If employers were mandated to allow employees to WFH unless there was a clear reason to need someone physically in a workplace

For you. They aren't essential for you. But not everyone is you. Why are you so insistent that your way is the right way?

Yes I agree, it’s us seniors in the companies that should be in the office helping the new intakes. We had it at the start of our careers and it’s selfish to not give the same to the new ones now. Hybrid is fine and is a good compromise, but it really annoys me when some of my team members moan about coming in just 2 days a week.

OP are you ok? I really mean that. Not in the passive aggressive MN way. You have posted threads on the menopause being a decade of pain and suffering. You were freaking out about drinking water when you were a houseguest. And you talk about the office making you sick and have some quite extreme views on working with others.

You seem quite agitated about lots of stuff so I wonder if there is anything else going on for you.

Fabulous for people who have an already active social life and/or family close by, but I have SO many memories and friendships build from coworkers, especially in my 20s. Going out after work, pub lunches, friendships and the odd relationship, met my husband at work in my late 20s. Can't imagine just how different (and miserable) my life would have been working from home in my 20s.

Same here. I treasure those memories of my working twenties. Esp as I had the most disposable income of my life then as we had no kids!

My child is doing an internship. She struggles some days as all the meetings are on Teams and she has few people to speak to or learn from. She wants to go in every day and pick up skills. And socialise after work with new ‘colleagues’. Very hard from a laptop.

Being 19 and wfh is very different from being 39.

Shame on seniors hiding at home and refusing to be role models and trainers.

I eat so much more (crap) and move so much less when I'm working from home.

My husband started a new job during wfh / lock down and had such a shit experience trying to learn the role without being in the office where he could just go and sit beside someone to learn.

Fabulous for people who have an already active social life and/or family close by, but I have SO many memories and friendships build from coworkers, especially in my 20s. Going out after work, pub lunches, friendships and the odd relationship, met my husband at work in my late 20s. Can't imagine just how different (and miserable) my life would have been working from home in my 20s.

I see SO many people (online and in real life) using wfh to also double as childcare. My husband's coworker has just resigned a move she asked for as she hadn't realised she wouldn't be able to wfh every afternoon in her new role as she did in her previous department and has no childcare in place.

👍👍👍

Exactly.

Hybrid workers are happier than those full time in the office and those fulltime at home.

I also work in IT and actually some collaborative in the office is beneficial. I can swivel over to see what colleagues are working on, or help someone out.
We do deep work on WFH days and use the office time to exchange ideas, etc.
I get that a lot of people' are head down and don't want to engage with others
And TBF if you're a small company there isn't much complexity.
But not for a large company.

I am still fascinated by these people who can concentrate at home. At home there are loads of things that need to be done, as well as loads of books to read and other ways to spend time. I wfh one or two days a week & find it so difficult to maintain concentration.

Since 2 days a week in the office was mandated most people are a lot happier

That's not my experience, in IT. Almost everyone prefers to work from home if they can. It's better for concentration, and for keeping a work/life balance. Yes, jobs are being off-shored, but that would happen anyway regardless of the office situation. In fact, it might make even more sense to off-shore if staff were in the office all the time - lower costs running an office in Manila or Bangalore.

So how would teachers, cleaners, chefs and nurses WFH?
Your statement makes no sense. If people really want WFH they will chose a job and profession that allows it.
What does 'easily' even mean? If you choose a profession that doesn't have much WFH well that's on you.
As much as you like WFH others prefer some office time so everybody just choose a company that aligns to their preferences.
Job done

Thread earlier today on this, I guess for the employer it’s due to the fact that some are WFH with young children and not as productive as they used to/should be.
There was a thread where someone was spending half the day at the gym.
I guess all these types of situations ruining it for those who are genuinely working from home.

Loneliness is a mental health epidemic.

It’s not though for a lot of people, or for lots of companies. If you prefer working from home and have found a fully remote job that’s great for you, but it’s not for everyone and it doesn’t work well in every job.

Oh, and also more experienced staff often don't see why they need to come in when 'they' can WFH perfectly fine.
Anyway OP if you love remote so much just get a job that allows it. There are plenty. No need to bother what other employers do.

The gen Zs in my office are the ones who are in the most. They’re new, enthusiastic and want to learn, and see the value of being there learning from others face to face. We lost a lot of really good new graduates because more senior staff weren’t coming in which was awful for the company. Since 2 days a week in the office was mandated most people are a lot happier and we aren’t losing as many.

because sadly for a lot of companies productivity has decreased as working from home has increased. During Covid people made an effort now, the research suggests that they don’t. The upshot is that the selfish lazy few have spoiled it for everyone else who could be relied on to do a fair days work 😥

I don't think anybody can make a blanket judgement on whether anything is essential for all jobs.
I mean, if all you do is same-y tasks with minimal collaboration outside your team, there's no reason to WFH.
I know some people working from offices where they barely talk to anybody. Come in, head down to work, go home.
However most large companies have globally distributed teams, used to working remotely. It's still useful to have people in an office together.

FYI it's our graduates (I think they're younger than gen Z actually) who spend more time in the office! They can't afford to rent their own places with space to WFH comfortably if they ever hope to buy a house. Try WFH from a house share.

It's older people who insist on WFH because , like you they claim family responsibilities. But also because they have quiet, nice big houses to work from comfortably.

Wfh is really bad in a lot of jobs for new starters, especially new graduates and trainees. We saw it in the covid years at my company, the new graduates who started in that time took a lot longer to progress. We need to be able to develop the younger generations coming up, it’s no good just to think about ourselves, it’s best for them and therefore for the company for people to be working in the office. That’s why a lot of companies are going back to office working. Hybrid is a good balance and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for employers to be requesting this.