My manager is making me come in the office 4days a week

Show a bit of a can do attitude OP!!

Personally, I’d work to rule whilst looking for another job.
The days of treating your employees like shit & them accepting it have long passed.

It’s less the move to office working, and more the fact that a suitable desk hasn’t been provided that would send me in that direction. It’s an ill thought through plan - a knee jerk reaction almost.

Your contract should have a normal place of work, or base, or address.

Bear in mind this may not be your manager's decision but come from higher up. He may (or may not) agree with it.
As for preparing your own workspace, my background in academia and small companies means I'm very used to dusting a desk, even moving desks and chairs around, as there is no one else to do such things!

You honestly don't see that all those odd half-hours and hours off to keep an eye on the boiler engineer, go to the dentist or health centre, pick up the children from school quickly add up to a couple of days off work over a month? You don't understand that in order to employ you and pay you, a business has to make enough money to do so.

I was last office-based in 2008. Back then I was expected to organise routine dental and health appointments for first or last thing each day and take no more than 30 minutes off for them (and make it up over lunch) or to take a morning or afternoon's leave.

An employee shouldn't be made to clear or dust a storage area just to be able to come into the office more often. That is on the management to ensure there are enough desks and suitable chairs available. Otherwise, any injuries occurred from moving furniture and sitting on unsuitable chairs etc. can be claimed against the company.
I work from home with a reasonable adjustment to do so, and if you're already set up at home with the proper equipment, I can see the OP's resentment here.

So similar to my situation. No protected characteristics. We’ve challenged it and manager is supportive. HR still considering the challenge but in the meantime they have agreed flexibility for a couple of people who live a long distance away - they are allowed to go back to the once a month, but not those of us who live closer. As geographical distance from the office was never a stipulation of working from home this seems unreasonable to me and muddies the waters further.

It's unrealistic to suggest you would never interact with other people when you are in the office: quite apart from seeing people when you go to the kitchen or bathroom, you must have interactions with your boss, meetings etc. You can't expect the firm to set things up so that you can chat to your husband when you want to. Anyway it sounds as if they plan to put other people in the room with you shortly.

If you're already going into the office 3 days per week, will it make much difference to your employer if you go in for an extra day? I really don't agree with presenteeism either, and am grateful that my employer (public sector) is heavily union-ised and they fight this sort of nonsense. But as other posters have said, your employer does hold all the cards, and I'm wondering if there's any room for negotiation? Or agree to come in 4 days, make no fuss, but in practice only do 3 days if you think you can get away with it?

@Ponoka7 - if you have a personal pension then you are one of the people who's investments rely on people being back in the office. Commercial property investments are a big part of many pension portfolios and if this sector goes under a lot of people will suffer - not just "those at the top"

I would really resent having to work in an office just so my 'presence is felt'. If there is no need for you to collaborate with other people, it's ridiculous - if their productivity is low, the knowledge that you're sitting in a cupboard will do little and you are right, it's their managers' jobs to deal with it.

I'd look for another job if it were possible, negotiating a hybrid working pattern that works for you but if that's not doable, at least working for a company that values you as a human. What's the job market like in your sector/specialism?

I own my own business, by the way, and employ people. This isn't an entitled wfh-er speaking. It's someone that recognises bullshit management.

We are only wanted in the workplaces because there is less being spent on public transport, in coffee shops/food vans, on all the things we are blamed for eating.

Well, that and all the research showing that people are much less productive at home.

I believe that initial studies showed that people were slightly more productive when wfh over lockdown but it's now completely reversed.

@luckylavender you get permission. I did say it can mean only an hour off, instead of a half/day needing to be booked off. Some people's holidays are counted in hours and extra hours awarded for overtime. It's a waste of an employee needing to take a full day, for a 11.30 blood appointment, when an hour would only be needed, in their own doctors, if WFH. Which is why people who gave health conditions etc rally benefit from WFH. Because of my medication, I need my liver and kidney functions monitoring. My DD has had terrible issues with her teeth/jaw, luckily even in her workplace, you can take an hour and she works in the hospital that she's been referred to. Likewise my youngest needed scans in the hospital she works in. My other DD could return to work because of WFH, after surgery and her employer allowed her to take an hour off when the dressings nurse came. It's interesting that in all three workplaces it's the older colleagues who have a issue with the ability to take hours off, rather than a day, because when they started work it wasn't possible. But that was in the days of walk in bloods and a choice of appointments. Life has changed.

Unless WFH in your contract you can't refuse. Crack on, ask to sit with or near another team for the interaction side. Make the best of it. If made to work in this room, tidy your area etc, clean it up, lol at the not your job brigade. DSE assessments are largely down to the individual since WFH became common. Else look for another job.

I run the medical room in a large comprehensive. I clean my own room. I pay for things to vamp up the room. It has no windows and the only time I speak to another adult is during my 30 minute lunch. I think WFH people are clueless to what a lot of us do to keep things going. I love being with the kids, but what if I decided to have a strop and insist on a nicer room? There isn’t any other option.

I’d be worried that he has concerns about my performance. I’d also be considering the risk of redundancy. WFH staff are less visible and unless they’re ’mission critical’ they’re easier to let go than those who are visibly present and actively engaging in business life - that goes beyond just completing the tasks assigned to you.

Given you’re expecting your manager to set up your desk and clear the dust away since there’s nobody else to do it I can kind of see where he’s coming from. And don’t make appointments during your working day if you can avoid it. That’s just a ridiculous idea.

You’d have to get HR advice tbh. I just say that because where I work my team is the only one who predominantly wfh in the whole org (over 250 office staff, our team of 4 mostly wfh). Due to distance it would be impossible to work in office more than once per week. I kept hearing our ceo moaning our team wasn’t in so asked a friend in HR and she said it would be difficult due to contracts stating work from office, however I’ve only ever worked from home. (Husband is in the same boat, but peg is heavily unionised so unlikely to force that change).

the reality is it’s a hard to recruit for role, and all similar roles are work from home, so they have no choice but to allow it as we would all have to quit if they enforced office working (one colleague lives 300 miles away!) so I know they are unlike to enforce any kind of change.

the only other thing you could do is make a flexible working application to your line manager for a permanent change but he seems unlikely to agree.

do you have any protected characteristics which would be impacted due to you being in the office?

It is horribly hard to find a WFH home, I can confirm that. Due to health conditions working from home makes a massive difference to my life and wellbeing.

This cultural shift to demanding staff return to the office for no real benefit to the organisation is born out of the current vibe of people trying to be as ' tough' as possible.

In this thread you have posters barely containing their glee that the OP has to go back in to her office without a business reason..it's just to show ' who's the boss' . Literally people who hate hybrid working just because they can't do it.
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If I could describe the feeling of this country at the moment, it's a race to be as unkind and inconsiderate as possible - hence the rise of ' Reform'.

I'm seeing it on my commute as well..buses are busier, roads are busier. Good news for sandwich shops and coffee places in city centres I suppose.

My husband has to go in once a week - spends the day sat on Teams meetings, just wasting 2 1/2 hours commuting that if he was home he would be working. Ridiculous.

If your contract says it’s at the discretion of your employer then you have to go to the office. And that’s it. Leave if you don’t like it.

You have to find your contract or request a copy of it. It might say ‘by agreement’.

Do you just sign off or do you get permission?

"But this is a reality of employment today for many - big and small companies all over the world are increasing mandated days in the office"

Not according to our government and the threads on here about disabled people working. Apparently it's really easy to get a job WFH, to accommodate health conditions.

Or remind the manager of who to put top of the list if there's a round of redundancies, what a stupidly childish attitude.

Id be embarrassed to admit to that, not that I'd do it and I'd hope no one I work with was so pathetic