Over the past month, a lot of Australian employers have allowed their employees to work from home, so they can self-isolate in an effort to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The decision to merge the work setting with home life was made quite quickly for some, and the extent of the change was something not all Australians fully understood.
This shift of workplace environment may have caused confusion and potential anxiety for employees, not knowing where boundaries lay and what their responsibilities are.
The team at My Mirror recently read this article from The Conversation and found it very informative to help employees navigate their way into the working-from-home space.
By Robin Price, Lecturer in Employment Relations and Human Resource Management, CQUniversity Australia & Linda Colley, Associate Professor HRM/IR, CQUniversity Australia
So you’ve been asked to work from home.
Doing so usually requires changing aspects of your relationship with your employer. What it doesn’t change is that your relationship is based on mutual obligations. These remain exactly the same even though you work at home.
Your employer’s duties, under both industrial relations and work health and safety laws, are to ensure you are able to work safely at home, and to cover reasonable expenses. Your obligation is to work if you want to be paid.
Read the full article on The Conversation