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

I am very sad that you were headhunted for a job with precise details for working from home, which now have been revoked and you are not getting the support from the MS vote.

@TizerorFizz in that case why would they negotiate a WFH contract? That would be incredible incompetent management. If you moved role or were promoted, this might be the case but then I’d expect a new contract in those situations and the changes to be negotiated as part of the new role.

Its because a lot of people on this thread fundamentally think remote working is some kind of piss take, and don't actually want OP to be able to enforce any contractual rights to it that she might have. Hence the gleefully breathless predictions about redundancies, promotions and whatnot.

Admittedly, it would've also helped if OP had explained in her first post that the position was advertised as remote and that she's got emails talking about how that would work. But there'd probably have been a fair amount of nonsense even if she had.

I don't know why everyone is piling on to you here, it sounds pretty clear this was a remote job and has been done as such for years. New boss sounds like a nightmare, good luck with her. I hope it all gets sorted in your favour.

According to ACAS, customs and practices can become part of an employment contract if:

• The term is generally well-known in the business.
• The term is considered reasonable.
• The term is certain.

This text was originally written by MAD-HR Ltd. Copyright © 2024 MAD-HR Ltd. All rights reserved: https://www.mad-hr.co.uk/blog/custom-and-practice-is-your-business-at-risk

@GRex the OP’s livelihood is at stake and custom and practice is being violated. “Must be better behaved” is downright patronising. It sounds like she has rationally asserted her rights.

You sound as though you are talking to a child, and seem to have read a hell of a lot into “calmly stated” and “pushed back” from OP

Without knowing exactly what you do, what she has assigned you to, and what the business reasons are for that, it is impossible to know if this is reasonable or not. What is clear is that you were buoyed by people on the thread telling you about rights that may or may not apply, and so you responded badly enough that she is unwilling to hold conversations with you solo. Your chances now of getting a compromise have been badly reduced, so that was pretty silly of you. Why on earth couldn't you just say you would take it away to think about and then research your actual rights? You really must be better behaved in the HR meeting; the job exists to achieve business objectives,; your ultimate right is to be paid off to end your employment, but you don't need to rush to that without actually calmly discussing what is wanted of you and why.

Is she deliberately trying to force you out of your job, not just being fussy about presenteeism? This is looking like it IS constructive dismissal. Maybe she gets a bonus for cutting jobs?

It’s a bit of a kick in the dick OP. I think all you can do is try to have wan open and honest discussion about why you wfh. I think a once month visit is a good middle ground.

OP I know it’s too late now but please in future when you start a new role get these arrangements in your contract. Same as you I WFH 5 hours away and go into the office once a month (which I’m happy with) and they pay my expenses for it. I made sure the working and expenses arrangement was all in my contract (to protect against situations you describe).

On the basis that it was advertised as a remote role, you can push back, even if that's not in your contract. You need to find the original job spec/ advert that you received and send that to HR.

This post has very good advice @Stressedgiraffe

some people are missing the point asking why she agreed to a remote role 5 hours away 😂 are they not understanding what remote is? The clue is in the word remote!

Some people have remote roles with companies abroad!

If HR are smart they’ll side with you because this manager just seems to randomly have a bee in her bonnet, and is throwing her weight around. it doesn’t seem like a company wide effort to bring remote workers into the office so they’ve got no real reason to back her.

I’m with you OP it’s not reasonable.

I’m a manager and I can wfh if I choose to a couple of days a week. We have a minimum three day office attendance requirement per week and most people do this with no issue as they like the team/environment, appreciate the value of visibility, and the expectations have always been clear. Post Covid, some people have batted against it and make things really, unreasonably difficult in terms of office attendance. They are the ones who roll out of bed and pitch up at the laptop wearing their Oodies, often refuse cameras on, are absent from Teams for hours, and use their work time as childcare. Sadly, it’s people like this who have made managers suspicious of employees who stick their feet in the ground about WFH, certainly in my experience it’s little to do with the manager being bothered about whether or not they personally can be at home or otherwise!

@CantHaveTooMuchChocolate There might be perfectly valid reasons why people are asked to go into the office. I can think of many business reasons why this would be sound practice. It depends very much on the business. There are teams that work collaboratively. There’s training and mentoring new staff. It’s good to have a harmonious team who actually have met each other.

I suspect the die hard won’t leave home workers will be eased out unless they are critical for an organisation and cannot be replaced. Certainly promotion for some wfh folk doesn’t look likely.

I'm not overly happy about it but it's a senior manager, 2nd in command for EMEA and contracts can be changed with notice anyway. The contracts say home is our base but office when required. I'm only an hour from the office. We're a team that travels constantly both in the UK and internationally so it doesn't particularly affect the amount of time I'm at home. I claim mileage and parking if the onsite space are gone.

If your contract is WFH then why capitulate to their presentism? I’ve worked WFH since before Covid, and when asked to come in have always refused unless for good reason such as one off meetings etc, contracts work both ways. There’s absolutely no way I’d commute to London from Manchester every other week when I’d negotiated a WFH contract.

Written terms of employment are not the same thing as a contract. A contract does change over time and it’s difficult to assert the op is contracted to the office when she’s never worked from there. Therefore she should and could be offered money to allow her to travel and obviously once a month is best.

Why does your contract state the office location rather than remote/home?

Ive been fully WFH since 2017 and my contact has my location as remote/home, it it had an office address I would have queried it.

I do feel for you, I would hate to be forced into the office. Although it wouldn’t happen in my work, they’ve allowed wfh for all levels for 20+ years

good luck!

5 hrs??? Unless she works in a very well paid job, in a specialist field, it's not worth it.

Agreed, and I suspect this is part of the motivation of some managers to put unreasonable pressure on employees like this. They don't like the fact they can't work remotely, so they'll make damn sure no one else gets to do this easily either.

There are tax implications if an employee is claiming expenses for travel to their contractual workplace as it is considered personal travel. Depending on if the OP pays and claims back or the employer pays any suppliers directly, it either has to be declared on a P11D or treated as income and PAYE tax applied, as well as NI deductions.

Given the OP has a contracted location of the HQ office (which HMRC would consider their work location for such purposes), I’m surprised the company has been okaying the expense payments for her travel costs for these trips. If there was an audit into expenses payments, there could be issues for the company and for the OP.

If it's a good company I suspect HR will give her a serious warning. A company can change its working practices and its priorities, but it is not normally for an individual manager to make these decisions if it goes against the basis upon which you were hired.

Good luck!

Possibly because that's what's been happening since OP started the job.

Why on earth are people suggesting employers should pay expenses for people to work from their contracted base of work as required? I can understand if you are contracted to WFH but if not then that’s an entirely reasonable thing for you to expect your employer to ask of you.