Re - Work Hours, Effort Reporting and Reimbursements

With our usual systems for work reporting not working online, RZ and I have been trying to sort out as best and fairly as we can. We have been pushing to get staff self-reporting their weekly work along with output.

We considered 
- self reported hours worked
- productivity / outputs 
- leave records

These estimates are being made with much more effort than usual - to add to the difficulties as folks were late in reporting, and in couple of cases the hours don’t match with the output and this often went together. She has been trying to be fair by the staff and the organization. In fact, she is still working on it tonight and I am also staying up to help her sort things out.

Being fair to the organization is needed for sustainability which ultimately is good for staff even if they leave as it reflects well for their career. Many organizations are cutting back on payments due to the loss in productivity, reductions in travel and other costs. Since the staff have been trying to cope and it is possible for folks to contribute but we shall reimburse as per usual.  After next month, we shall reconsider based on the situation.

Since reporting is being done on an hourly basis - calculations are on the  work week - for the mercantile, the work week decided by the government is 45 hours a week - we used to give a half day off during the weekend as well but with the proviso that you shall contribute as needed  - see our staff handbook.  You can discuss any concerns or curiosity with RZ and if you have suggestions you can

In terms of productivity there has been problems in terms of people not being able to concentrate on their work
- the need to take care of  those of others around them
- because of distractions in the home set up 
- not setting up the work space adequately 
- shortfalls with the home computers
- due to wifi limits
- inadequate use of collaboration software 
- the lack of files and other materials in the office
- lack of IT skills and tools to function efficiently at home
- the difficulties to coordinate among different staff member s
- lack of concentration due to multi-tasking with other activities

My sense is that productivity has dropped by 20-70% compared to when folks come to work in the offices. But its picking up over the weeks for those who were struggling the most - there is ways to go. It shall be good to know what you think.

There is way more to improve.
We also need awareness as to who is working at any given time - as staff collaboration is undermined with the odd hours. We have to think about the coordination. Its been difficult to get the use of Slack or that folks can login to an Organizational suite when working.