I don’t agree with your take on this. He is accomplishing what they want him to accomplish and they are satisfied with the work product. They have nothing to complain about.
Now I will say the firm would be better off buying his software so that they didn’t have to pay someone to do it anymore.....or better yet they would have been better off hiring a tech consultant to write software for them that they would then own. He wrote this on his computer at home without it being requested. Its not work product.
I’ve been working from home for about 2 years now since Covid started. Sometimes I have nothing to do so I just watch TV or surf the internet. Should I feel bad about that? Not a bit. I’m here ready, willing and able to do anything they ask of me as soon as they ask it. I wasn’t always busy when I went to the office either. Some jobs are just like that. As long as you get done what is asked of you in a timely fashion and the employer is satisfied with the quality of the work, they have nothing to complain about.
I tend to agree with you.
A smart law firm would seek to obtain and support the employee bringing the product to market, not implementing punitive actions against the employee.
They could now possess a marketable product which every law firm would want from a cost savings standpoint.
You’re right.
EOM
Most people I know that work from home have company provided everything - computers, cellphones, paper clips, etc.- even a portion of the electric, internet and heating bill. But as you suggested - I agree - he’d be better off developing his product on his own time and marketing it as an entrepreneur instead of stealing time and resources from the boss.
When at work, with nothing to do, what do you do? housekeeping of files or inbox or mailing lists or checking the file cabinets and drawers for misfiles. Replacing worn banker boxes in the archives, reviewing workflow charts, reviewing production, catching up on scheduled reports and going back over the prior years’ reports with a critical eye for errors and wrong forecasts. Drafting employee reviews and revisiting some. Planning out future marketing campaigns if only for the annual company picnic. For IT I guess it would be updating software and firewalls - equipment maintenance, checking cabling, switches, routers, verifying continued availability of parts from vendors, updating procedure manuals, servicing workstations, cross-training coworkers —why is only one person trained on case file databases and not two or three??—, retraining on fire and emergency procedures and especially on company policy and standards- all the busy work that keeps office folks busy but still connected to productivity even on the very slowest of days. Want to watch TV at 2pm - better call in a mental health day and take it off of sick leave. A worker would never want to come into my office and claim they had nothing to do. I’d fire them where they stand for the simple reason they themselves just admitted they’re not of any value and have no initiative. Same for work at home. Nothing personal. A boss pays 40 for 40.
I’ve worked remotely for >20 years and while i often work 60/70 hour weeks an travel, I also take off whenever I want to if I don’t have conflicts and simply block my calendar
Firm believer if you are accomplishing your goals.quotas/mbos/objectives it shouldn’t really matter when or how much you work