Continuing to work from home- AIBU?

[Lannaaa]

I have an office job, all of which can be done from home. Before covid, I was permitted to work from home once a week, after lots of back and forth with my manager. I stand by the fact it was ridiculous, not only as travel into the office was becoming horrendous and expensive but also because the office was overflowing and sometimes I would have to work in the kitchen this is at a large glossy company. It was noisy and hard to concentrate most days and I would then be working at home again to get things done. It was also frustrating as the work from home policy basically depended on how much of a dinosaur your manager was.

Anyway, obviously now we have all suddenly managed to work from home for a long time. I have no intention of going in again every day and think 2 days office based to keep up working relationships is fine.

I’m not asking employment law wise but in general, do you think this is a reasonable stance to take?

This is what my workplace is working towards in the new year. There was a bit of a workshop around whether people preferred wfh, in office or a hybrid model and it was pretty unanimous that a hybrid model was best - two days at work, the rest from home. The main reason to be at the office, as you've indicated, is relationships and planning type things - then you go home to get stuff done. I think it would be insane not to take the past few months as a learning for what's not only possible, but probably more productive and preferable to most.
I'm in Australia btw, but same sentiments apply 🙂

I totally agree, it’s crazy how much time and expense went on travel!

My concern is my manager is STILL talking about ‘office presence.’ I genuinely think I would leave than have to deal with this in future

Do your colleagues feel the same as you? If they do, club together and form a revolt!
Its especially nuts if your office is so short on space you are working in the kitchen!!

Not unreasonable at all and I think most places are working towards this. However it depends on your managers stance on home working. Some managers love it, others (who tend to be the micro managers) don't.

Most do but it’s a competitive industry and keeping the manager happy is high on people’s agendas. I just don’t hsve it in me to commute for no reason.

I think if you've been able to continue to deliver the same level of work as previously then it is a fine stance to take.

However I'd ask if there is a larger piece of work/ project going on about how you will work as a company in the future. Lots of companies I know are looking at how they will work in regards to those departments who can successfully work remotely.

DH has been told he'll be WFH 2 days per week indefinitely, there has been a real shift in his company.

Mine on the other hand was expecting us to do 50% in the office (allows for spacing out), as soon as we're allowed we'll be back to full time in the office.

My workplace has just announced exactly this, although it has gone down in very varied ways as some staff like WFH, some hate it.

They needed to run a fake consultation first to warm everyone up to the idea

I think they're going to have to give people the option now. Especially if you're so crammed in that people are working in the kitchen. We have similar over crowdedness at my office and we've collectively told our managers that we can't go back to that and we have suggested staggering when/if we come into the office.

Nobody is going to want to sit so closely to their colleagues if they have another option of WFH. I am lucky to work in a role that apparently can be done from home so I don't imagine I will ever go back to 5 days a week in the office.

I’m a lone parent to a 5 year old, it was fine when she was in nursery but once she got to school I really struggled and had to drop my hours from 37 to 30 a week to manage the school run. I was working from home 2 days a week (long commute ) and in September 2019 requested this be 3 days a week which is an absolutely normal working arrangement in my industry and had been at previous workplaces. It was refused.
Working from home has given me balance back in my life, saved me 3 hours a day travel time, allowed my child to not be in wrap around care from 7.30 am to 6pm (which was fine at her private nursery but exhausting at her primary school).

I enjoy the silence working at home it really helps my productivity as I need to concentrate and focus on drafting (law). I don’t particularly want to go back to working in the office. I communicate with colleagues and clients by video conference and it’s much easier than finding a meeting room.

The stress of commuting really took its toll on my mental health, I also had to sacrifice 20% of my salary because I couldn’t physically do it and so switched to a 30 hour week, which I do resent a bit as I only have my income (no child support).
I just want to stay working at home.

The problem is that while you may be very efficient at home OP, some people do take the piss when wfh. There have even been threads on here about how to appear busy when you're not. Unless your work is easily measurable, some bosses will always suspect that their employees aren't being as productive as they would be in the office. Sad but true.

I can see this from both sides. I have five offices under me. Before covid wfh was allowed but very adhoc and the general feeling was people were more productive in the office. Once covid hit and everyone had to wfh part of my role was to start to collect ways to measure the impact on business.

Of the 5 offices, all measured in the same way, 3 of them saw serious impact on productivity, to the tune of costing around £150k extra per year to run. The other 2 were as productive at home.

There are reasons why this is the case but despite that i still have to acknowledge that those 3 offices just do not perform as well from home so once things return to normal they'll be back to just being allowed ad hoc wfh whereas the other 2 will be totally agile.

If there is nothing like this going on then i dont think your 2 day a week wfh proposal is outlandish at all, totally normal even before covid! Do you have an official process to request flexible working? If so, use that rather than speaking informally to your boss. You can state your case objectively and it must be considered by the business objectively. Your boss might be more level headed if HR are facilitating the conversation.

Good luck!

Not in the uk but are work places there required to have Covid safe plans? We are. So no face to face meetings with clients without permission, limit on how many people allowed in the kitchen at one time There is also a rule about how many people are allowed per square metre. We have a large office space so all staff can come in but that may be something that is introduced for you.
I’d definitely ask again

More than reasonable, I'd say one day a week is enough.

I think companies will eventually be fine with it, but a lot will follow Facebook’s lead and say if you’re living in a cheaper area and spending less on the commute, we’ll pay you less. If you’re fine with that, cool.

I think the fact that you don't have an assigned desk which is for you exclusive use will work in your favour. Hot desking has to have fallen out of favour since covid - I'm sure govt have mandated that companies must not allow hot desking.

As long as you’re happy to give up eg the London premium element of your salary, if that’s where you’re based, I’m sure you’ll be able to negotiate. But not sure many people are that keen to work from home!

You’re in a position of much less power than your manager/ employer, so any individual ‘stance’ would be very difficult.

Sounds like pre covid your employer had inconsistent HR policies on remote/flexible working, leaving it to line managers. Perhaps that could change now, and employees will have their say, perhaps not.

My workplace is planning for about 2 days Inn they office being the new normal. They're selling off one of their two big London blocks so it'll have to be! If your work decides they want everyone back in the office 5 days a week, I don't think you'll have much trouble finding another job that doesn't.

I mean, it's not unreasonable to feel the way you do about it, but nor is your manager unreasonable to prefer having you in the office once that's possible again. Some managers aren't very effective at managing a team remotely. You could argue that's their problem rather than yours, but if the organisation you work for leaves this kind of decision to the discretion of individual managers then you're somewhat at their mercy I suppose.

DH used to travel in an over crowded tube everyday for 1 hour each way. It would be madness to return to that. Quite part from the personal stress and expense, its terrible for the environment, adds traffic and people to our congested roads and infrastructure.

My Dbro is a facilities manager and tells the same story as many others on here. They are working out how to reduce office space so factor in people only being in 2 days per week with distancing measures. There's some calculation about if you can only get 3 people in a lift at a time how long does it take to fill the floor as well. He was talking about a reduction to 40% of desks. Which I think in his case is losing one building and a few floors of the remaining one. Even if your manager wants everyone in, it won't be physically possible.

I don't think they're factoring in distancing requirements at my office. The thinking is that we'll all work from home until distancing is no longer required -which I assume to mean post vaccine

I hope so!

I have been WFH since March and I much prefer it. My performance has definitely improved. No commute means I can wrap a piece of work up by the end of the day, rather than running out of time as I have a commute to get home. We use many systems, and one of them we log our work output. I have been consistently ahead so when the time comes for us to be called back in the office, they will need a very good reason.

I would happily go in once, maybe twice per week at a push. But honestly done with the rate race and being out of the house leaving home in the dark, coming home in the dark. I'm sleeping much better, and my mental heath towards my job has improved.

Even without a pandemic, it's unreasonable for any workplace to fixate on office presence and presenteeism if the work can be done from home.

The best companies were trending towards flexible working even before covid and bosses who measure employees by bums on seats are increasingly outdated dinosaurs, and any talented employee will want - and be able - to avoid working for them.

Personally I know I slacked off far more when I was in an overheated, stressful office than when I was able to organise my own work how I wanted. Luckily I'm in a position now where I can call those shots for myself.

If productivity is dropping or an employee is slacking off, you have a management/talent problem, not a WFH one.