Should Your Employer Cover Your Internet Charges If Working Remote?
During the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the United States and the rest of the world, many employers made the decision to ask employees to work from home so that they could keep their jobs. However, some employees might not have had access to internet services that were fast enough to keep up with the demand from their employers right away. The question now is whether or not employers should be responsible for the charges that employees have incurred as a result of the pandemic.
During a pandemic, Staff monitoring and management from Remote locations are very important. It is the process of controlling a computer or a network from a remote place. It entails remotely installing software and controlling all operations on a client’s systems/network, desktops, servers, or endpoints.
Normal Routines
When employees work in an office, they can use the internet service provided by the employer. They don’t have to worry about added fees or trying to figure out how to increase the speed in their home since they aren’t working in the home.
Employees working from home had to quickly try to determine if the internet that they had would be fast enough to keep up with all of the work that they would need to do for the office. For some employees, it wasn’t a big adjustment, making it easy to work from home just as they would have in the office. For others, there have been pain points that have included lagging and services that aren’t always available in rural areas.
A recent report has shed light on the internet struggles that some employees have had in the past year with connectivity being the top complaint while trying to work. Video calls not going through or freezing and overall issues with internet providers have also been an issue when it comes to employees working from home. Employees have been asked about the issues that they have had and the types of situations that have been impacted with many of them needing to leave video calls in the middle of a meeting because the connection wasn’t strong enough.
Billing
Most employees have had to pay for the internet service that they have in their home with many already having internet. However, some have had to upgrade with others using services at someone else’s home. Those who have had to upgrade have had to seek assistance for the new bill or have had to ask a partner to help pay for the increase. Some employees have been able to receive help paying for internet services from government funds that are in place.
About 40% of employees feel that employers should be held responsible for the difference in the bill amount that they have to pay or for the new services that are needed in the home that they didn’t have beforehand. Others feel that the government should be responsible for paying the bill while about a quarter of employees understand that they should be responsible if they want to keep their job.
Even in the wake of a pandemic, roughly 70% of employees haven’t changed how they feel about who should pay for internet services whether they work from home or not. Once employers understand how essential it is for employees to have an internet service that is fast enough to keep up with all of the demands that are made each day, it’s possible that employers will begin paying the bill or at least offering the payment as an incentive. Employers could also offer assistance in other ways for employees who work from home, such as paying for childcare or helping with the costs associated with commuting.