Are the days of WFH over?

[MerryMarigold]

Dh been working from home since Covid. Been 1 FtF meeting a week/ fortnight for past year.

Work have said everyone needs to be in work in central London for 3 days per week after Easter.

Not too bad for us, we live in the same place we lived before. Still a 1.5hr commute each way (plus associated costs). Not so good for others who live in the middle of nowhere.

Is this a trend or just his global company?

WFH is permanent for me. I have moved to a ‘remote’ contract and have my works computer and do everything online. I am expected to provide my own notepad and pens :) It’s great. My commute is 10’ each way and the coffee is way better. Other perks such as clean loo, clean microwave are pretty awesome.
I think that many companies are embracing the remote worker way of doing things. For me, it’s brilliant.

I was recently speaking to an ex colleague who has got a new job and has had loads of interviews and been out in the market. This is a professional marketing/operational type role with large companies. He said most are pitching 2 days in office 3 at home. In my job hunt That definitely seems to be the norm, virtually no one is asking for full time, or even 4 days in an office

Brilliant reply

Try the charity sector. Loads of wfh jobs for marketing and digital. charityjob.co.uk Pay is less than private sector but loads of wfh.

You could be me! I had an amazing time in my late teens / 20s for exactly the reasons you’ve listed. I loved the banter, the impromptu after-office drinks, the office cakes when someone had a birthday or “just because” , yet we all worked hard. I liked being opposite my fellow worker and making comments or asking questions, or being able to stroll over to my line manager to ask about something I was stuck on. I wonder if she’d have said how much more work she got done when wfh because she didn’t keep getting interrupted by being asked questions? Well junior staff need to ask questions, it’s part of how they learn. I’m so glad wfh wasn’t a thing back then.

People can get so insular, locked inside their little boxes. It’s good for us to be with people who are different to us, who live their lives differently

I am normal.
I am not an introvert.
I am very interested in my work.

I have WFH for 8 years.

I had a walk with a friend at lunch time. My broken fence has been fixed ("are you in this afternoon....I've got a free hour?").
I walked to the PO after a meeting first thing and did a bit of banking - 10 mins
I put the washing on before work.
I hung it on the airer during a 5 minute workstation break.
I washed up during another 5 min break.
I've said hello to DS2 who came in from school just after 3pm.
I had a most excellent lunch of an Emmental, pastrami, gherkin and American mustard sandwich.

@MajorCarolDanvers Thank you so much, I'll have a look right now.

It's just weird. 15 years in an office environment with my colleagues (who are best friends of mine) to nothing, silence, isolation, my phone doesn't ring, my emails don't go ping. Just weird!

I'm ND and an introvert. I still miss the office environment. 😊 but I'm happy to WFH providing there are calls and virtual interaction etc

Just love having a purpose!

So who will those people who need help ask questions from? Or will they struggle on alone? Answering questions and helping each other out is a big part of being part of a team and a company and supporting junior staff.

I think this is a huge reason for hybrid working, inconvenient as it might be.

why take a job requiring that level of travelling/ costs unless it was always wfh?

Why take a job requiring that level of travelling/ costs unless it was always wfh?

Pre March 2020, that level of commute was the reality for many people who couldn't live near the biggest job markets.

We ask people (who work fulltime) to be in the office two days most weeks. Occasionally it's more if face to face meetings are actually needed (external or inductions.) We don't expect people to commute in to work in isolation or with headphones doing remote meetings. More than 50% of in office time should be face to face meetings or generally available for informal catch-ups.

If you want to come in more often you can. Those who live loally tend to come in more often for the free heating / aircon, tea, coffee, biscuits, fruit and treats. If you need more time at home in the odd week due to how your diary has panned out (or for a delivery that is hard to reschedule), that's fine.

For an organisation that relies on collaboration with relatively few roles that can work in relative isolation, we are as flexible as we can be. Most work should be done between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, but a few hours a week at other times to give greater flexibility is fine as long as you are available for meetings, with notice, during core hours.

But this flexibility only orks when both parties are genuiely flexible!

My DS has actively looked for graduate jobs that will allow him to work 5 days in the office. Some stipulate that you must WFH some days due to lack of desks etc. He wants the "office" experience of working with people etc, at least for the first few years of working life. He suffered a year and a half of being trapped in his tiny Uni flat during covid when the Uni was basically closed down, literally doing everything in his tiny room on his laptop, and has no wish to repeat that experience when he starts work. He's got a graduate job that specifies x days in office and y days WFH, but has had it confirmed he can go into the office full time if he wishes!

This

I prefer hybrid. I have a big team and encourage “team days” where every 6 weeks, as many of us are in the office and the rest of the time we are 3 days in the office spread out across the week.

There’s a balance to be struck between work at home the whole time and working in the office.
The problem, as I see it, was that people are over worked and underpaid (wages have been stagnating). People resent being in the office so much of the time, and covid gave them the chance to grab some of that back.

The alternative is to properly embrace flexible working, reduced hours and part time working. Then people wouldn’t be so precious about WFH.

👏👏

I have found that the employees who work well from home previously had experience working in an office.

Younger people who do not have that experience just don't seem as able to manage WFH as well.
I guess it's because they never learned to focus on work in a place where they had to do that.

I'm pro working from home, but people do seem to have to learn HOW to work before they can do it without the supervision they get from being in an office environment.

I do agree with what you're saying but surely the point is it's a choice? It's not that the young person in this scenario doesn't matter, it's just that it doesn't trump the wants of the person who chooses to WFH given the option.

While I have every sympathy and I had a huge group of work friends pre kids, and still have life long connections, 1) I'm still making friendships now with colleagues even if they are online and 2) it's good to remember that people who would otherwise be discouraged from the work force partially or completely (e.g. working mothers) are benefitting from the option to WFH.

Both people are important. And people spend far bigger proportions of their life being settled in jobs and social relationships than they do in their formative years, so I do think we need to be careful not to hyperbolise how badly the youngsters are suffering, especially as its evident so many roles are not 100% working from home.

I posted about this upthread. The changes to the work capability assessment and to disability and sickness benefits are going to trigger a rethink about getting a lot of more severely disabled people in to work for the first time, and also returning from long term sickness. This is going to include those who would find an external workplace setting very challenging, so hopefully this will be the way forward and allow more disabled people to contribute and benefit.

It's not really a choice though, if someone who chooses to go in is going to an empty office and not gaining anything. PPs have said its not their job to be company, but in most posts it is their job to offer some support to younger/less experienced staff, the same support that they had to get to a place where they can comfortably wfh without it.

My prediction is that full homeworking will stay, at least for a while, in some industries and that hybrid working is probably here to stay but that over time employers will realise that those contributing most to the business (ie not just getting their own work done) are those who attend regularly. Some people won't care that that's how they're perceived, but anyone with any ambition will want to go in, at least some of the time.

Exactly the same for me.

My immediate team are scattered far and wide, we meet up once a quarter, but otherwise we are fully remote. We have a couple of members of staff who go into the office a few times a week, but generally our entire department WFH for the majority of the time.

I still think there aren't many jobs that are full WFH, at least there are enough jobs where that is not the case of entry level employees. It would also be clearly advertised and it's unlikely to have a situation where only entry level positions were advertised as being in office while every else was 100% WFH.

So sad if it does happen but post actual pandemic, unlikely that any employee would end up in the type of situation being described. Not impossible but it's going to be a small minority.

Another goady dinosaur

Under the Equality Act 2010 employers have a duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled people in the workplace. But as you point out, until the pandemic hit WFH wasn’t considered as part of that. I think it’s now more difficult for employers to refuse WFH for disabled people if the employee can show they would otherwise be at a disadvantage. I’m hoping that the government follows through in making WFH central to proposals to get more severely disabled people into work - hopefully making it a formal part of the reasonable adjustment requirement. It’s not widely known but as disability is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, if absence is as a direct result of the employee’s disability or condition, it’s counted as disability absence and not sickness absence. It’s subject to limits and conditions but it makes it more difficult for employers to sack disabled people if they are genuinely unable to work because of the effects of their disability.

Nah, yer just showing yer own inadequacies here