(@)AAM: Employee not producing at former level. Why?

[redheadbaker]

AKA, I'm a shitty-ass manager. I shouldn't be at all surprised that people like this exist. There's a couple of shitty-ass comments in the responses, too. 

What are reasonable expectations for managers whose employees are now working from home? For myself, I can adhere to my normal schedule while homebound, but I have a great employee who, having gone above and beyond in normal times, pleads child care issues now that she is home. She is productive, but putting off some time-sensitive tasks because her toddler demands her time. Her husband is also at home.

Is it reasonable to expect an employee to find a way to work her normal schedule even while she is telecommuting? It is frustrating to hear “I can’t” do such and such when she would have been able to do it easily in the workplace.

www.askamanager.org/2020/04/whats-reasonable-for-managers-to-expect-of-parents-working-from-home.html

[Scout'sHonor]

I had to talk about this with my manager last week. One coworker doesn't have kids and the other two have teenagers, so I was feeling really bad about not getting as much done, but he was awesome and understanding about it. Just said to try my best, make up work when I can and let him know when stuff really falls behind. I feel for this person's employee, because "There’s a toddler there."

[penguingrrl]

People really really suck. I’m glad AAM smacked someone sense into her with this. Normal rules don’t apply in a time of fucking crisis.

[cville]

Good lord, what an asswipe.

I've been as productive at home. Because I've moved my work around to accommodate when my kids need me. So, not necessarily during normal working hours.

Oh, yeah, AND because my husband is doing 90% of the childcare during the workday. Ninety percent people.

[rubytue]

This was the best thing in the comments: You are not working from home during a crisis, you’re at home during a crisis trying to work.

[msmerymac]

Yeah, I read this earlier. Gee, who would have thought an employee with a TODDLER would be pleading child care issues during a global pandemic when childcare centers are closed.

There's no way I'd be able to maintain my current 8AM to 6-7PM schedule that my work is currently demanding if I had kids. Which they would totally understand, but would suck for me and them. I get it. But holy shit, the audacity.

[lagom]

As someone with twin toddlers at home and now no nanny, three cheers for AAM.

[jackie011]

Apr 6, 2020 15:38:32 GMT -5 rubytue said:

This was the best thing in the comments: You are not working from home during a crisis, you’re at home during a crisis trying to work.

I’ve used this line of thinking a few times lately. Think of an employee going through an incredibly stressful personal health or financial issue and imagine what kind of product you’d get out of that person. Multiply that by MILLIONS of people all at once, and take away their coping mechanisms (the gym, happy hour, even a damn hour without small people) and now imagine the productivity.

[gt7301b]

My boss has three other direct reports and in our staff meeting the first week of the crisis one of the managers asked if he could dock people’s pay because they weren’t productive enough while working from home. I was blown away at the lack of compassion from this guy, kids or no kids in is a shitty time. My husband has been doing most of the child care and it is tough for me to be productive cause this is a shitty time.

[msmerymac]

Apr 6, 2020 16:54:46 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

My boss has three other direct reports and in our staff meeting the first week of the crisis one of the managers asked if he could dock people’s pay because they weren’t productive enough while working from home. I was blown away at the lack of compassion from this guy, kids or no kids in is a shitty time. My husband has been doing most of the child care and it is tough for me to be productive cause this is a shitty time.

Yup, working from home can lead to productivity issues in the best of circumstances. Break for lunch: finish watching Rachel Maddow. Go to grab a snack/drink from the fridge: throw in a load of laundry while I'm down there. The day stretches out because you add more stuff in the middle. Maybe you have to call and schedule an appointment or something and you're on hold for 15 minutes while halfheartedly checking your email. 

I use schedule specific things for my (occasional) work from home days. Things that are either going to take a while and allow me to really dive into it with no distractions from coworkers, or big organization tasks, or something. The things I dislike doing from home are client calls/meetings/screenshares, and things where it's easier to have my monitors the way I have them set up at work. But I just deal with that now. I ran a screenshare meeting, with myself on video, for almost 2 hours today. :/

[sent]

I was afraid to read the response. It wasn't so apparent before, but my two year old needs constant companionship from any one of the 3 other people living with him. I carry the brunt of the childcare because apparently my husband's entire group is expecting mega-productivity with no regard to homelife situations. 25 year old me would have greatly judged this person for not parking their kid in front of the TV and stepping it up with the remote work. 40 year old me realizes younger me was a mean-spirited dumbass. 

[oliviapope]

My sister is currently going through this same thing. Her boss has told her to make sure her kids don't walk in during conferences etc. And then requires virtual happy hours so not work related. My sister is pregnant and has a 5 year old and 7 year old at home. I HATE her boss.

[katieinthecity]

I had to bring this to the attention of my manager, too, when we first started TW. It hadn't occurred to her (she's CF) but as soon as I explained it she GOT it and has been totally understanding. Which has made me, in turn, more willing to go out of my way to log on at odd hours to get things finished that I couldn't manage when the kids were awake.

[ohgillian]

WTF. I hate people. Except Allison - yay for her.

[shauni27]

This reminds me of my coworker who hates me. (the feeling is mutual)

I get texts every afternoon saying "are you actually working or are you with your son right now? Need to know what I need to cover while you are away..."

Like, fuck, dude, if I needed you to cover something I would ask. I am getting 8+ hours in, they are just broken up because I have a 2.5 year old active child.

[jinkies]

Apr 7, 2020 7:52:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

This reminds me of my coworker who hates me. (the feeling is mutual)

I get texts every afternoon saying "are you actually working or are you with your son right now? Need to know what I need to cover while you are away..."

Like, fuck, dude, if I needed you to cover something I would ask. I am getting 8+ hours in, they are just broken up because I have a 2.5 year old active child.

Your coworker is the worst. Sorry.

[ohgillian]

Apr 7, 2020 7:52:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

This reminds me of my coworker who hates me. (the feeling is mutual)

I get texts every afternoon saying "are you actually working or are you with your son right now? Need to know what I need to cover while you are away..."

Like, fuck, dude, if I needed you to cover something I would ask. I am getting 8+ hours in, they are just broken up because I have a 2.5 year old active child.

Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no. Wow, I can't believe how enraged I am just reading this. You're a hero for not jumping thru the phone and throttling her.

But, let's crowdsource passive aggressive responses for shauni27. Anyone? I'm not good at that stuff but this board has lots of witty women. 

[readyin07]

Apr 7, 2020 7:52:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

This reminds me of my coworker who hates me. (the feeling is mutual)

I get texts every afternoon saying "are you actually working or are you with your son right now? Need to know what I need to cover while you are away..."

Like, fuck, dude, if I needed you to cover something I would ask. I am getting 8+ hours in, they are just broken up because I have a 2.5 year old active child.

OMFG. What is wrong with these f-ing people? Like you are choosing this as a fun "vacation?" Sending him a virtual punch in the face.

[dottyblue]

Early on, I repeatedly had to remind my boss that while he is loving working from home (his kids are grown and out of the house) almost every other person in our department is contending with 2-4 kids who are school age. Productivity is GOING to drop and people are stressed.

Thankfully he seems to get it, but thank goodness for AAM helping to keep our sense of "normal" straight.

[foundmylazybum]

Apr 6, 2020 16:54:46 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

My boss has three other direct reports and in our staff meeting the first week of the crisis one of the managers asked if he could dock people’s pay because they weren’t productive enough while working from home. I was blown away at the lack of compassion from this guy, kids or no kids in is a shitty time. My husband has been doing most of the child care and it is tough for me to be productive cause this is a shitty time.

This is literally happening to my friends husband right now! They have to report if they are using time for child care and if there isn't enough work..its supposed to be reported and taken from their personal days 😐

Except, the company has measures in place that make it so they can't work from home (security, VPN etc)

[foundmylazybum]

Apr 7, 2020 7:52:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

This reminds me of my coworker who hates me. (the feeling is mutual)

I get texts every afternoon saying "are you actually working or are you with your son right now? Need to know what I need to cover while you are away..."

Like, fuck, dude, if I needed you to cover something I would ask. I am getting 8+ hours in, they are just broken up because I have a 2.5 year old active child.

Ironic that this bitch is wasting time to check in on you to make sure you aren't wasting time!

[seeyalater52]

Apr 7, 2020 7:52:34 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

This reminds me of my coworker who hates me. (the feeling is mutual)

I get texts every afternoon saying "are you actually working or are you with your son right now? Need to know what I need to cover while you are away..."

Like, fuck, dude, if I needed you to cover something I would ask. I am getting 8+ hours in, they are just broken up because I have a 2.5 year old active child.

This is so messed up. I admit there is a coworker I’ve done something similar to NOT during the pandemic but who routinely works from home without childcare for her toddler (not allowed by our organization under normal circumstances) and is routinely unreachable but obviously the current situation is completely different. You have to be either really heartless or really dense not to be able to figure out that people are between a rock and a hard place right now. Have some compassion.

[rubytue]

I’m so frustrated. Management is paying lip service to saying the understand the stress and conflicts, but theirs actions say they don’t care and don’t get it.

[ajj]

This pisses me off and is exactly how our company is thinking right now.

I saw an article a few days ago about how American’s work culture is really contributing to this crisis. I wish I could find it...

[shauni27]

Thanks, all. This is one example of HUNDREDS that I deal with on a daily basis from him. He is the ultimate mansplainer and is the worst to the nth degree.

The other day a client emailed both of us a question. He and I both happened to email back at the same time, me CCing asshole coworker (we call him RTD--R*** the dick) and he emailing me moments later saying "hey I just emailed the client."

Since we both clearly emailed the client at the same time saying the same thing, I jokingly sent RTD a response saying "oops, looks like we both responded at the same time! I guess it is better to over-communicate then not communicate at all?! "

He emailed me back saying "well, actually, I disagree, I do not have time to be duplicating your efforts. IT is not the time for that." LIKE NO SHIT, I was obviously making light of a situation that we could not change." Repeat 12 times a day for 3 years.

[eponinepontmercy]

Apr 6, 2020 19:04:56 GMT -5 sent said:

I was afraid to read the response. It wasn't so apparent before, but my two year old needs constant companionship from any one of the 3 other people living with him. I carry the brunt of the childcare because apparently my husband's entire group is expecting mega-productivity with no regard to homelife situations. 25 year old me would have greatly judged this person for not parking their kid in front of the TV and stepping it up with the remote work. 40 year old me realizes younger me was a mean-spirited dumbass. 

Same here, but I have an 8 year old.  DH is still very new at his job and is very busy so he needs to pay more attention to what he's doing.  It's technically working out for us, but DD is definitely getting more screentime than we normally do, just so I can have some quiet.

[sparkythelawyer]

Apr 7, 2020 9:54:54 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

Thanks, all. This is one example of HUNDREDS that I deal with on a daily basis from him. He is the ultimate mansplainer and is the worst to the nth degree.

The other day a client emailed both of us a question. He and I both happened to email back at the same time, me CCing asshole coworker (we call him RTD--R*** the dick) and he emailing me moments later saying "hey I just emailed the client."

Since we both clearly emailed the client at the same time saying the same thing, I jokingly sent RTD a response saying "oops, looks like we both responded at the same time! I guess it is better to over-communicate then not communicate at all?! "

He emailed me back saying "well, actually, I disagree, I do not have time to be duplicating your efforts. IT is not the time for that." LIKE NO SHIT, I was obviously making light of a situation that we could not change." Repeat 12 times a day for 3 years.

Whelp.  That dude needs to fuck all the way completely off.  

[sparkythelawyer]

I am the only one on my team with small children. My boss has a dog he sees quarterly. It's just going swimmingly (sarcasm)

[mouse]

Apr 7, 2020 9:54:54 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

Thanks, all. This is one example of HUNDREDS that I deal with on a daily basis from him. He is the ultimate mansplainer and is the worst to the nth degree.

The other day a client emailed both of us a question. He and I both happened to email back at the same time, me CCing asshole coworker (we call him RTD--R*** the dick) and he emailing me moments later saying "hey I just emailed the client."

Since we both clearly emailed the client at the same time saying the same thing, I jokingly sent RTD a response saying "oops, looks like we both responded at the same time! I guess it is better to over-communicate then not communicate at all?! "

He emailed me back saying "well, actually, I disagree, I do not have time to be duplicating your efforts. IT is not the time for that." LIKE NO SHIT, I was obviously making light of a situation that we could not change." Repeat 12 times a day for 3 years.

Well co-irker, if you were so concerned about that, why didn’t *you* reach out before replying?

[shauni27]

Apr 7, 2020 13:19:58 GMT -5 mouse said:

Apr 7, 2020 9:54:54 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

Thanks, all. This is one example of HUNDREDS that I deal with on a daily basis from him. He is the ultimate mansplainer and is the worst to the nth degree.

The other day a client emailed both of us a question. He and I both happened to email back at the same time, me CCing asshole coworker (we call him RTD--R*** the dick) and he emailing me moments later saying "hey I just emailed the client."

Since we both clearly emailed the client at the same time saying the same thing, I jokingly sent RTD a response saying "oops, looks like we both responded at the same time! I guess it is better to over-communicate then not communicate at all?! "

He emailed me back saying "well, actually, I disagree, I do not have time to be duplicating your efforts. IT is not the time for that." LIKE NO SHIT, I was obviously making light of a situation that we could not change." Repeat 12 times a day for 3 years.

Well co-irker, if you were so concerned about that, why didn’t *you* reach out before replying?

because he is always right no matter what and we are all always wrong.