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

The complete opposite to OP has happened to a 34 year old who lives in a bed sit. Her job before Covid was every day in the office, then covid came WFH. The world wide company closed London office. Now she has no choice but to to work from home for no extra money, paying extra for heating. She is also missing the company of her colleagues during the day.

One thing I have always been clear about when thinking about working arrangements is that none of us are slaves. We have a choice about who we work for and a contract is a negotiation not a diktat. We sell our time and skills for a certain rate. Our employers don’t own us. So if an employer wants to change the arrangement that’s in place they can, but they risk losing a good employee. Maybe that is the aim of this move, but maybe it’s more about this manager trying to get some brownie points. First you need to work out which it is. Second, stick to your guns. They headhunted you for a remote role. If they want to change that they should compensate you or negotiate a compromise or they risk losing the skills the hunted you for! It takes a lot of time and money to train up a new recruit. In the worst case, you will have to leave, but is that this aim of this exercise from their point of view?

For someone who's both broadcaster and politician, the clear distinction you draw here doesn't exist. His TV programme benefits from him keeping a high public profile, and he does media on this specific subject because he's trying to politicise the issue of remote working. Hence he's had a pasting over it.

Sorry, but why should't he? He is being interviewed, not working!

No fan of Alan Sugar- but you totally miss the main point he made. He said that we learn more and better by working with colleagues, with other strengths and ideas, bouncing off each other and sharing experience and talents. And in this sense, I agree that regular working in the office as part of team is important. Depends on the job or rôle, of course.

employer would struggle to show that employee can't do her job WFH
You simply do not know this. OP has not said the role, nor the change tp the role, nor what she is expected to do in the office, nor what business changes prompted the change to the role.

@IWouldRatherBeOnHoliday That is nit the case here. Plus the job must be going for redundancy to be paid. She can argue it’s constructive dismissal but once a month is hardly a huge issue and not a significant change if there are good business reasons for it. We have to understand that employers have “rights” to manage their businesses too. Therefore, again, it’s better to negotiate and not dig in. It’s not a given the employee would win in this case if negotiation has taken place. It comes down to what’s a reasonable request.

Of course things can change - but employment laws protect employees rights and if the changes would make it unfeasible for you to carry on doing your job (e.g. company relocates halfway across the country) you'd be entitled to a redundancy package.

In this case, employer would struggle to show that employee can't do her job WFH so employee could argue that it was constructive dismissal if they try to make her come in more often.

@Teateaandmoretea Yrs there are poor employers and poor employees. My local council had an employee move to Spain. WFH gone too far! Usually successful negotiation requires both sides to give a bit. I’m pretty certain what an employment lawyer will say and what ACAS will say. They already have it in their guidance! It’s obvious employees do need to give and take a bit in return for exactly the same from the employer. If there is stalemate the employer will start to think that employee is replaceable. Or redesign the job. However that’s why negotiation is always best for both.

This is true, but the reality is if they want to get rid of someone they find a way. I’ve seen it many times.

I enjoyed that he appeared to be sitting at home while he said it.

@TorringtonDean Actually no they don’t. It’s jobs that become redundant. Employers cannot keep the job and get rid of the employee. If they get rid of an employee there must be a watertight reason. Being asked to leave home once a month is probably reasonable if the employee is compensated.

What they can do is negotiate to vary a contract. I described the process pages ago. If an employer no longer needs a job to be done, the person doing the job gets redundancy payments, if applicable. Perhaps you might like to study employment law?

@TizerorFizz yes and if an employer wishes to force an employee out of their job they have to make a redundancy payment.

“ custom and practice is being violated”? @TorringtonDean Irs absolutely clear that an employer can negotiate changes to contracts. It’s not a violation of anything is there’s a strong business case.

The manager ended the conversation and stated that HR were needed. How can you get "rationally asserted" from that? It very clearly shows the manager found her attitude in that meeting to be a problem. You have no idea of the role, the contract, the working practice to date, the changes, nor the reasons for change, yet you refer to "her rights". You don't know what rights she has or doesn't have in this situation. She would not be taking unnecessary career risks with the advice I gave her to stay calm, ask for thinking time, and then get detailed advice quietly.

@CantHaveTooMuchChocolate I did say this pages ago - contracts and conditions of work can be varied. It’s never that the terms of a contract cannot be altered by negotiation. Of course an employee can dig their heels in. However changes are negotiable. If they were not, how would you expect companies to close offices, relocate or merge? Clearly everyone can be subject to change and that includes WFH.

And so they should be!

They were like this🙄

I didn't see the Apprentices responses! But yes, so out of touch. Twat! I bet he's the type that doesn't really understand flexible working, reasonable adjustments etc but has to implement it in his workplace for legal reasons - and complains about it behind the scenes.

No one cares what he thinks - but he is typical of a certain Old School network (who thank god if they're the older type are ageing, dying out, retiring) who all mostly have these sorts of outdated attitudes.

Ugh l saw that.

Who cares what he thinks? Shows him up to be really out of touch. Apprentices didn’t look over impressed either.

It's sort of related to this post, but I saw Sir Alan Sugar on news this morning saying he didn't want remote workers because they can't learn as well as they can by being at home in their pyjamas as opposed to being in the office.

In some ways he's true, sometimes I don't wake up immediately and get showered and dressed. But I'm certainly on the ball. And I work as hard, if not harder when I'm WFH and I also was inducted/trained at home too. Dinosaurs like him push the clock back years re progress in this area (wfh/Hybrid).

Dont worry OP many people wfh, you aren’t the only, it is only increasing, not being phased out as some people here call it to be. It is here to stay for most office jobs, we certainly wont be going back to fully in person, and as it is so ubiquitous, it wont really effect promotions, that’s just dinosaurs or bitter people talking.

From the bingo we’re only missing ‘if you’re remote they could get someone from a Third world country to do it instead’.

OP I hope you are getting positive answers.

As for your update OP, I had similar in a previous job. Boss changed the priorities of the team which meant my job changed. I didn't want to do the changed role, so I left. I would have been crap at it so it was better to leave before being pushed say a year later.

She also wasn't keen on my WFH in that role but had to swallow that aspect because I was recruited on that basis and my contract DID only require one day a week in the office.

But I wouldn't rely on HR to stand up to her.

Certainly promotion for some wfh folk doesn’t look likely

and that is a problem because...

Has it ever occurred to the ambitious crowd that they need the unambitious ones to work too? It's a pyramid. For you to get a better job, someone else needs to stay in a lower one. So some of us are quite happy in our well paid WFH jobs without significant promotion prospects.