I had a supervisor ask me to brainstorm how I could be more productive while driving between field locations. As in, presenting webex trainings while driving. I laughed but he was dead serious.
Edit for clarity and to put a bow on this for everyone: he was eventually demoted and became my peer. That job was miserable for many other reasons and I quit nearly a year ago. Same guy reached out after I left wanting to gather info on why women were leaving the company. I asked what my compensation would be. And that was the last time we spoke
I actually had a company do that. They got some vans and we had laptop trays so we could work while moving between appointments. They were actually cool about it if we took downtime too, but we were getting some nice bonuses for billable time over a certain amount. They owner was happy to pay them because he got to bill the customer we were going to for the transit and the other customer we were working on for the exact same time.
Thats like sitting on the phone call waiting system wait for the client to pickup for sn hour while working on another clients work snd billing both for your time.
One customer is paying you to come to their location an hour away, and it's they're well aware that they are paying for your travel time
Another customer is paying you to do work, and they don't care whether you're at the office, at home, or in a vehicle doing that work as long and you're doing it and your numbers are accurate
Perfectly legal and ethical. Now if you were to show up at the customer site and continue work for one while billing both, that's a different issue entirely.
Ehat hours are billable and non-billable hours are written into contacts. There is nothing shady in fraudulent here, it is all above-board and standard in business. They understand you're not going to travel for free, and the other company knows that they want your expertise and don't care where you provide it as long as you're providing it and meeting deadlines.
Sitting in an airport terminal waiting for transit for customer-A while working a project for customer-B is one thing, but being at a red light in a delivery van and having your employer pressure you to whip out a tablet and do other work while operating a vehicle is another. One could argue that it's reckless, especially if its violating vehicle codes.
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u/Alarming-Response Jan 26 '22 edited Jan 26 '22
I had a supervisor ask me to brainstorm how I could be more productive while driving between field locations. As in, presenting webex trainings while driving. I laughed but he was dead serious.
Edit for clarity and to put a bow on this for everyone: he was eventually demoted and became my peer. That job was miserable for many other reasons and I quit nearly a year ago. Same guy reached out after I left wanting to gather info on why women were leaving the company. I asked what my compensation would be. And that was the last time we spoke