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?

All work places are different, all mangers are different. If you've managed to be just as productive at home and are prepared to be a bit flexible at times, you have a good case to put forward.

Two or three days in the office is what I'm hoping for and speaking to some of my work friends, I'm definitely not alone. Fingers crossed that if anything can come out of this horrible and difficult time, it's a bit more work/life balance. Just taking the commute out of the equation makes a huge difference!

@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?

You can take whatever stance you like, your employer doesn't have to agree.

You would be better off beginning to compile a list of the benefits to your employer to use in a two way discussion.

Your travel times and costs are irrelevant to this.

I'm in pretty much exactly the same situation, OP. I suppose the one upside of the latest Covid wave is that we may not be having to have this conversation with our managers for several months to come.

I think the reasonable thing here is whatever your employer wants from you regardless of what suits you best.

I could have written the same OP. I already told my boss I don't ever expect to be full time in the office again, would prefer 3/2 or 4/1. He's fine with it.

My office is being shut from January we’re working from home forever - be careful what you wish for.

I would encourage everyone apparently resigned to being under the total control of their employer to unionise, unionise, unionise.

Know your worth. What the boss says doesn't have to happen.

It is objectively unreasonable for any company to take a stance against flexible working, including WFH, where this is possible.

Unionising is difficult and most people don’t want to lead this process.

Informal collective engagement could be helpful, if there’re lots of others who have similar views and wishes.