Skip to main content Link Menu Expand (external link) Document Search Copy Copied
Treefrog Handbook

Work From Home

We don’t work from home except for emergencies.

You are not as valuable to Treefrog when you work from home. So, we prefer that you work out of our office.

Every once and a while, working from home can be a nice change. The effect of that nice change is that you have the perception that you are super-productive despite the cost of others being less productive. However, once staying at home becomes a habit, your productiveness and value to the team overall decreases exponentially.

Working from home causes the following negative issues:

  1. Communication - Communication with your team members is radically reduced. Although some communication can happen through technology, person-to-person contact is still the most effective mechanism for understanding. We have proven this time and time again.
  2. Positive Relationships - Your overall relationship with members of the team is reduced when you stay at home. Further, there is a decrease in the efficiency in the ability of team members to communictae with you. We hire people we like being around. We do not want you staying at home. We want you here so that we can enjoy life together.
  3. Efficiency - You do not have access to universal equipment, like the file server, when you are at home. You get more done and are thus more valuable when you have access to the team and to our trappings. There is a tangible proximity effect.
  4. Accessibility - You may have something we need. For example, a piece of information or a password. We may have something you need. Your body is the company’s interface to your head. This is what we are paying for.
  5. Agility - Things are constantly changing around Treefrog. If you are not here, you cannot help the team be agile when clients change their minds, processes change, or project timelines change.
  6. Trust - Everybody does a little laundry when they are “working from home”. Then, a quick break to watch some TV in the background (See: Distractions), a quick dog walk, and then maybe a little snooze, and suddenly, a few hours have gone by. You may believe that this makes you much more perky and functional but it does not - especially if you do it a few days in a row. You are fooling yourself. It is a slippery slope that the best of us have slid down.
  7. Effect on Others - Sure, you do not get bugged when you work from home. That is because other people are being bugged in your place. And now, it has a multiplier effect. Not only do Frogs not have the information you have, but also the Frog’s own work is compromised. You are making other people less productive.
  8. Your Mental Health - Time and time again, it has been proven that working from home leads to feelings of isolation and depression. We need human contact to be happy.

We are much more efficient if we are all working together face-to-face. Treefrog has spent a lot of money, time, and effort trying to make a space where we can all be effective. Let us not waste it.

Recognizing our Philosophy that Working from Home is not ideal, any Work From Home Must Be Approved in Advance

Once in a while, if you would like to work from home to accomplish a specific, meaningful, and long-term task, you may work from home if your Manager believes that you can work from home given your work load, under the following conditions:

  1. Review Yourself - Consider the implications to your team and projects.
  2. Ask Permission - Ask permission to do so, it must be approved in advance by your assigned manager/approver.
  3. Only Certain Days - Can only occur on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Monday and Friday are generally critical days for launching work or closing out deliverables.
  4. One Day at a Time - Work from home two consecutive days in a row will not be approved.
  5. Always Available - Stay in communication at all times with your team, project management and your manager during your working hours.

Exceptions for Work From Home that is not Approved in Advance

We recognize that there may be exceptions for working from home on an emergency basis that cannot be approved in advance

  1. Inclement Weather - We don’t want Frogs risking their lives in snow storms coming in to the office, if you live a distance away and safety is a concern please advise your manager and inform others via the ‘absent’ slack channel.
  2. You have a cold or illness that is contagious, but, you are able to perform at 100%. If you are sick, you should be taking a sick day and recovering. We don’t want contagious people coming into the office and infecting other frogs, however, if you are sick and can’t function at the office, you likely can’t function at home either. Please advise your manager if this is the case and they will agree on your work focus for the day - you should have full availability.

Who Approves Work from Home Days?

  1. CEO Approves for Director of Operations, Sales/Account Managerment Team, and Controller
  2. Controller Approves for T-Pod
  3. Director of Operations Approves for PMO, D-Pod, P-Pod, Tri-Pod

Finally, per the above, working from home should be rare. We are a more effective company when we are working together out of our office. Any abuse of approved or emergency work from home will be dealt with on an individual basis - it is not a right of employment.