whatever check-ins or evaluation she wanted to ensure I kept on track, etc. It also sounds like she gets more lifestyle bang for her buck since she lives in an affordable area but has a salary commensurate with a high-cost-of-living locale. the remote work policy in order to be more competitive in the current labor market. In addition she made a deal with her employer. Given the job market and the changes in remote work, its a good time for her to raise it if she wants to. OH and I want for you to pay for flights, hotels, and car rental if you ever have me come back here in person. I suspect she approached him with, Id like to move to live near family, but I like this job enough to want to keep it if I can. I think companies should strive to be as equal as possible. Its certainly feasible for the company to decide that future compensation probably should include specific parts (or even all parts) of her travel expenses; doing so while Current Remote Worker is the only one working in this capacity is absolutely in the best interests of a tight-fisted boss (like OPs boss sounds like a bit, at least where labor capital is involved) to pass off this change as part of a one-time, paradigm-shifting bonus for this employee. Thats not going to go over well. The company may not be interested in making remote work commonplace. He did the math and it worked out that it was better financially to pay his own way for travel. She agreed to that as part of going remote which dollar for dollar is beneficial to her its crappy to now complain about it and want it changed. Remote Employees Transportation and Travel to the Our company has always had some remote staff (sales reps) in the field that they reimbursed for hotel and travel expenses when they were required to come into the office. You can, however, pay your employee less than their normal hourly rate. Germany to pass immigration reform law making it easier for In our case, there is PLENTY of money for this. Trust me when I say that covering plane travel for remote employees when they are required to visit the home office is standard. She knows the remote work environment has changed as well. I know the OP stated the remote employee made the arrangement pre-pandemic and the company can afford to cover it. That seems incredibly unfair. If your job was compatible with WFH, you could live wherever, but your butt had to be in an on-site chair at least once per month. Again, this doesnt even have anything to do with the letter. Is our current agreement with this single employee likely to create issues in morale, retention, liability, or inequity if other current, on-site employees requested the same provisions for similar work tomorrow? It seems unfair and as a local employee I would be resentful that someone remote was getting their commuting costs paid for when I dont. The company chartered planes that departed from two specific home airports (near large urban centres) that flew into/out of camp on certain rotation days. Sounds fascinating (and expensive!). Shes paying for the electricity to run her computer, shes probably paying for any printing she does, etc. For example, you may need to bring everyone into work on a project that requires all hands on deck and can't be done remotely, such as sending out a large physical mailing. Thats her choice. Turns out that Silicon Valley wages go a lot farther in Portland, such that its worth the monthly round-trip in order to spend the rest of the month living in an honest-to-God house that exists for you alone and not for your umpteen house-mates. Travel Policy The circumstances are different now than they were when the agreement was first struck and she has a stronger case now for arguing that her travel costs should be covered or, alternately, that the number of trips be cut down and/or some of them replaced with virtual attendance. I think whats being suggested is to cut the salary by the cost of the travel which will save everybody some money, although maybe not enough to be worth the trouble. It could be a great arrangement that the employee is happy with. Oh, and were going to cut your pay! All of this was on their own dime. None of us like that basically 80% of the company has no requirements, but we do. I used to know the cost per employee for a certain company to have an office in a certain middling-sized city and Im sorry to say Ive forgotten. can my job make me travel during the pandemic? We see these in the form of commuter benefits, cafeteria plans, and stock buy-ins. It was not at all something I considered should be paid by my employer. travel policy Rather than making it Jane shouldnt get this perk because the rest of us have to drive to the office and pay our own gas, I think the better way to view it would be to cite Janes experience as a reason why the rest of you *should* be allowed to work remotely. WebUWMadisons current Remote Work Policy, effective August 1, 2021, reflects the evolving nature of the workplace. This brings up an issue: While employees do not need to be compensated for regular commutes, they need and deserve travel compensation. a set of guidelines that specifies how your organization establishes expectations and conditions for remote employees. Which Ive been doingits still worth the cost to me as cheaper to pay to travel than to live in CA. He wasnt permitted to live more than 100 miles from his base airport. When I had a similar arrangement (only remote worker in the whole company), the travel was covered from the corporate budget. using martial arts at work, I saw my job posted online, and more, I wrote a Glassdoor review and the employer is losing their minds, updates: we had to share our shadow sides and be more vulnerable at a meeting, and more, lets discuss terrible workplace ice-breakers, how do I stop looking bored during meetings, should I say Im leaving because of my horrible coworker, and more, my bosss boss forced us to do a grievance circle targeting our manager. Did I read that right? Why Any Remote Work Policy Is Doomed To Fail - Forbes My husband has a job in a high cost of living area about 500 miles from the mid COL area we live in. Heck, we could cover her for first class flights and staying at the Ritz for the week, and it would still be less than 1% of our annual unused surplus budget. You can get around this by never having telecommuting employees report in, but it's sometimes necessary. Would the cost of replacing that employee with an onsite employee and the ongoing expenses of physical space & equipment as well as training be less than moving the travel expenses from the employee? The trade off to this is my commute doubled. Travel Policy 2021 Guide to Telework and Remote Work in the Federal If she has moved to a lower COLA area, and kept her salary, then I think this is fair. Its incredibly likely, especially in a post-pandemic world, that more and more workers, having tasted the fruit of remote work during COVIDeither workers already employed there and/or future possible employeeswill be interested in knowing their options for partial or full telecommute down the road.
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