Crane’s Corner: 9-14-21 Shirking From Home

It started before the Pandemic. I began working from home in January 2020, doing the morning news on a local radio station, and later other broadcast related work including writing and recording this Crane’s Corner Podcast.

I continue working from home, not because of Covid 19, but because the equipment I need is right here---so why pay the expense of an office, not to mention the travel time. It’s tough to goof off when the radio broadcast schedule demands content of a certain length at a certain time. But when a deadline is flexible, battling the urge to take a long lunch, watch some tv, surf the web do some work around the house is a daily challenge.

But I can relate to some of the horror stories I hear from my friends in management jobs around Sacramento. What began as a necessity---keeping people at home to prevent the spread of Co Vid 19--has in some cases turned into a major headache. As businesses allow working from home on occasion--workers are taking the perk of flexibility and turning into a license to goof off--staying home--but not working from home...or as some managers tell me...not even staying home or working from home….taking the day off without using a paid vacation or sick day--to due something else. 

Unless the office mandates a check in zoom call---it can be hard to track a worker down. Many people--especially younger workers have abandoned that hard wired home phone and can only be reached by mobile phone...which as the name suggests...goes wherever its owner takes it. So that worker you think is at home in Roseville, could be partying in Lake Tahoe or chilling at the beach in Santa Cruz. Some workers aren’t even pretending to be working. One friend told me that a newly hired subordinate called in one morning to say she’d be working from home because her pet wasn’t eating much and the pet store carrying a more suitable brand didn’t open till 10 am. Why come in one hour late when you can blow off the whole day. Some workers are actually more productive, knowing they can get up early, work like the devil from 6 am till noon...then have the rest of the day to themselves. That of course takes discipline, and a workload that doesn’t include communicating with people in different time zones or even local workers only available during regular business hours.

It will be interesting to say how this all shakes out, if Co Vid eventually dies out. Will companies think twice about paying all that overhead if people are just as productive at home, and continue to allow the work from home option? Or, as I suspect, companies will allow it but become much more vigilant in policing home workers, lest they become home shirkers--maybe through face timing calls or home based zoom calls. 

It’s not just the worker bees you have to worry about. A few weeks back I invited a friend, a manager with a lot of responsibilities , to play a round of golf early one Friday morning. I figured he was either taking the day off or working a half day---heading to the office after we finished 18. Apparently he planned neither. He didn’t tell anyone anything. Halfway through the front 9 his cell phone began ringing. He’d drop his club, jog to the woods or just off the fairway. It was working fine until he tried to swing and chat at the same time. An errant shot prompted him to scream FORE, Not only was he busted, he was so mad at himself his game went to hell, and he rushed off in shame as soon as the round was over.

Golf is a game of honor, but if you shirk your duties at the office, the Golf Gods will find out and you’ll be wishing you never left the cube farm.