Some professional baseball teams are beginning to promote “Work From the Ballpark” days, encouraging fans to bring their laptops to a weekday afternoon game and work remotely from their seats. Under such promotions, fans can purchase tickets for a special section of the ballpark with access to WiFi, tables, and food so that they could stay logged on at work while enjoying the sights and sounds of the game. Employers are likely accustomed to dealing with employees who play hooky to attend an afternoon baseball game. But with the rise of remote work—and promotions such as these—should employers be concerned with employees logging into work from the ballpark?
While such a promotion might be cheeky marketing to increase attendance for midweek games, it highlights an ongoing concern for employers with remote employees—that instead of diligently working in home offices, employees are working, or attempting to appear to be working, while distracted or in a potentially problematic environment. Indeed, working from a sports stadium could put confidential work communications and information at risk with laptop screens in easy view of onlookers and lead to network security issues with public WiFi.
Employers may want to dust off their remote work policies and evaluate whether they provide clarity around appropriate locations to perform work.
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