So I was talking about this with a friend yesterday, how remote work opportunities are being unevenly applied and that often the conditions for remote work are draconian and punishes women (surprise, surprise) https://twitter.com/joshua_r_eyler/status/1390313797525573635

There's a university in Canada that is requiring that if you are working remotely, you have to PROVE that you have child or elder care lined up. I'm sure that this will be happening elsewhere as well.

The CHE article mentioned at GU that we will be required to live within "driving distance" (more specifically, the DMV). There are complicated reasons for that not mentioned in the piece, but we were blindsided by that new caveat.

I get that it is important to allow for flexibility so that units/teams/cultures can best decide for themselves how to implement remote work, but that also put employees at the whims of their supervisors.

I'm meaning to write about all these issues. It's important to realize that just because the "culture" of a particular unit or team is one way, doesn't mean that it's right or just. I appreciate the autonomy the university seems to be interested in giving staff, but...

I worry about staff who don't have the ability/power to appeal a decision that went another way for a colleague in another unit and the justification be "it's our culture".

And of course how decisions will reflect baked-in systemic inequities based on class, race, gender, age, etc. Who gets "trusted" to work from home versus those who don't.

Once the dust settles a little and these policies and practices shake out, I want some transparency on the demographics of who got what in higher ed.

Did women benefit, or is this another "hey, men, here's another leg up for you"? And, will this reflect the unequal distribution of who works where on campus and in what capacity? (short answer, probably yes).

So, it'll be easy to say, well, they CAN'T work from home because of the nature of their jobs, but then, why are so many people of a given demographic concentrated into those roles? These are questions that need to be asked.

Also, how will people working remotely be treated when they are on campus? How will their status be seen when it comes to evaluation time? We are now all adjuncts with a shared "space"?

Anyway, I lost track of time, I have a meeting in two min, but I think I will write 1000 words on this for CHE.