Dr. Lwanga Martin Mwanje
Yakobo, who was the Chief Executive Officer of a regulatory agency, knew that the world had changed. Since the coronavirus pandemic half of his staff now worked from home. But yet he still operated his organization much the same old way. There were no new policies effected in line with the new developments. The organization run as it were under the same old policy guidelines.
Then a case arose. Moses was one of those staff assigned to work from home but he was rarely seated on his desk. While he was submitting his reports, it was never on time and then he was often not available for quick consultations whenever needed. This continued in spite of several reminders.
At last his conduct went to the disciplinary committee, which Yakobo chaired. During the disciplinary hearing charges were brought by the Head of Human Resources that Moses was never available at his desk and his conduct at work was unbecoming. One of his supervisors reported to have regularly seen him in a casual dress during work hours, against the strict dress code of the company.
Finally Moses shot up to defend himself. “By sending me to work from home all I knew was expected of me were my reports, and which have I not submitted! And by the way I just want to know who is taking care of my rent and electricity charges while working from home!”
At this point Yakobo realized they had an even bigger problem. He turned to the Head of Human Resources. “Don’t we have any policies to reflect and guide staff working from home!” The Head of Human Resources shook her head. The meeting ended abruptly.
Today there is no doubt that work patterns have shifted. Business that used to be conducted from the corporate office is now carried on with many staff seated at home, or supposedly. However, as we find here, many of them are still operating under the same old policy guidelines, oblivious of the changes.
The issue here that deserve our attention is that as the world has shifted so is the need to come up with new policies that embrace the new reality. Human Resources policies need to be revised to reflect on standard old working practices, such as when to clock in and out, the matter of over time, misuse of company property assigned to staff working from home, separation of organizational work from personal affairs, taking breaks from work, dress code, costs incurred through use of personal space, injury in the course of duty while working from home and, so forth, for there is plenty that has changed.
However, because it is an ingrained habit of human nature to stick to business as usual, most organizations won’t take the needed effort to adjust until forced so. For some it is a bit costly and getting in way of urgent operations. However, not very long, law suits are bound to appear which will inevitably force companies to adjust, and force them to align staff with the new changes in the environment.
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