@kandc317 Has your company indicated the basis for the demand they are placing on you? Is what they want you to accomplish with additional hours at work due to a requirement to interface with others on a specific issue/project, during "normal" work hours? If so, would a virtual meeting suffice, or is "hands-on" the only way to accomplish that? Have you been able to appeal this decision to a superior of yours, or to HR? It seems grossly unfair to you and to your wife, definitely. It also presents a sticky situation, as you want to be understanding but also ask them to understand your situation. Are you aware of any other employees with such a situation there, and what has happened to them?
I hope you will return and let us know how it all turns out.
Ginger

Hi @kandc317 That is a tough one! I was let go from two jobs due to caregiving responsibilities, so I guess my only suggestion would be to do so very carefully. At the first job I asked to work through lunch so I could catch a train 30 minutes earlier in the evening to avoid paying time and a half to the care company. They said no! The second one simply told me one day 'we don't want someone on our team who has conflicting demands on his mind other than just the job'.

I would say fact-based as much as you can might help. Perhaps (if you haven't already) provide the HR person with a specific timeline of your wife's needs and how their demand conflicts with her needs? Plus right now I would hope HR departments would be extra amenable to needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope so!

I hope it goes well for you! Tough spot for you for sure!

Hi @kandc317. I'm sorry to hear that you're going through all of this. Having frail elderly family members that live with us, I definitely understand the concerns. We are taking extra precautions as well.

Having been a manager in large corporations, I wanted to see if I could provide some thoughts from the employer's perspective. While I am certain that you are a hard worker and very good at what you do, I wonder if while working at home, someone raised concerns about your productivity and whether you were focused enough on the job. (The tip-off for this is that they were letting you work from home fairly freely and then changed their minds). This may be perception rather than reality, because some managers have a hard time seeing that you are working if they can't see your smiling face at your desk. It might be a good idea to have a conversation with your manager to ask if there were concerns that led to you being asked to spend more time in the office, and talk about how you can address those concerns. Depending on the nature of the concerns that were raised, they might be willing to discuss more work from home now, or they might not, but at least you would know where you stand. As an aside, try not to get defensive or argue about the concerns - their perception is their reality - so instead you should focus on what you can do to change the perception.

If they are still allowing you to work from home, you may want to ask if you could shift those hours to only come in on certain days, which might reduce exposure somewhat (not leaving the house on the days that you work from home, for example). You might also ask if you can use tools like Skype or Zoom to attend meetings by video-conference. You may want to start over-communicating when working from home so that people recognize the effort you are putting in and that you are actually in your home office working when you are not in the company office.

In my experience, some companies have a culture that is supportive of working from home and naturally trusts that people are doing their jobs even if they can't watch them do it. Other companies struggle with this trust, so as an employee, you want to do what you can to build that trust so people say "of course he's working" even if they can't see you at the moment.

The other option is to use your FMLA leave to just take time off but in most cases, that leave is unpaid, which can be a financial challenge, so working this out with your employer is probably better. That said, FMLA does at least protect your job for the time that you are off.

Best wishes to you and your wife. Hopefully this situation will pass quickly but in the meantime, it's certainly challenging.