remote working priviledges removed - forced to commute 7 hours per day

[goldenstreets]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York working in New Jersey
Hi

For the last 9 years I have had the ability to remotely work from home (In NY) for my job that is currently located in New Jersey. The company expressly gave me this ability to remote work since I was pregnant with my first child and they wanted me to return back to work after delivery. I have on occasion traveled into NJ for important meetings etc (once a month, etc). Now they have issued a decree stating that everyone has to go into the office mandatory 5 days per week (there was new management, they want to push the old timers out and have hired a lot of new employees). This would mean a 6-7 hour commute for me per day (3 hours going in, about 4 hours going back). Is there anything I can do besides quit? I feel like they are issuing this to push old employees out to quit (so they dont have to pay them a severance package).

 

[FlyingRon]

Unless the situation applies solely to older (and that means age, not length of employment) employees it's not illegal discrimination. Unless you have a contract that guarantees telework, they're free to change their minds and require you to be in the office.

 

[Silverplum]

Yahoo revoked telework nationwide: it's the employer's decision. You could move much closer.

 

[Chyvan]

I can do besides quit?

If you do this right, this can be a good cause quit, and you'll get UI as the consolation prize. It's a substantial change to your employment arrangement. You should seriously consider it and soon. If you do this commute too long it will be treated as acceptance, and if you end up getting fired because you were late all the time, then you'll end up with no job and no UI.

 

[ShyCat]

All I can recommend is "Don't quit". If you cannot negotiate better terms, let them fire you (which, by the way, would not be an unlawful termination).

Similar thing happened to me when my small employer was merged with a larger company. I was told that the larger company didn't allow teleworking and I would have to move back to my former office in two months or they would consider me terminated, but then also with no guarantee that I would still have my job when I showed up there. I was crushed. I had to tell my boss, "I will happily continue teleworking but I guess you'll have to fire me in two months because I'm not moving back. Which projects do you want me to finish in that time and which will be reassigned to someone else?" A few days later word filtered down from the New Corporate Bigwigs that they would make an exception for me. Hah. It certainly helps to be considered an expert and productive all-star. I continued teleworking 1800 miles away for another 8 years, through yet another corporate takeover, until I decided to retire for health reasons.

 

[xylene]

Do not quit. Do not quit.

If they are eliminating teleworking, then they are eliminating your job.

Also, just as a point of information for the pros here, as time is subjective, how far is this commute in miles on the road and in crow flies distance?

 

[goldenstreets]

It is 72 miles from where I live to the offices in NJ. Taking the train takes about 3 hours on the way there and 3-4 hours on the way back. I haven't agreed to anything. I also have some physical issues that will be exacerbated if I commute that long each day too (something they've known about for about 8 months which I am getting checked out). They just told me this yesterday.

 

[cbg]

Since in July it will be six years that I have been commuting 4 hours a day, regularly, 5 days a week 52 weeks out of the year I am not in the least unsympathetic, but I nonetheless still have to tell you that there is no legal action you can take that will force them to allow you to continue the telecommute. I"m not going to get involved in the quit-don't quit discussion; in my mind there are advantages and disadvantages both ways and you are the only one who can decide what's best for you. But the bottom line is, there is no option to continue telecommuting unless your employers choose to provide it; if they no longer choose to provide it that's the ball game. Sorry.

 

[commentator]

This is important. Work telecommuting as long as they will allow you to. DO NOT work one minute at the commuting job. Tell them you will not be able to come in to work AT ALL. Tell them you will telecommute as long as they will allow you to do so. This is a dramatic change in your hiring agreement, and the nature of your job, and if you want to receive unemployment benefits, do not quit, and do not accept this work by working at it even once.

When they tell you your last day is ......, you work that last day. Then you do not work any more, and you file a claim for unemployment benefits. DO NOT QUIT. They know that if they can get you to quit the job, or if they can get you to work at it for a few days and then announce that you can't do it they will not have to pay your unemployment benefits, which will cost them money. So work as long as you can by telecommute, and then don't work any more. This is NOT quitting your job, this is them changing your job to something you cannot reasonably do. That's a lay off.

 

[xylene]

in my mind there are advantages and disadvantages

I cannot see what possible advantage there could be to quitting voluntarily except satisfying some sophomoric interpretation of employment chivalry that hasn't been applicable, to employers anyway, for a very a long time and and only slightly served employees when jobs and job opportunities were plentiful and the expected tenure of employment long.

 

[cbg]

You don't have to see it. It's not up to you. Or to me.

 

[justalayman]

This is important. Work telecommuting as long as they will allow you to. DO NOT work one minute at the commuting job. Tell them you will not be able to come in to work AT ALL. Tell them you will telecommute as long as they will allow you to do so. This is a dramatic change in your hiring agreement, and the nature of your job, and if you want to receive unemployment benefits, do not quit, and do not accept this work by working at it even once.

op did not say she was hired in allowing telework. She may have been but has not said so. If it makes a difference maybe op should clarify as to whether the telework was a condition upon hire or if it was later allowed due for the child situation.

 

[Chyvan]

op did not say she was hired in allowing telework.

It doesn't matter. It's what the deal is right now. I could be hired as a part-time grocery bagger after school. As the years tick by and I eventually get promoted to manager, that doesn't mean the employer gets to say, "well, you were hired as a bagger, and we're putting you right back to where you started." There can be many "hiring agreements" over the course of an employee's tenure. It's not confined to what things were on the very first day you set foot on the premises.

 

[commentator]

"Hiring agreement" is a very loose term, not necessarily something that happens when you are first hired, but it means, in general, the type of work you have been working at currently, the type of pay and benefits you have been receiving, as a matter of course, in your current position, sort of the expected job you've been doing and you have accepted and you expect to have every day when you report for work. If you began in the mail room, or as a bagger, and then you work your way up to manager, and you went in one day and they told you that your job responsibilities and pay had been dropped back to bagger, that would be a dramatic change in your current "hiring agreement" regardless of where you started when you first began to work for the company.

OP, if you work even a few minutes in the commuting job, that will be considered you having accepted the terms and conditions of the work. If you then find the job unacceptable, you'll be considered to have quit. If you are given the parameters of the new job description, eg. show up at the site every day, as opposed to telecommuting, and you do not do this, even once, you have the argument that the job dramatically changed from what was your accepted and de facto agreed upon terms of employment.

When thinking of quitting any job, even one where they have dramatically changed your hours, pay or working conditions, there is always something to consider. You do not have another job to go to. Unemployment, if you are approved, and when it does begin, (which may be quite a while) will be probably be considerably less than you were making at your job. It will take a while to get approved, and it will be very finite, you only get so much, for so long, and then it stops, kaput. Regardless of your condition or situation at the time. Sometimes people find it more financially prudent to continue to work at the same employer, even at the much less desirable situation or pay rate or whatever, until they can find another job to go to. It's something to consider.

What you cannot do successfully is try out the new conditions for a while and then decide they won't do and then quit and try to get approved for unemployment benefits. Because if you have worked at the new conditions, become a regular commuting employee for a while you have accepted that as your normal hiring agreement and if you voluntarily quit without a very valid reason, which you won't have based on the previous changes or what you were allowed to do before, you wouldn't be likely to be approved for benefits.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

72 miles is not far. I used to drive 61 each way. You need to consider drive time and whether you elected to move while on leave, you were making the commute before pregnancy, unless you changed your home.