No more WFH or flexible working

[Lizzie523]

Been WFH for a year now - about 6 months ago the company MD said we had done brilliantly, was thrilled by how we had risen to the challenge etc. We were then told the future would likely be hybrid working & we all had to complete detailed consultations about our preferences RE this. Personally ive been more productive overall & I feel a mix would work well.

Imagine our shock to now be told we are all to go back to full time at the office 5 days a week. They said they would no longer consider the results of the consultations and wished they hadn't done it - many of us tried to appeal this but were just told 'no'.

I moved during the pandemic which means I am just far enough away that 5 days a week in the office is going to be a hassle (not to mention awful for the environment).

We work with a few people with young kids and it obviously isn't inclusive for disabled people either. Our main competitors have already confirmed their commitment to remote working.

Is everyone else headed back to the office or am I right in thinking most places are being more flexible now?

I had been working from home teaching online until Easter and TBH I hope to never have to do that again. However I suspect a lot of the employers wanting people back in the office are doing so because of their poor ability to manage those who skive and don't put in the hours.
On the plus side my working day is shorter as I was working from 7am till 8pm some days to make up for all the breaks I took whilst educating my child.

I posted a link before as the government message is still to work from home and employers have to comply with so many times to bring people in. My husband's office can't accommodate all staff as social distancing is still in force. You will have to wear masks and be 2mtrs apart or screened odd, one way systems etc, risk assess all staff at risk. BAME staff all should have their own RA as should vulnerable staff. It is a legal minefield hence some employers being more flexible.
I read some of the comments on the thread and think that really in this day and age we shouldn't have an attitude where we must be seen in order to prove we are working. There are other ways to track this. VPN's that track log in and automatically sign out after periods of inactivity, daily online huddles, and hot dealing with staff in the office on a rota, all reasonable and hold more accountability without punishing the majority for the behaviour of the minority.
As I posted before, an employee has the right to refuse to work in an unsafe environment and can take advice from a union.
I like being back at work, but we have staff that are still at home and should have some say in this as COVID is still a very real threat.

*hot desking and being screened off!
Predictive text, what can I say

[quote user8783]@Egghead81 tiny fraction is an overstatement, no denying there have been less crimes, but it hasn't reduced that much sadly I know she's still been very busy. I will ask how much they have reduced, I'd be interested to know.[/quote]
Ons says 32% drop in overall crime when comparing two months in lockdown with same two months pre lockdown

I regard 32% drop as enormous

All I’m saying is - I reckon they won’t be depending on productivity levels during lockdown for an emergency services call handler

Toomuchtrouble4me
👏👏

@anon666 I think the managers in your workplace are simply not up to the job.

Sorry OP, not RTFT but just in case…assuming you’re in the UK and have been employed for 26 weeks you could just submit a request for flexible working. Not guaranteed but your company will have to have good reason to refuse and if you’ve been successfully WFH for a year this could be tricky for them to disagree.

Have a feeling that organisations who are being particularly rigid and not looking at least at hybrid working, are going to be inundated with formal requests over the coming months!

@Egghead81 That is recorded crimes. Anti-social behaviour soared as did people ringing up to report covid breaches. Many will have been no crimed.

@emilyfrost You have a very old-fashioned view of how an employer should be - dictatorial and demanding that what it says goes. Of course it matters what employees think! Without them there is no business and that's exactly what forward-thinking companies realise. Top down management doesn't retain staff or produce good productivity and so profits.
The OP's company had the gall to ask what they thought and then disregarded the results. Of course she's annoyed. They are going to find that very few employees want to work full-time in the office any more and will soon find work with a more flexible employer.

@Scubadivinginabox I worked for a firm like that for six months. The turnover of staff was horrendous.

[quote castemary]@Egghead81 That is recorded crimes. Anti-social behaviour soared as did people ringing up to report covid breaches. Many will have been no crimed.[/quote]
Good point

I think that any office-based employer saying no flex is going to find themselves struggling to recruit and retain. I can see why employers would want to bring people back for the majority of time but I wound never do full time in an office again and most of my friends and colleagues feel the same.

I work in business support & were finding that most businesses are adapting a hybrid approach going forward, obviously where they can.
Since lockdown our company have employed more staff & reduced the number of desks in the office by 60% so even if everyone wanted to work in the office it would be physically impossible. Our MD says it’s proved that everyone can be trusted to work without being in the office & he sees no reason why that can’t continue.
If you have worked from home for 12 months with no issues it seems nonsensical to make people go back to the office 🤷🏼‍♀️

We have just been confirmed as flexible on going. 2 days in the office on average, rest at home. Your company is unusual.

@Bluesheep8

Wow. Do you really not understand what your DH does for a living?

Word for word what I was about to post. Someone seriously does not understand what their spouse does for a living? Incredible

Yes I vaguely know what he does. In the same way a person outside of law vaguely knows what their lawyer DH does as en example. but a) not giving too much info about DH’s role and b) a job title that doesn’t mean much to anyone outside the organisation, does not need to be stated.

Way to miss the point though ladies.

@Ewe202 indeed. If you live in London but work from home it makes no odds to your employer where you live, so why should they pay London weighting when they are benefitting in no way from you living there? The candidate pool for jobs would also increase massively!

You may think it’s presenteeism, but most likely having had another good look they’ve realised you aren’t more productive at home (the majority of people like to think they are and will defend they are to the death, but the fact of the matter is that it’s very rarely the case)

= I voted for the Conservative Party at the last election

I really do not understand this. Surely people have targets so everyone can easily see if they are being as productive as normal?
I would not expect people at home to be as productive when children were not in school.
It sounds like there is a lot of terrible management though.

@LimaFoxtrotCharlie

It’s awful for the environment to have everyone WFH and heating their individual houses too. Maybe look for a new job WFH if that’s what you want, as your employers clearly want you back in the office.

I am sure you’ve done a detailed lifecycle analysis, taking in to account the emissions from commuting, the heating and cooling loads of having people in their own homes rather than in a centralised location that needs heating and cooling, that you can eat yesterday’s leftovers for lunch, minimising food waste, etc.

This was also published in The Guardian yesterday:

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/18/the-guardian-view-on-working-from-home-a-new-social-divide

The comments reflect a lot of what has been said here

I don’t know why some are giving you a hard time op. You were led to believe there would be flexible arrangements and the org has back tracked. It’s a nonsense these days to expect 5 days a week in the office. It’s also ridiculous to say wfh can’t be equality if not more productive. If they won’t budge I’d look elsewhere.

As for why those with kids would mind. Well, it’s perfectly perfect possible to wfh around school/childminder hours. A commute both ways makes that a lot more stressful. WFH allows much more family time.

That’s fine. It doesn’t matter if we agree. It doesn’t matter that you disagree with your employer either - they want you back in the office, you go back

You sound strangely angry with OP, though, which is a bit odd.

Actually working from home is more environmentally friendly. Who doesn’t heat their homes during the week? It doesn’t require more heating then it would if you’d be at work unless you don’t have a timer or thermostat.

But I’d frankly just go work for the competition if they have committed to working from home.

I've not rtwt, only the first page so I'm sorry if someone had already said this.

When the OP applied for and got the job, it was clearly known that it was office based and there was NO WFH.
This past 14 months have been 'extraordinary' in do many ways and those who've been lucky enough to be able to continue to do their jobs from home are exactly that, lucky.
Now, the country is trying to get back to normal, ie, back to what was happening 15+months ago, in the OP's case this means going back to the office.
The answer here as I see it is simple, either look for a different job that's either closer to home or that does offer some degree of WFH or sick of up and get on with it because if we'd not been through everything we have over this past 14 months she'd still be working in the office and wouldn't have been able to relax at home wearing her pj's and working as flexibly as she has.

Sick of up?.... suck it up ..... flipping predictive text 😡