Working From Home

bettydaviseyes

Undervalued said:

lisyloo said:

Personally I don't think it seems fair, but it's not illegal discrimination which comes down to protected characteristics e.g. race, gender etc.
Your employer can tell you when to take your holidays, there is no legal right to choose when to take them.

sorry, I sympathise but I don't believe you have any rights here

That is a very good point and one which is often overlooked. Even if the OP was working at the office and the employer decided to have some building work done they could quite lawfully instruct and staff that were "in the way" to take a week or two as holiday just by giving fairly minimal notice!

Yes, fully agree but it wouldn’t be all staff asked to take a week or two off - sadly its just me

400ixl

Powerline adapters can be used across rings as long as they are on the same consumer board which most houses are. Also across rings there is no reason there should be a degradation on performance and certainly nothing that would hamper working from home.

I did think about suggesting a USB wifi dongle, but couple of concerns, OP says it is a PC which is many years old so could be compatibility issues, also no idea if it is a managed device and locked down in any way. If it is on a modern OS (I would hope any business is on Windows 10 by now) and not locked down then a USB wifi card would be probably the most straight forward solution.

wilfred30

bettydaviseyes said:

wilfred30 said:

NBLondon said:

I'd look at your contract and policies.  Did the employer give you a formal change of contract to make you a homeworker?  Is there a policy for homeworking and does it say anything about supply of equipment?  A 16 year old Tower PC is good going.

At the very least - if you do end up buying a set of powerline adapters you should be getting it on expenses as it's a necessary expense to do the work.

Not necessarily.  I'd be surprised if the employer is responsible for funding extra equipment just because the OP has chosen to have building work done on their house.

oh thats harsh Wilfred, “OP has chosen …” Sometimes building work is a necessity not a luxury.

Maybe it is but, either way, it's not your employer's problem.

You've asked for a laptop and they've told you that they don't have one so I'm not sure what you expect them to do other than letting you take 3 days off work without having to use your annual leave.  Is that what you want them to say?

Undervalued

bettydaviseyes said:

Undervalued said:

lisyloo said:

Personally I don't think it seems fair, but it's not illegal discrimination which comes down to protected characteristics e.g. race, gender etc.
Your employer can tell you when to take your holidays, there is no legal right to choose when to take them.

sorry, I sympathise but I don't believe you have any rights here

That is a very good point and one which is often overlooked. Even if the OP was working at the office and the employer decided to have some building work done they could quite lawfully instruct and staff that were "in the way" to take a week or two as holiday just by giving fairly minimal notice!

Yes, fully agree but it wouldn’t be all staff asked to take a week or two off - sadly its just me

Yes but they can still do that. Any employer (unless there is a contractual agreement to the contrary) can instruct any employee to take annual holiday just by giving notice of twice the length of the holiday they want them to take.

Savvy_Sue

I would, at this stage, be asking my manager about the rolling strategy for replacing IT kit. It is possibly "replace it when it falls apart / stops working", but if there is a better strategy than that, and replacement is envisaged within the current or next financial year, asking if it could be brought forward might be worthwhile. 

Likely that a laptop could be considered as a replacement ... 

bettydaviseyes

I am sorry I cant respond to the posts on my thread - one of my replies has frozen and I cant delete it or post it!!

Thank you for everyone’s comments I do appreciate them and the point of the post was to gage opinion.    The overwhelming opinion is that its not discriminatory/unfair.  In a way I’m happy knowing that they aren't doing anything technically wrong.  I have ordered a powerline adaptor to try.  

The equipment I have is laughable though and I would love to post a pic but obviously cant.  Its over 16 years old and I cant wait for the day it eventually dies as I am 100% certain in that event a laptop (not new though) will be delivered to me, by special next day delivery!

Dakta

TBH I'd love to know the spec of whatever it is you're using. Computers are quite cheap these days pounds for processing-wise!

(That said, I have a machine with a processor from 2012 and it's actually still quite good)

lisyloo

bettydaviseyes said:

wilfred30 said:

NBLondon said:

I'd look at your contract and policies.  Did the employer give you a formal change of contract to make you a homeworker?  Is there a policy for homeworking and does it say anything about supply of equipment?  A 16 year old Tower PC is good going.

At the very least - if you do end up buying a set of powerline adapters you should be getting it on expenses as it's a necessary expense to do the work.

Not necessarily.  I'd be surprised if the employer is responsible for funding extra equipment just because the OP has chosen to have building work done on their house.

oh thats harsh Wilfred, “OP has chosen …” Sometimes building work is a necessity not a luxury.

I understand and sympathise, but not everything that happens in everyone's life is the liability of an employer.
Employers already give or allow time off for bereavements, sickness, routine hospital/doctors/dentists appointments, maternity, paternity, adoption, childcare, dependents leave etc. The line is draw at household maintenance.
Putting it that way I'd say there is quite an onerous burden on employers in the UK and it's not in the least bit harsh.

I need to take a days holiday next week to take my Dad to hospital.
Not my fault but why should it come out of my employer's time?

Has overtime/Time off in lieu been ruled out?

MSE_ForumTeam5

Hi @bettydaviseyes - if you go to https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/drafts/0 and click the X next to your draft post, you should be able to unblock your original thread.

biscan25

bettydaviseyes said:

I am sorry I cant respond to the posts on my thread - one of my replies has frozen and I cant delete it or post it!!

Thank you for everyone’s comments I do appreciate them and the point of the post was to gage opinion.    The overwhelming opinion is that its not discriminatory/unfair.  In a way I’m happy knowing that they aren't doing anything technically wrong.  I have ordered a powerline adaptor to try.  

The equipment I have is laughable though and I would love to post a pic but obviously cant.  Its over 16 years old and I cant wait for the day it eventually dies as I am 100% certain in that event a laptop (not new though) will be delivered to me, by special next day delivery!

those TP link adapters work great (I get 100Mbps+ through mine), but ensure they are on the same wiring circuit as your router (e.g. your upstairs and downstairs might be different circuits), and avoid plugging them into extension leads if you can help it.