According to the CDC, the first U.S. cases of COVID were detected in February of 2020. Following what may best be described as an upheaval of the hospitality industry, we have in many ways bounced back. With COVID’s two-year mark just behind us, our most visible employees are back where they‘ve always been—greeting guests, taking deliveries, managing food service, cleaning rooms, and coordinating weddings, conferences, and events.
But the industry has not been exempt from larger workplace trends, including the pandemic-driven tectonic shift from the traditional office to the hybrid workplace. Hotel executives, administrators, marketing professionals, office staff, salespeople and countless other employees, have spent the past two years working in their living rooms, home offices, kitchens and dens. Whether remote work is simply the new way we work or a temporary measure to weather the pandemic storm, what’s clear is that many hospitality employees will be working from home for the foreseeable future.
What’s equally clear is that many hospitality businesses are treating their remote staff as if they still go into the office every day. While technologies like Zoom, Google Meet and sometimes the traditional telephone have made the transition to remote work almost seamless, things are not quite as simple from an employment law standpoint.
To help illustrate why, let’s imagine a boutique hotel with locations in Manhattan and D.C. Prior to the pandemic, all its employees worked...
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