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Work from home or back to the office? The big question for workers and employers post pandemic

As a potential end to the pandemic looms, will work from home remain a fixture of the "workplace"?

CLEVELAND — With more people getting vaccinated, and a desire to get the country back to normal, employers are trying to figure out how or if they'll bring workers back to the office. But there are some who might not want to go back regardless, and for those who do go back, you have some rights you should know about.

I've loved working from home this past year, despite having to voice my stories in a closet, and a cat who photobombs my Zoom calls.

But a CNBC and Survey Monkey survey reported 65 percent of working women believe that the coronavirus pandemic has made things worse for women at work. So what do you do?

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Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners. His company has been remote for 14 years. 

"People will say, 'Well it just won't work for our business and we couldn't do it,' and that's sort of disproven," he said. "So it doesn't mean that you should do it, but the cat is out of the bag."

Glazer has written books on how companies can thrive in a virtual workplace, and says that a big part of the success is, "looking for people who really valued accountability and flexibility."

Several employment studies say it's a strategy that's working, including one from Harvard, which found that call center employees at a Fortune 500 retailer increased their productivity by up to 10 percent when work shifted to home. 

But that can't and wont be the case for many companies. For some like digital product and engineering firm Headstorm, which welcomed its employees back with a "paint the office" party, its about camaraderie.

"We've got a lot of young people, and they really experienced being isolated," said Headstorm CEO Lawrence King.

For other companies, it's a challenge of complying with labor laws. According to Ric Selby, an employment attorney with Dworken and Bernstein, things like, "establishing sign in and sign out procedures" for hourly employees pose a challenge.

RELATED: Getting Northeast Ohioans back to work - Greater Cleveland Partnership hopes to bring companies, jobs to region

So, what if you don't want to go back? Well, unless you're unionized or have a medical condition that makes you more susceptible, you don't have a choice.

There were laws that gave 12 weeks paid leave to employees who couldn't come to work for COVID-19 related reasons, including school or daycare closings, but those have since expired.

"Most employees are employees at will and that allows the company to set reasonable rules and regulations," Selby said. "That can be the location of the work, what the rules are inside the workplace." 

That also includes whether or not you have to wear masks, or whether you have to get vaccinated with a few exceptions.

"There's actually been a lot of law developed in that area over the last ten years," Selby said. "As flu vaccines became more commonplace there were some employers, particularly healthcare providers who would mandate that employees get the flu vaccine every year."

In the end, for many employers bringing workers back will come down to profitability, but Glazer says the most successful outcome will come for those companies and employees that are honest about their needs.

"I think it's a good time to check in with you and your own sort of personal values and make sure those are still aligned to your employer," he said. "It really may be time for that a change for everyone is the right thing to do."

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