Howard Levitt: How much control does a company have over its staff's home office?

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Employers may have to pay for home office expenses and can use webcams to ensure employees are productive

The first step may be to look at the employment agreement or employment policies that govern reimbursement. If the policy has historically been to reimburse for reasonable expenses, with the COVID-19 pandemic, one should not be surprised that the definition of “reasonable” expenses will evolve to include certain home office items. If they are largely to be used for work , they are employment related expenses, and the employer should be prepared to pay for them.

Employees should know that, where an employer reimburses an employee for the cost of work tools , or for capital expenses , the reimbursement paid to the employee is a taxable benefit to be included in that employee’s income. The employer providing the reimbursements will normally be entitled to deduct the full amount of the reimbursements as a business expense.Article content continued

With employers paying for home office expenses, the next question is — how much control as the employer do you have over your staff’s home office? Which of your policies apply? What stays private in the home office? How can you effectively monitor your employees while they are at home, and not encroach on their personal lives?

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They can’t monitor you in your home. Disable tracking software, disable webcams. if your employer demands you allow tracking, fake it! Prerecord loops and fake tracking data. Always use VPN’s, and onion routing and make sure to use a privacy respecting OS.

None. They don’t own the space. Just paying for the services provided by the employees!

Probably depends on how much company owned equipment is being 'borrowed'....If it's comoany owned, you are being watched. It was fun to watch people 'working' online. Screen recording software is great.

Should be zero.

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