New manager want me in the office. I wfh-help!

1 day a month with travel expenses paid for would be reasonable if they want to see you face to face IMHO.

They should just learn to make it work. And you should get your home working in a new contract.

I hope you can sort it out, OP.

My DH started WFH after lockdown, before that he worked away during week, coming home at weekends. Since lockdown, he is now more flexible, and can have meetings (like yourself) with colleagues from around the world at any time; 7am meetings very common. It makes sense to continue rather than returning to working away so can you emphasise this aspect, OP?

After lockdown he was asked to come back to office on an occasional basis and he did this for one day, driving there (three and a half hours each way) and back in a day. Luckily, never been asked to since. I think if he was asked to return permanently, he would just retire. He prefers the flexibility of working from home (with the cat for company during the day, lol).

Your contract says you work from HQ.

You say the company knew where you live when you started. With the greatest of respect, so did you. I think going in once a month is a very generous offer on their part.

Yes, that's ultimately the message to take from this thread.

OP needs to get the legal position established first. She's subsequently said that once a month would be ok, but since her contract says one thing and the job advert, emails about the role and how she's done things since she started say another, it's still worth getting everything nailed down now. OPs not the only person to have started a new job when everything was in flux due to covid restrictions, but still best to make things clear.

Ask your union or ACAS if not in a union but it comes down to how valuable are you, and how easy can you find a job elsewhere? If they want to keep you they'll shift. If you're not that important to them, they won't.

You could use your original job spec to renegotiate your contract but I don't know if they will, as it seems it's a top down push to get people back into the office. I imagine your boss might just be following her own orders. I know I've had to as our exec have asked - our contracts and job specs say 2 days a month in the office. We use the 2 days to focus on reviews, forward planning, meeting other parts of the business, team events etc - so it's not a case of people travelling in and spending all day on calls.

You could use this evidence in a tribunal if they tried to push you out (really depends how in-demand or specialist your skills are, or if easily replaceable)- but if you desperately need the job, I guess it doesn't help. I would try asking it on compassionate grounds that you're DH's FT carer but again I don't think they'd be open to it as it creates an unfair culture for those who do have to come in. But you should ask anyway.

Could you not try to find another job closer to home or fully remote?

It's not like you've seen any of the relevant paperwork here, much less know enough about the organisation to opine on what would be a legitimate business reason

Spot on, OrangeMarmaladeOnToast, and that's why I referred to the principle of what may be allowed rather than claiming any expertise in this particular case

As you rightly say, professional advice would be needed for that

You said you had a 'bug in your ass' about people working from home, which does imply that you care. I am just curious about why.

The OP has said a number of times that she took the job on the basis she could work remotely, and it's only now that her line manager is saying that she has to come into the office once a month. She has an email chain to back this up. She's entitled to question that. She doesn't owe her employer anything. They'd be quick enough to boot her out of the door if they didn't need her any more. It's foolish to get sentimental about employment and start feeling grateful for having a job.

I think you're being a cheeky fucker!

You say "They knew where I lived when I started." Er, so did you when you applied for the office-based role.

I cannot believe you have even thought about if they would cover your hotel expenses. Total Cheeky Fuckery.

My husband now has to do in one day a week in the office, but he wasn't stupid enough to get a job 5 hours away. So he can get into the office in 2 hours. Of course he pays his own train fare, why would his employer pay it? His colleague lives in another country in the UK, and now has to fly into London once per week, in order to keep his job, it wouldn't occur to him to ask their employer to pay for his flight. Would they both prefer to be 100% WFH? Of course, but they are both sensible enough to accept what they need to do in order to keep their jobs.

For goodness sake, stop being so entitled and find yourself a job with a reasonable commute.

In case it wasn't obvious YABU.

my organisation is the same, wanting more people back in the offices. I've had to go through an occupational health referral to prove to them that due to my arthritis and autism that working from home is best for me, so they can't make me go into the office now. Sounds like you could have an OH referral if you say you cannot drive due to medical reasons and travelling 5 hours plus even once a month would be detrimental to your caring responsibilities for your DH?

We all need to look out for ourselves but that doesn't extend having the right to do your own thing when your employer has clearly asked you to come into the office once a month.

Except when it does.

People are entitled to have their own takes on whether something's a good or bad thing or not, but you're mixing up having an opinion with whether a legal right exists or not.

I don't care - i'm just doing what everyone else is doing and stating my opinion on a post on the internet. Why does that bother you?

I never said anyone shouldn't work from home, please explain where I have said that.

What's entitled is the attitude that people should do "what's best for their personal circumstances" - well yes they should in general, we all need to look out for ourselves but that doesn't extend having the right to do your own thing when your employer has clearly asked you to come into the office once a month.

If OP had been asked to do it once a week I'd side with her, but once a month is reasonable and they said they'd be happy to settle with that.

The employer is the one that pays your wages so you can live this life of "what's best for your personal situation" just in case you thought the money fell out of the sky.

As for WFH being a productivity issue - my attitude is that it can be depending on the person, some people are good at home, some are not but at the end of the day there isn't a substitute for simply being a normal human being and seeing your colleagues like we did pre-pandemic which was apparently 100BC according to most people these days who have built their lives on the assumption that being anti-social to their employer is going to be seen as the new norm.

Working at home is a flexibility granted at the discretion of the employer, not a human right as many people seem to think it is. Seeing your colleagues does make a difference actually.

There's also the fact that from her employers POV if they don't like her rigid attitude of refusing to go into the office, it is easy to start excluding her from things that are only discussed in the office, which is fine if that's what OP wants - it's an easy way to get managed out and for what? The insistence that the her right to not do the same as everyone else comes before everything else.

Good luck with that attitude.

But then it's not like you've seen any of the relevant paperwork here, much less know enough about the organisation to opine on what would be a legitimate business reason. So best OP does as a lot of us have advised her and seek advice from an employment solicitor. Showing them not only the contract but the initial job advert and the various emails mentioned.

And frankly, the people who clearly have no idea of the existence of custom and practice are the ones showing the least understanding in this thread. Multiple people have wrongly said something amounting to contract rules ok, which is clearly wrong and would be the most appropriate comparison to the 'bad references are illegal' thing. Whereas those of us who've raised the possibility of a change to the implied terms have mostly said OP needs specialist advice on that point, from someone who's seen all the relevant evidence.

Research implied contracts in employment law.

I believe that even if your contract states that your place of work is office HQ, the fact that the job was advertised as remote, and you have been indeed working remotely for two years, may mean that your employment contract could have been altered.

As far as I remember (from my law degree years ago that I have had nothing to do with since) contractual terms can be implied or altered by fact. I.e what you are actually doing and have always done.

OP's new manager isn't. Seems her employer has been happy thus far.

Are you OP's new manager @roses321 😜?

Her manager, not her employer. Different. Looks like she can get HR on her side anyway if her job was advertised as remote.

Why do you care? What do you mean - 'people who think they're entitled to work from home'? Why shouldn't they work from home? What's entitled about wanting what's best for your own personal situation?

WFH doesn't really doesn't make a difference in terms of productivity - if anything, it improves it. There's been a lot of guff about how working together in offices is good for collaboration and creativity but there's not a lot of data to back that up. The bottom line is that managers, particularly those in big corporations, think people are slacking off unless they can see what they're doing, even when it's quite obvious that they're not.

It can be lonely being a remote worker, but that's a separate issue.

WFH/hybrid also helps disabled people, parents (mostly mothers let’s be honest) and those with caring responsibilities stay in full time work.

It could also bring positives of levelling up areas outside of the main cities and reducing carbon footprint. And god forbid - people can spend more time with their families!

But let’s all get to the workhouses for below inflation wages, hot desking in usually terribly maintained offices and pay the lovely overpriced substandard train fares and Pret coffee shops because that’s the way it was always done. Those landlords and elites need their rents paying and everything must revolve around London and the big cities that no one can afford to live in comfortably now.

But that's the thing isn't it, your employer is happy with that.

OPs employer isn't!

The law does allow for contract changes based on custom and practice in some circumstances

This is true, but then the law also allows employers to unilaterally change contracts if there's a legitimate business reason for doing so

Predictably, "custom and practice" is becoming a bit of a buzzphrase among those with little understanding - not unlike "Poor references are illegal" which also gets rolled out regularly

There are undoubtably cases where it's worth invoking, but I'm not sure being expected to attend an office one day a month is among them

Most important is that you had a remote role, so they should pay expenses. Check that with her first. Explain your home constraints as well, so she knows how much notice you need etc.

As long as expenses are paid, you really will need to go in occasionally if asked. Once a month if it's for a specific session sounds fairly reasonable if she will include some travel time in your work hours as well as expenses, but you could explain you expected once a quarter from previous role to see if it can be negotiated. It isn't reasonable if you have a remote contract and there aren't a bunch of people to meet when you are there.

We have many team members who attend something or other every few months from other countries, so I'd be startled if someone UK based couldn't manage that with sufficient notice. We did have one who refused to travel even for a key management meeting, so they had to have a managed exit unfortunately, it just is not the right attitude when there were so many big changes afoot and even the South Africa and New Zealand reps made it. There has to be a little recognition of work needs.

It all depends on how much they need you?

If your contract says you work out of that office they could make you work there full time. You knew this when you took the job so I’m not sure why you’re trying to change your contract.

I’ve worked places that are miles away from where I’ve lived and ended up getting digs or staying in my campervan when at work and going home when I’m not.

Just remember no one is irreplaceable.

OP, I would be making sure that your new manager has the requisite knowledge in relation to your medical condition and also that you are a carer for your DH.

I recently had to bring my employer to a tribunal (and won) and failure to make reasonable adjustments was one of the heads of claim. I had sent an email to my newish manager outlining my medical condition and how it impacted me. That was one of the key pieces of evidence was that despite having knowledge he failed to make reasonable adjustments as well as mounting a campaign of harassment and stalking and trying to get me investigated for gross misconduct after manufacturing false allegations against me