To think the call back into the office is an example of the patriarchy very much alive and well?

How can they deal with behaviour they can’t see or prove?

As I said above - like many things, a few spoil it for the rest.
I wonder in some cases whether management are just poorly managing their wfh staff ie. rather than deal with the slacker who's taking a 2hr nap during working time, they're taking the easy way and calling everyone back in.

But everything is mens' fault - did you not get the email?

Managers are clearly seeing an issue with their staff if people are being called back into the office. I never said that people I know are necessarily using a “lunch break” to get things done, they are using work time to nip out and get a manicure or have a nap, would they do that when office based?

What's wrong with using your lunch hour to do as you wish?
If someone is indeed getting their work done and management have no concerns, what's the problem?
This conflicts with you then going on to say employers are sensing a reduction in productivity. Do you mean that your friends say they are getting the work done, but actually aren't?

I've always worked from home in this role so there is no difference in productivity.

I have a garden office so I 'go to work'. It's good that you are happy with your own set up. I am happy with mine.

I know people who have cancelled childcare due to WFH???? Speaks volumes, how can you care for children while 'working'?

Interestingly, during Covid, the board was rammed with posts insisting you can't @GivingitToGod
Strange how that's changed now WFH has become more "expected" ...

I do find it a little baffling that people who took office based jobs are now outraged they are being called back into the office. I have friends who have wfh since Covid and have made no secret about taking breaks in the working day to go and get a manicure, walk the dog, have a nap etc Their defence is that so long as the work gets done what’s the issue?
Its not normal though is it and a lot of employers must be sensing a reduction in productivity.
I fall into the category of my job not being poss to do at home and I’m glad as I can’t think of anything worse than working in the place I call home!

Thing is, you don’t get to dictate the terms of your contract. You can negotiate but at the end of the day the employer gets to decide what’s best for the business and you can decide if you want to continue with the terms of your contract or to look elsewhere. It’s not unreasonable for that to include some face to face time with colleagues. Are they demanding full time back in the office? That would be quite unusual at this stage to go straight from a situation of entirely home working but for a couple of days a year since Covid.

I mean, I'm not sure this is the feminist victory you think it is....

I mean, you I'm not sure this is the feminist victory you think it is....

yes most people work 8 hours a day but you are not factoring time to get there drop off for childcare pets etc. I only have to do an 8 hour day but it takes 1.5 hours to 2 hours to get there. there factor in up shower dressesed properly dog etc to ger out the door in time not to hit traffic. I would be up about half 5 to leave for half 6. this noring instead I got up about 7. showered and put on hoody and jeans no need for make up etc as no video calls. walked dog dishwasher just gone on abd washing machine too. Will log on now at half 8. yes I will empty washing machine on my tea break and dishwasher. Will walk dog at lunchtime and prepare my dinner. when I log off then I won't be rushing to get home before 7 I will walk from my office to my kitchen. its blissful. I will interact with my team as well as us and European colleagues and will have a productive day done. I never had time for gym or anything as I called my school days before covid. I wouldn't say yes to anything nor plan to meet friends etc unless I had no work on morning. to be able to do that now and gave time back is so so precious

I actually agree with this. I’m not sure employers would particularly care if you don’t get to do housework on days wfh either. I’m someone who does split between office and home, and I enjoy the days I go into the office and get out the house.

Morning all, just awoken (well, at 6am because small children). Already put a wash on, it's running until 8am. Will get dressed shortly, do the nursery run, hang up said washing, and settle into a productive day of work at 8:30am. If I was going into the office I wouldn't be at my desk until 9am having battled with the trains. I wouldn't have been able to put the washing on because it will have been sat in the machine all day. Instead, it will be done before I start work.

So, I'm doing my washing BEFORE work, in my commuting time, rather than during, for all those that say I'm a shirker.

I'm sure I'll be billing a lot today. Got a nice beefy case to work on. If I need to discuss with my colleague (who is also WFH) we'll have a Teams call and usually a chat about our kids who are the same age.

Today is going to be a good day

I so wish you were my employee...

Even if your employer is a woman?
Hilarious!

Are you writing an essay for a feminism course?
Unless you were employed to wfh, itcseems you've ridden the gravy train for so long, you've lost focus regarding your responsibility and accountability.
Did you have your child before wfh, or did you think 'oh, this is handy, I'll have a child now because it suits me'. Now you're being asked to do what many of us have done throughout their lives and you blame it on the patriachy??
Priceless!

Yes, all very well and good. But I am, as it's measurable as I log my time.

I'm not sure how they measure those who don't actually have to log time though to get to the alleged 73%. And, as I said, if people are less productive, then managers need to do something about it.

Good points. I think people should be able to WFH if they prefer. It is not a one fits all situation anyway. It is nice that it became an option and it has been positive for many people.

@TempestTost I have lived in a different city to where I work for 20 years. My commute is worse because public sector transport is awful and getting worse all of the time.

I take a bus and train. There used to be buses every ten minutes from a stop by my house. I now have to walk ten minutes to a bus stop. Buses should be every 20 mins. At least once a week, the bus simply doesn't turn up. Same in the way home.

In the same timescale house prices have gone crazy, wages have simply not kept up. Employees struggling financially due to the economy and rising fuel prices is an issue for employers.

Cost for travel and everything else is a lot more expensive. I am extremely grateful not to need to pay for childcare and to have bought my house when I did. I cannot afford to move nearer.

I have WFH for a very long time. Ime people are more productive WFH. It also offers a better work life balance for a lot of people. If my salary is not going to keep up with inflation, flexibility and working for a progress employer is very important to me.

This thing of people living very far away was one reason my brother's workplace started requiring office time.

In his work, people can often WFH effectively a lot of the time, and in fact work from various locations as part of the job. But when COVID hit, suddenly they were working from home all the time, and toward the end, people started moving further away - in one case to another country! But in all cases, far enough away that they could not get into the office without it being a big deal, planned ahead.

The problem is, that there are situations where they do need to have a portion of the workers in the office - usually at short notice, and it constitutes an emergency. There is in fact a call list protocol for such situations.

The people who had moved tried to say it was fine because others still lived close enough to cover these eventualities - but this meant that those people would always be the ones on the hook - and not making more money for it either. So - they decided they all had to work from an office location several times a week.

Well yes, that's a pretty reasonable management decision from the people that pay the wage.

This is really about commuting though, isn't it?

I totally understand how people end up working in another city as you are, and in many cases it's just the best of bad options. But that is the real problems IMO - it's not that people need the right to wfh, it's that they need affordable housing, that isn't a complete dump near where they work.

Of course some may choose to live further away because they like the country or some such, when they could live closer to work, but I think that's one of those trade offs you need to weigh up carefully and not the employers responsibility.

Lockdown showed it worked on a temporary basis. It did not show that such a plan would work for all or most sectors permanently.

One of the really notable things in the responses to me is that those claiming that WFH is just fine seem almost always just to be thinking of their own specific job duties. They don't seem to be considering the wider, and less measurable, elements - things like mentoring new workers, or the creative synergies involved in developing new products or programming, or developing relationships with clients. Things like this are important, and in many sectors actually vital to the ongoing viability of the business.

With disability, employers have two obligations. The first is to consider whether a position contains really unnecessary elements or could be arranged in such a way that an employee can totally fill the role, just like someone without the disability. Maybe this might mean investing in some software that allows the employee to listen rather than read text, just as an example.This is really an ideal kind of situation - the employer has no real downsides and someone gets a job.

The other is asking for accommodation, for the job to be modified to make it suitable for whatever the limitation is. Working from home is like this - it might be that the core elements of the job can be done perfectly well at home by a diligent employee. But there also will be sacrifices from the employer - that person might not be able to meet clients at the office for example, so that part of the job will need to be done by someone else. And training new employees, helping them settle in, and mentoring, probably won't be possible.

That may be fine, and I think employers should try and accommodate this kinds of things if they can. But it only works if there are in fact other people in the workplace who can take on those roles. Just as an example - one of the tech teams in my workplace has an employee with an accommodation - he can't do listing or carrying and has significant mobility issues. Recently, another member of the team asked for a similar accommodation - but the fact is, that would leave the team short of people to do what is a significant part of the job.

Should the limited ability of workplaces to accommodate people with significant disability be spent on people who just don't like to have to see other people, or even families who don't have good childcare arrangements? I don't actually think that's a great idea.

Of course anyone is going to have a better quality of life if they arent sitting in traffic twice a day and have more time for gyms and homemade food or whatever.

True, but isolation is possibly an even bigger factor in MH than the daily commute. I suffered from major depressive disorder as a youth and I love getting home from work and hate the lines being blurred - e.g. having my free time in the same room I've been in all day.

Most people that only work eight hours a day should be able to make time for the gym unless they have a lot of other responsibilities (which I appreciate some do). It's about the least hours you can do in a FT job notwithstanding special cases.

But others may of course feel differently.

100% it was definitely the employees who had the upper hand for once when covid hit and it was good, wages rising, flexibility etc. Labour utterly fuckinf up the economy has halted thatband now it's very much back with employers having the upper hand. Hold onto your jobs cos it is not going to be pretty over the next 12 months.