Now’s the time for workers to use their leverage. It’s a hot job market, companies need to hire and this is your chance to ask for what you want, desire and, most importantly, deserve. This includes getting compensated for all of the things you do that are not appropriately compensated for.
Companies have already conceded that not everyone will return to the office five days a week. The hybrid work model, in which employees will be in an office setting only a couple or three days a week, is the new standard. In addition to the days at home, a large number of people will only accept remote work. If their company doesn’t offer it, they’ll pursue opportunities elsewhere. When the job market is doing well, people have this ability. Change happens quickly, as we’ve learned during the pandemic, so you need to act now before the window closes.
It’s interesting that we’ve become inured to how companies take advantage of us. When you take a step back and think of how you work, there are so many instances in which workers are shortchanged.
Home-Office Expenses
It’s great that we can now work remotely part or all of the time. There are high costs associated with this activity. Working at home entails purchasing a computer, smartphone, ergonomic furniture and fixtures, such as desks and chairs. You probably upgraded your laptop, internet connection and added a new router. Then, there’s the cost of a ring light and microphone for video calls, as well as the electricity you’re burning. It’s a rarity for corporations to pick up, reimburse or offer some sort of stipend for these expenses. The costs are dumped on the workers, which doesn’t seem fair or right. It’s even worse when remote workers feel the pressure to put in extra-long hours during the week and over the weekend and managers don’t think twice about offering any financial remuneration to reward them for their efforts.
Reimbursement For Commuting
Millions of Americans commute to work. Many of them trek from the suburbs to big cities. such as New York City or San Francisco. A round trip could take up to three hours. You either sit in congested traffic or take public mass transit, squished into hot, overcrowded trains and buses. It’s not a pleasant experience—and costly too. Tolls and bus or train tickets add up. If you drive, there is wear and tear on your car—not to mention your own mental health. Although you are not physically in an office setting, you are working. The drive is part of your day that’s allocated toward work and not pleasure. Wouldn’t it be reasonable and fair for companies to pay you for the time and costs incurred, which amount to several thousands of dollars a year?
What Vacation?
In a so-called civilized society, how do we reconcile workers only getting two weeks of vacation time off? We’re so used to having only a short amount of time away from the office that we accept it as set in stone.
We’ve finally become open to talking about mental and emotional health matters. If companies really cared about you, why would there be so few days off? How could a person actually decompress, unwind and relax when they constantly have to work? It’s impossible. The pressure to be available all of the time means you can’t even enjoy your measly two or three weeks’ vacation time.
By requiring people to work most of their waking hours, it’s tantamount to torturing them. During the pandemic, we’ve seen studies show that anxiety, stress, burnout, depression and feelings of isolation were at all-time frightening highs. Without pushback, it won’t change.
Mental-Health Assistance And Child Care
For some reason, corporate executives pretend that their workers don’t have children, family members who need to be looked after or a life outside of the office. It’s convenient for them to ignore this reality. An empathetic leader would recognize that parents with young children need to balance child care, taking them to and from school and all the other daily obligations.
Some people have mental, emotional or physical health issues, but feel they have to keep quiet about it in fear of judgement. For many, it’s an everyday struggle. Compassionate companies could reach out to their workers and ask how they are doing and what the company can do to help them.
It wouldn’t take too much time and money to address these challenges. Instead of requiring a working mother to stress out every morning, allow her to start working at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m., which affords enough time to drop their child off at daycare or school. Without fear of invoking the boss’ fury by coming in “late,” the working mom could be more relaxed and do her job more effectively without all of the excess pressure and stress. This is just one example. There are so many people who are dealing with their own challenges, which could easily be addressed by companies accommodating employees’ needs. Paying for child-care assistance and mental issues would go a long way toward making employees feel appreciated.
We’re in a time period in which workers have the power. In a hot job market, employees have choices. If they’re not shown the love, they’ll leave and join a company that cares about them. If fat-cat middle managers think they’re clever by not paying for home offices, commuting time and costs, child care, days off and mental health issues, they are only fooling themselves. People will only stand mistreatment and being financially taken advantage of for so long.
Source: Forbes
