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Don’t Let America Go Back to Work Without Telecommuting Rights
Not everyone can work from home, but the ones who can should be allowed to
A growing wave of legislators is aiming to revive the comatose economy by sending their constituents back into what is effectively an active war zone — and justifying the argument with a predictable pile of parroted sound bites, leaving many Americans with a tough question to ponder as they wade through the murky waters of an astoundingly partisan pandemic.
This question is especially tough because the “pondering” isn’t up to the labor force at large. That is to say, if your employer gets the green light to pull everyone back into work, you’re going back in — or else. That impending lack of control over your own environment is a frightening proposition, in contrast to the level of control you’re likely exerting now to avoid exposing yourself and others to the coronavirus. Is there anything you can do to retain some semblance of control once the United States is deemed open for business again? For many of us, the answer is “yes, with an if.”
Conventional wisdom pre-Covid19 was that 29% of the nation’s workers could fully perform their jobs remotely. This estimate might be on the low side. To be fair, millions of people in the United States cannot perform their jobs…
