The Isanti County Jail in Minnesota has a long-standing practice of allowing its employees to work while on leave from their jobs. This has long been a standard policy for all of the state’s courts and it seems to be going strong. Many of the workers who are allowed to work while on leave are members of the clergy, including police officers and corrections officers.
According to the Isanti County jail roster, there are currently five employees who are on paid leave while they work from home. Those employees include one who works with computers, another who works with computer equipment, and three other workers who work with legal documents. The jail also lists one who is an investigator who works in the records division.
The jail says that the five are not paid to work outside of work hours because they are on leave due to personal problems. They say that these employees are dealing with anger management issues, but it is hard to see why they would be allowed to work while they have anger management issues. It also sounds like they are being overly flexible with these employees.
There are also some employees who are on a leave of absence. One of these is the same investigator listed as an investigator in the jail’s records division. It is hard to believe that the investigator is still working in that job when he is supposed to be on leave from his job.
The jail’s roster does list some other employees as being off-limits. These employees include the jail’s public relations coordinator, its program manager, and the jail’s food manager. No reason is given for these restrictions on the list. These restrictions might make sense, especially if someone is suspected of having a substance abuse problem or has a criminal record, but if someone is just going to be working from home there is no need to restrict what they can do during the course of their job.
The jail does list one employee as “on paid leave while working from home” but this employee has been on leave for more than two years and the jail says that he will not be returning to work. This is the longest period that anyone has ever been on paid leave in the jail.