AIBU to be annoyed at changing office days after booking travel?

I think the reply to your manager is “I try to book my wfh considerately, based on office staffing, but last minute travel tickets are exorbitantly expensive so I do like to stick to the days I’ve chosen. I firmed my calendar and booked my travel but now i need to be in the office. It’s a meeting I could attend remotely but I’m required to attend in person for reasons that aren’t clear to me. Can I claim travel costs for the additional day in the office because my ordinary place of work that day should have been my Home? the extra travel from my own pocket, is not really affordable on my salary. Can we have a quick chat to figure out the best way forwards? This doesn’t come up very often but with CoL increasing i can’t afford to lose money on travel plans changing last minute.”

Yabu, working from home is usually agreed only if you’re not needed in person. Management would usually Saw you should factor in the cost of a railcard as you might be needed in person at any day and working at home is a privilege not a right. I would be sympathetic if my employee told me this but it’s not my job to organise the business needs around when they can get cheap travel when they should theoretically be available every day if working full time. I’d be annoyed if someone raised this with me.

You’re not, no, but have you explained this to them? Is there an option where they let you expense the travel to compensate for the inconvenience and extra cost?

Obviously I don’t know how long you’ve worked there or how long it’s been since your last pay rise, but if finances are that tight and they’ve not been giving you pay rises adequate to cover the increased COL, it doesn’t feel unreasonable to talk to the boss and get this resolved so that you won’t be out of pocket.

And at the same time, this might make them take action to make others be considerate of staffing levels and to look before booking their wfh. Sounds like a shared calendar could solve this fairly quickly so that this doesn’t happen again.

I think it's unusual among hybrid workers to have complete control over when they wfh (unless they have a contract that actually specifies, for example, that they work from home on Mondays and Tuesdays). The normal expectation would be that you come in on days when there are team meetings or big company events. You could request that you get advance notice (say of a week) of days when you are expected in the office, as it's pretty poor management to schedule these as last minute unless urgent.

I'd suggest you only book, maybe 13 of your days in advance, and leave the others to more last minute?

Can’t you push back the timing or ask to join remotely?

You don’t have to roll over and die …

I don't think you can expect your colleagues to be more considerate other than the office being covered. Can you block out your calendar as at home days, no in person meetings?