Can remote work go too far?
That’s what San Diegans are wondering after The San Diego Union-Tribune broke a story about a local Executive Assistant City Attorney who’s getting paid to do her job while traveling the world on a four-month ocean cruise.
Recently-promoted by newly elected District Attorney Heather Ferbert, Jean Jordan is collecting a six-figure salary, getting full benefits and accruing vacation time while on the cruise.
DA Ferbert asserts that Jordan has been taking all calls and “completing her work well above the expectations set for all the attorneys in this office.”
The Mayor’s Office reports that 15% of all local government staff are approved for remote work, according to the U-T. By setting sail and traveling the globe, is this particular work arrangement a bridge too far?
The Sun went to the downtown area near the Embarcadero, where incoming cruise ships dock, to gauge public opinion.
Sacajawea Patrick works from her home in San Diego. She loves working remotely and would absolutely do her work from a cruise if given the chance.
“Oh yeah, why not?” Patrick says. “Just as long as they’re productive and getting the job done, it doesn’t matter where they’re doing it at.”
Pacific Beach resident Jared Patterson also works remotely for his sales job, and says the acceptability of the accommodation depends on Jordan’s ability to get her work done.
“I don’t know what her responsibilities are,” Patterson says. “I don’t know what she should be doing. So, if she’s able to get done what she’s gotta get done, I don’t think it’s a huge deal.”
Sam Hunter, who works at the USS Midway Museum, believes in the value of remote work, but is skeptical about Jordan’s situation.
“I think the word ‘cruise’ is something important, like the context there,” Hunter says. “I know nothing of the background, other than it makes me a little suspicious about how much work are you actually doing when you’re on a cruise? I think it’s possible, but I don’t think it’s a lot of work.”
Hunter thinks remote work is something that everyone should have access to, if they’re able.
“But, I think you can’t be greedy,” she says. “And you can’t just say, ‘Yup, I’m in a higher position, I get to decide that I can take all this time off, but it’s something that you can’t have access to, because you don’t make as much money as me, or you don’t have a job as a important as I do.’”
Attorney Timothy Riley actually knows Jordan on a professional level. He says she’s the type of person fully equipped to handle the demands of the high-level job while at sea, having a reliable track record of independent work.
“I’ve never worked in the same office as her,” Riley says. “In fact, we’ve been opposing one another before…But she is an unbelievably honest and decent human being who works really, really, really hard. If there ever was somebody I would trust to work in that atmosphere, it would be Jean Jordan.”
William Dorsett is still a bit skeptical.
“I mean, if she can actually do the job she’s hired to do from a cruise that sounds okay to me, I guess,” says Dorsett, a busker who sells artwork along North Harbor Drive on the Embarcadero. “But, there’s a lot of laws that need to be researched and you have to do a lot of digging and I don’t know how that’s possible on a cruise ship.”
Dorsett says an abundance of transparency would be required.
“[If] they’re not being transparent about it, that’s concerning to me because government’s supposed to be transparent with everything they do,” he says. “They’re not supposed to leave any questions for people to say, ‘Well, is there something corrupt going on?’” SDSun
