AIBU to think if your boss wants you in the office, they should help pay to get you there?

Paid more than what? Ridiculous response

If jobs are really as hard to come by as people say then there will always be somebody prepared to pay to get themselves to work. I can't say personally as my job can't be done remotely and is in demand.

I hope he was given his marching orders!

@bigred26 did they work in the office pre-Covid?

If so, did the employees offer to give back the money they would’ve spent on commuting when they began working from home? No they didn’t.

They’ve basically had more money in their pocket for the past 6 years, and now that period has come to an end. Barclays has neither given them a payrise or a paycut. They have just paid their wages and expect them to work wherever they tell them to work. It’s the employees responsibility to be at the required place of work if they want to be paid their monthly salary. It isn’t the banks responsibility to cover their commute.

Ridiculous!

Apologies, I haven’t done research. Just assumed like most contracting roles cover gets paid more

Lol you're joking! The agencies get paid well. £80 a day for cover supervisor at moment, after tax etc it's £58, travelling 20 miles each way. Temporary, usually earn £140 and after tax etc £115, 20 miles or more, going to any school after being called at 6.30am, put in a full day of teaching in 6 different classrooms.

Where on earth did you get the idea supply teachers earn a fortune? Please do some research.

I think it depends on the role. Current job is Al.ost 100% in the office anyway (I can do some training from home. Previous job was hybrid before Covid - supporting servers all round the world. If I had to fix a server in Australia, why does it matter if I'm WFH or from the office, as long as my network connection is up to it. I had colleagues all over the world, too - again, if I've got a meeting with them, it wouldn't be face-to-face, except very rarely (and work did pay for that, as it would involve flights abd hotels etc,) so we always did lots of video calls, and again, does it matter if I'm doing that from home or thr office?

That company and my current one have not mandated100% return to office. Current one has stipulated times you shoukd get in, and there shoukd be an effort to focus on collaboration and being in on the same day to do face-to-face work. (My role is 100% office anywY, but not everyone is.) It has raised queries about travel budgets, because some teams are split across sites. Not a big deal if it's Reading and Basingstoke, but Basingstoke and Manchester is a bit more of a challenge. I imagine they'll sort it out.

Unless your contract isa fully wfh job then you are being a cheeky git

Well you get paid more for being a supply teacher don’t you

When has travel to work ever been paid for? Certainly not in my lifetime as a teacher and also doing supply driving 30 miles each way. Are office based jobs different 🤔?

obviously if your t&cs have changed, but if you decided to move from London to Cornwall during lockdown….then asking for subsidies is unreasonable

I suspect many of those who are asking for help with work-related travel costs are on shit money to begin with, as so many people in the UK unfortunately are.

'Choose jobs that pay more'? Like it's that simple. Have you tried job-hunting in the current market?

I live in a country where I my company pays my commuting costs from the station nearest to my house regardless of whether I actually use the train or not. It’s taxed the same as salary.

Problem in England is the high cost and poor quality of public transport. My commute costs about 8GBP a day. The equivalent kind of commute in England would probably be about 30GBP

The only time I think there is an argument for the employer to pay is when the employee has a fully remote contract and the employer requests that they go in.

and I say that as someone currently doing hybrid and not wanting more days in the office! Don’t get me wrong, I’d love my employer to pay but realistically can’t see any reason why they should

Totally agree with this! Depends on the situation when you were hired.

I was shocked to hear my Dutch colleagues say this too, they get their public transport costs to and from work reimbursed. I think it is a gov thing rather than employer specific. There is another way!

They gave probably never worked from home themselves and have zero experience.

Maybe they are bitter and envious thinking we get away without doing any work at all.

Nurses could get a job working from home too? Obvs a different career but they are free to choose.

Said the government employee

I was chatting to a friend who is a manager. They’ve had a few staff ask to work from home - especially the week before pay day- because they can’t afford to get to work.

I don't work for the company mentioned but my company are having similar discussions with the Union.

The issue is the massive increase in fuel costs and commuting costs that everyone is facing (not just home workers) but this discussion is about home workers, so others that can't WFH are welcome to discuss commuting costs with their own employers instead of saying 'we deal with it, so should you'. It's not a race to the bottom.

Back to my point.

We have been allowed to WFH on hybrid contracts since the pandemic, we are now being told to return to the office more. The issue is train tickets, bus travel and fuel costs have almost more than doubled since hybrid working was introduced. Not to mention most of our UK offices have downsized since the start of the pandemic, so there's no where for us to sit even if we wanted to be in the office more.

The rise in fuel/commuting costs means workers are left out of pocket for what used to be an affordable commute. One that would have been factored in when accepting the job, Meaning it's no longer affordable for the majority of our workers. Why would we want to spend more on commuting when we can easily do the same work from home? Especially when pay rises have been stagnant for years and bonuses are a thing of the past.

I think the government needs to step in and do something for everyone regarding fuel and commuting costs. Energy companies are announcing record breaking profits while the average person is being bled dry with the COL.

We should ALL be asking our employers to do more to help with commuting costs, not knocking down those that dare to ask for support for a situation that would otherwise leave them so much worse off. Especially when it makes no difference to the company but makes a huge difference to employees well-being.

I would think most jobs who employed people after the pandemic was careful to put in a clause to get you into the office if necessary.
It has been a really positive life change.

We need the government to step in and get rid of this bullshit "perk" clause. There's something called an "implied term" of your contract. WFH has been a thing for 6 years now. We just need the government to blanket enforce the home office to be your official place of work if that's where you work the majority of the time. Then, if employers still insist on you travelling to a different location, they can pay for it. And watch how many suddenly decide it isn't actually necessary (!)

This. We need to look outside our own conditioning.