How long does it take you to go to the bathroom? And does your boss have any right to ask?
According to a recent story in the New York Post, one manager warned workers of the company’s “five-minute rule” which required work-from-home employees to “notify the team” if they stepped away from their desk for any reason, including to use the bathroom.
“This helps us stay aligned and ensures nothing is missed. Thank you for your co-operation,” the manager said in an email shared online by an irate worker. Not surprisingly, this policy did not go over very well with some.
“5 min?” one commenter wrote. “Are you saving lives through that keyboard?”
Other comments on the post ranged from “This is crazy” to “Oh I’d be so gone.”
Of course, this manager’s demand is outrageous. No one can do anything – let alone relieve themselves – in under five minutes. Asking work-from-home employees to “notify the team” whenever they need to step away from their desks is completely unreasonable. However, the incident highlights what I’m observing among many of my clients who are trying to determine the best way to implement work-from-home policies.
For employers – particularly small business owners, most of whom are over the age of 50 – working from home is often a tough concept to swallow. I’ve seen a number of these owners resist these policies because they don’t believe that their employees are as productive at home as they are in the office. And it’s not just a small business thing. Many corporate CEOs – from JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon to Amazon’s Andy Jassy – have been outspoken in their position that workers get more work done when they’re in the office.
They may be wrong, they may be right. Over the past few years we’ve seen some studies that say workers do get more done when working remotely. Just as many reports conclude the opposite. Clearly, we’re still too close to the pandemic and to this kind of working arrangement to truly know what’s best for businesses. More time and data are needed. In the meantime, employers – like the manager above – oftentimes go overboard when supervising employees that they can’t see in the office. We still haven’t figured this out.
Most, however, are trying. That’s because they understand that working from home can be liberating for many of those employees. It gives them balance, more freedom and more flexibility, especially if they’re caring for others. But for this type of arrangement to be successful, both employers and employees need to meet somewhere in the middle.
For employees, it must be understood that being allowed to work from home is a benefit not unlike health insurance and retirement. It needs to be earned and rules need to be followed. Five-minute bathroom breaks are, of course, ridiculous. But it’s not unreasonable for a manager to expect that their remote team member is as accessible as they are when they’re in the office and that they’re getting their jobs done, whatever and whenever that requires.
Employees need to understand that their employers are rightly suspicious if their remote working days fall on a Monday or Friday. They need to understand that their company’s IT team will need access to their devices in order to ensure security. They need to dress professionally, make sure the dog is fed and that their kids are being watched.
Employers also have to meet their workers halfway. Stop the micromanagement and don’t get monitoring software. Understand that even if they were in the office, you can’t keep tabs on someone all the time. After all, they may be taking a bathroom break!
