Agreed. If it’s been proven that the work can be done remotely, I struggle to take it seriously when leadership insist that office days are “necessary”. Why is it necessary? So that the Team Leader can go around leaving a packet of Haribo’s on everyone’s desk to celebrate 10 years since Julie from HR joined the company?!
They’ve presumably hired us as they trust us as a functioning, productive and professional adults. In my cell centre role, I answer 70 calls a day whether I’m at home or in the office. My stats and customer feedback are among the best in the team. Why the insistence that I come in twice a week when I’m already proven to be a reliable member of staff? There’s no operational need for it, Our department is so busy that even on office days we don’t have time to chat to our colleagues- we’re all snowed under with phone calls. The structure of the day is exactly the same on office days as it is on home days - you log in, take calls in between your breaks and then log off. Any team meetings or trainings are held over Teams with everyone wearing headsets, even if we’re all sat next to each other in the office. When I need support from a manager on a complex call, I have to message them on Teams, even if they are sat next to me in the office! This is so we have a “record” of everything. It’s fecking ridiculous.
Then you have incidents with people running in who come in 20 minutes late breathless and looking disheveled because the train got delayed, and they get bollocked and told “you need to get an earlier train” (despite already leaving the house well over an hour before the shift starts, and if the train is only once every hour like mine is then they’d have to leave the house 2 hours before and hang around to avoid being late). This reduces morale because the staff member knows damn well their job can be done from home as they do it 3x a week without issue.
In a business where there is a genuine operational need for some days to be in office, then I understand it completely. I also understand if companies want people in during the probation period. But I think in cases when the work can be done from home, and there’s no genuine operational need for people to be in the office, the apron strings should be cut somewhat. If the person’s performance drops (this can be monitored through systems), then by all means maybe call them back in for a bit.
If you want me in once a month to touch base and make sure I’m still around and haven’t buggered off to the Maldives and trained an AI to do my job, then fair enough. But you don’t need to see me twice a week.
Employees appreciate being treated like adults, not schoolchildren.