Legal Question in Employment Law in Georgia

Re: Forced to work at home

I am going to assume the following facts to be true, but omitted from your query:

1. You have no contract of employment, but are an employee at will; and,

2. You are not beig singled out for this treatment, but it is a relatively widespread policy.

Assuming the above, you are probably without a legal remedy from your employer. They have changed your working conditions. They could just have easily moved their office 20, 30 40 miles further from your home, and you would be ina similar dilemna: Under the law, you now have a choice: Continue to work for them, or choose to work elsewhere. From a practical perspective, you are incurring certain additional expenses related to work, including allocation fo a portion of your home for use as office space. Your remedy is not with Allstate, but with the IRS - you have the option of claiming, as an unreimbursed business expense, that portion of your household expenses dedicated to supporting yur office (usually, one would use the same percentage of utilities, mortgage, etc., as the percentage of the square footage of the house dedicated to office space). CAVEAT!! Speak with a tax avisor before doing this - it may affect your tax treatment when you ultimately sell your house.

Note, also, some of these expenses are offset by not being required to commute, wear business clothes everyday, etc. Small comfort, I know, but, in Georgia at least, it is an employer's world.