C'mon, who's really gonna work from home?

At the Wall Street firm where this pilot fish works, no one in the IT group has gotten a raise in two years, bonuses are flat or down, and -- naturally -- the workload has steadily increased as more and more people walk out the door.

"When management announced they were moving the IT offices to White Plains, an hour north, a lot of us felt like it was the last straw," says fish.

"But it was not the last straw. The last straw is that our brilliant HR department has decided to launch a 'work from home' program."

Wait, what's wrong with working from home? Well...

First, fish and his co-workers will have to complete a pre-work-from-home form, itemizing exactly what they plan to accomplish.

And during the time they're working from home, they're expected to be more accessible than they would be if they were at the office -- and more productive, too.

And when they get back to the office, each work-from-home employee will need to review the task list with his manager to see if he accomplished everything he said he would.

And to really encourage use of the work-from-home program, employees first have to complete an eight-hour training session -- during which IT workers have to be as accessible and productive as ever, of course.

"The work-from-home policy is being applied to an IT group whose members usually get called many times a week between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m," fish grumbles. "Is getting called off-hours considered 'working from home'? I guess not.

"What about 'working from my kid's birthday party' and 'working from my sister's wedding' and 'working from my family vacation'? Come to think of it, I've been working from home all the time I've been with this company, and I've been able to do so without any help from our HR department.

"I think that tonight, when the data center calls me at 3 a.m., I'll tell them, 'Sorry, but I haven't filled out my pre-work-from-home form. And if I had, I would not have put your phone call on my itemized list. Good night, and thanks for calling.'"

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