Rules for Remote Work: Availability, Equipment, Trust

Why does remote work need fixed rules?

Since 2020, many employees in small companies have worked from home at least some of the time. Often this is only agreed verbally: accounting may stay home on Fridays, the project manager when he needs to concentrate, the new colleague not yet. As long as everyone is satisfied, the missing rule goes unnoticed. It becomes noticeable when a customer cannot reach anyone, when someone is still answering messages at 10 p.m., or when an employee asks why the other one may and he may not.

This leads to the guiding question of this guide: Which rules does a small company need for remote work so that availability, equipment, and mutual trust are settled without turning it into a rulebook? To answer it, we first clarify the terms and the legal situation in Germany as of November 2026. Then we introduce boundary theory as a thinking model, review the research, weigh two perspectives, and arrive at a one-page agreement.

Permission by a word in passing is generous until the first question comes that nobody can answer.

Mobile work, home office, telework: what is what?

In daily use, three terms are mixed up that have different legal consequences in Germany. Mobile work is any work outside the company premises with a laptop or phone, whether at home, on the train, or at a customer’s site. Home office in general usage is the form of mobile work in which someone works from home occasionally or regularly. Telework (Telearbeit) is a term from the German Workplace Ordinance: a computer workstation permanently set up by the employer in the employee’s private space, with agreed weekly hours and duration.

Whoever does not set up and contractually agree a fixed workstation at home is not doing telework but mobile work. That is what this guide is about.

What applies legally? The situation in November 2026

There is no statutory right to mobile work in Germany. Whether and to what extent someone works outside the company follows from the employment contract, a collective agreement, or a works agreement. Whoever allows it without a written rule creates a practice that employees may later rely on. A short written agreement should therefore also say how the permission ends.

• Working time: The German Working Hours Act also applies at home, with maximum working hours and eleven hours of rest. Following the Federal Labor Court’s decision of September 13, 2022, working time must be recorded. The ministry’s draft bill of June 2026 provides for electronic recording. According to reports, there was still no cabinet decision in fall 2026, as the guide to time tracking in projects describes in more detail.
• Occupational safety: The Occupational Safety and Health Act also applies to mobile work. The employer must assess the hazards and instruct employees, for example on screen work and breaks. The more detailed requirements of the Workplace Ordinance apply only to telework.
• Accident insurance: Since June 2021, Section 8 of Social Code VII provides cover in one’s own household to the same extent as at the company, as long as the activity serves the work.
• Co-determination: Where a works council exists, it has a say in how mobile work is organized (Section 87(1) No. 14 Works Constitution Act). Whether mobile work takes place is still decided by the employer.
• Data protection: Even at home, the employer remains responsible for personal data. It must take appropriate technical and organizational measures.
• Tax: Employees can deduct 6 euros as income-related expenses for each day they work mainly from home, up to 1,260 euros a year.

The thinking model: boundary theory

With boundary theory, Ashforth, Kreiner, and Fugate (2000) described how people switch between their roles, for example between job and family. Each role has boundaries in place, time, and attention. The authors arrange people on a continuum. At one end are those who segment their roles, keeping them strictly apart: work happens at the office and at fixed times. At the other end are those who integrate their roles, blending them: they answer an e-mail in the evening and pick up the children at noon in return.

Both attitudes have their price. Whoever separates switches rarely between roles, but each switch takes effort. Whoever blends switches easily but often, and more easily loses track of when they are actually off. Remote work shifts the balance because the commute disappears. The commute is a kind of airlock: whoever closes the office door behind them in the morning has arrived, and whoever gets into the car in the evening is on the way home. At home this airlock is missing, and whoever does not replace it deliberately always stands a little in both rooms.

Something important follows for a company’s rules. A rule that prescribes the same attitude for everyone does not fit part of the team. A good rule specifies what the company needs, such as core hours and response times, and leaves the rest open. But it explicitly protects against the one transition that harms almost everyone: work that reaches into the evening uninvited.

What studies show about remote work

Gajendran, Ponnapalli, Wang, and Javalagi (2024) presented a large meta-analysis on the extent of remote work, with 108 studies and a total of 45,288 employees. They tested a model with two opposing paths. More remote work strengthened the sense of autonomy, with a correlation of ρ = 0.14. At the same time, it slightly increased isolation, with ρ = 0.07. On balance, the authors found small but favorable effects on satisfaction, commitment to the employer, supervisor-rated performance, and the intention to stay.

How the boundary works in daily life is shown by a diary study by Delanoeije, Verbruggen, and Germeys (2019). 81 employees with children in Belgium completed a short questionnaire every evening on 14 consecutive workdays, 678 days in total. On days at home they interrupted work more often for private matters, which lowered the conflict caused by work in private life. But on those days they also kept working after hours more often, which raised it again. For people who like to shield their private life from work, this second effect was stronger. The sample covers only parents from one region.

This fits the experiment by Bloom, Han, and Liang (2024) described in the article on distributed teams: two days at home per week reduced resignations by a third without worsening performance reviews. Together the findings give a sober picture. On average, remote work does not harm performance and retains employees. The risks lie less in the amount of work than in two side effects: loneliness and work that migrates into the evening. These two are exactly what the rules should address.

Trust or presence? Two perspectives

The first view says: whoever is not at the company escapes leadership. Without eye contact, nobody notices whether someone is overloaded or has gone quiet, and new colleagues learn less in passing. So remote work should be the exception and closely supervised, if necessary with software that records activity.

The second view says: results are measured, not presence. Whoever delivers good work at home needs no supervision, and whoever does not deliver it at the office does not get better by being present. This view is supported by the findings on autonomy and by the finding on time tracking mentioned above that electronic monitoring slightly reduces satisfaction without improving performance.

I consider the second view the more robust one, with one qualification from the first. The concern about onboarding and isolation is justified, and the meta-analysis confirms it. The answer, however, is not surveillance but agreement: fixed office days for coordination and onboarding, regular short conversations, and clear results. Why control rarely improves trust is described in the essay on trust in the team. What the manager’s presence used to provide in passing is shown in the guide to leading from a distance.

The one-page agreement: availability, equipment, trust

For a small company, one page is enough that applies to everyone and is adjusted for each person in only a few fields. It is called the one-page agreement here. Its three areas follow from the findings: availability against unwanted transitions, equipment against risks to data and health, and trust against the temptation to monitor.

The response times match the channel map from the article on organizing distributed teams, so that the same expectations apply at the office and at home. Which message belongs in which channel is added by the article on internal communication.

What the equipment costs

Equipment is the part most often disputed without being settled. For security, the same applies as at the office: strong passwords, backups, least privilege, as described in the guide to basic IT protection for small companies. Private devices for company data are the most common gap.

Four steps to the agreement

1. Take stock

   Write down who works outside the company today, when, and which arrangements exist.

2. Set the company’s minimum conditions

   Core hours, office day, response times, and equipment apply to everyone. What rules out an activity, such as work at a machine, is explained.

3. Discuss with the team

   The agreement is presented to the team and adjusted, and with the works council where one exists.

4. Review after three months

   Together you check whether availability, results, and evenings are working. Only then does the agreement become fixed.

Conclusion: which rules does remote work need?

The opening question was
rules a small company needs for remote work without creating a rulebook. The answer is one page with three areas. On availability, it sets core hours, response times, and a protected end of the day. On equipment, it regulates company devices, security, and data protection. On trust, it states that results are measured, not activity. The legal framework applies anyway: working time, occupational safety, and data protection do not end at the apartment door, while there is no right to work from home.

As boundary theory and the studies show, the risks of remote work lie less in performance than in the transitions: isolation and work that migrates into the evening. Whoever explicitly regulates these two gains the benefits the research documents. The sober observation is: remote work rarely fails because of distance, but because of expectations nobody has voiced.

First steps for this week

• List who works remotely today and which verbal arrangements exist.
• Set core hours, an office day, and response times that match your team’s channel map.
• Check whether all company data is stored only on company devices with backup and encryption.
• Clarify how working time is recorded during remote work, and the current legal situation with your advisers.
• Write the one-page agreement and discuss it at the next team meeting.