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?

Precisely

Not to mention ableist !!

WFH has enabled me to do be able to do full time hours with flexibility. I appreciate that this may not work for all job roles / organisations. If I was commuting everyday into the office I would lose 2 hours of productivity. I also wouldn't be able to do full-time hours either and financially would be worst off. I do go in for the odd face to face meeting / workshop.

When I do go in I find I am less productive - many more distractions. I am able to get my head down at home and plough through.

We're actually quite lucky with our GP. Usually if I phone I'll always get through. The doctor will then call back and if necessary I'll get an appointment either that day or within the next few days if not urgent. Just shows what a lottery it is. A friend with a different practice has a more similar experience to you.

I've heard of a few companies that are doing this in my industry. Will be interesting to see if it causes people to move to other companies.

I wouldn’t disagree with any of that. I worked with disabled people for a long time and am a wheelchair user myself. You probably know from first hand experience, and I can certainly tell you from mine, that that successive reform of sickness and disability benefits that started with the Blair government and continued by the Tories, has mostly turned out to be stick rather than carrot.

The work capability assessment (WCA) is far from perfect but it seems it’s going to be replaced with a system whereby the onus will be on the claimant to say what kind of work they can do, rather than focusing on what they can’t. Unless there is an opt out for the most severely disabled, for whom work wasn’t compulsory under WCA rules, then that’s really worrying. I don’t trust the Tories with the welfare of vulnerable people. On the face of it WFH seems to be ideal for those who won’t otherwise cope in a workplace setting, and the language being used so far is positive - including the option for those claiming sickness benefits to retain them while they try out employment, thus avoiding loss of benefits if the job doesn’t work out.

But, as I said, the devil is in the detail. WFH needs to be given legal protection as a recognised ‘reasonable adjustment’ under the Equality Act 2010. And employers need to be part of the process of reform. The WCA protected the most severely disabled from compulsion, but it gave them the option to choose to work if they wanted to. The system that replaces it needs to retain that option and although I do think WFH will be great for some, it shouldn’t be used as a one size fits all solution. Welfare reform introduced by the Tories has always dressed up compulsion and sanction as ‘support’ and this is an opportunity to move away from that and provide real opportunity. I’m hopeful, but I’m not holding my breath.

Lots of people have been having it easy WfH for the past 3 years and don't realise that now most people who have a work ethic and want to get on in life are back in the office.

The only way to be promoted will be to turn up and be accountable.

People feel entitled to save money on child care or commuting costs ( which is understandable), but we all had to bear these pre-Covid.

It's time to wake up imo

What a load of twaddle.

Do you work for Luddites Ltd?

So you want me to go back to wfh... awesome exactly what I will do, but without the mental health problems you are adamant will happen, even though people have been remote working for years

Just sitting over here having been promoted whilst working from home...

How small minded.

My office is in Hong Kong. That's one hell of a commute.

and your user name (Mummysalwaysright) gives a clue as to how you regard yourself.

But we weren’t faced with a massive cost of living crisis pre Covid. I think what we should be waking up to is a more inclusive system, moving away from the notion that people WFH are piss takers, and look at ways of improving accountability instead of perpetuating the idea that anyone WFH isn’t interested in the work and isn’t motivated to move up.

Lol.
1- childcare costs have increased a hell of a lot
2- if only people who are in the iff ice are promoted, then you are working in an ableist company
3- there are many ways to hold people accountable. Like looking at how much work is done and how good it is. You don’t need to be chained to a desk. And I’m sure you remember that some people were still slackers then.
4- I’d argue that people who wfh have better work ethics if they can still do their job or even go over tte board Wo someone breathing down their neck.

People who don’t have a work ethic won’t have one regardless if they’re office based, home based, hybrid or whatever.

Forcing everyone back to the office unilaterally just ignores the fact that for some people and some companies have discovered massive benefits to wfh.

The only thing that needs to change is the attitude that those in the office are better than those at home.

If people are skiving at home then, just the same as if they were skiving in the office, managers need to deal with them. Not just lazily use a blunt tool of “no more wfh for anyone” to change the location of the issue.

"massive cost of living crisis" - that might apply to some people but for all the office workers on good salarries it means they can afford one less holiday a year or have to drive around in a 4 year old car. They ought to have saved more in the good times.

Yeah, you’ve shown your hand there. Clear piss taking

100%!

So many asshole responses here!

The traditional working model has changed for good people!! Move with the times! Improvise, adapt, shift your mindset! Why on earth do some of you think the whole culture of presenteeism is still valid in the modern workplace? Employees don’t want to spend huge chunks of their lives commuting. Technology means we don’t have to. If it hadn’t been for Covid, god knows how long it would have taken for employers to catch up.

I submitted a dissertation for my masters in 2005 which examined work life balance and the impact of what was then known as teleworking. I carried out a small workplace survey of colleagues and the conclusion was that the majority favoured a hybrid working arrangement. Little did I think then that it would take another 15 years and a global pandemic to effect this change in employer mindsets!

I took at 10k paycut to wfh with my fur company. The market rate for my role is now about 15k more. They know if they want me in the office I’ll insist on getting paid market rate. Currently it’s win win for us both.

Well, our company instigated a 60% in the office policy from January that went down like a lead balloon and is not really being followed by many people (and is not enforceable because none of HR or management is in 5 days a week to check up on people). The rule seems to be dying a death, and the expectation is that they will drop it soon.

Myself, and my team, all work better from home. Much less distractions, less talking etc. And I get emails weekly from recruitment agents with new jobs that are either 100% WFH or only require 1 day per week in the office. In my industry, companies would be mad to insist on working from the office as they will not attract or retain the staff. It's hard to recruit qualified staff as it is.

I started this role during lockdown and so I was onboarded remotely. It was different! But it wasn't a problem as both my firm and my team made a conscious effort to contact me regularly and be available for questions. We still work that way now. The approach to WFH is what matters most.

The people who doss about at home, doss about in the office. If there is an issue with an individual's performance (or lack thereof) it should be addressed with them. Applying a blanket rule to try and get them to work harder is just lazy management.

One of my sister's took on a fully remote role last year. Her team is dotted all over the country. Her contract states her place of work as home.

My other sister, on the other hand, works for a big firm in London who have insisted on being in the office 50% of the week. She's happy with this, and knew the terms when she took on the job.

My work have recently increased it to only 20% of time can be WFH which is music to my teams ears as our roles rely on being able to speak to people in real time rather than send a Teams message and hope the other person actually replies within an hour 🙄

Am reliably informed this stemmed from a few people with concerns over their performance, was revealed it was because of delays from some of those who WFH ignoring them.

I'm a bit pissed off that a few have ruined it for the many but I can see the business reason for it.

Decreased sorry, it was 50% now only 20%

Why is WFH 'having it easy'? Its great to lose the commute, but my job is just as pressured and stressful, no matter where I carry it out? But when I work from home, I possibly do a better job because I've had an extra hour's sleep because I don't need to spend an hour battling through the traffic. A lot of people who slate WFH have clearly never done it.

Not for us - we never went back to office. Everyone is allowed to WFH and the max expectation is showing up in the office for events/pre-agreed meetings. We even downsized offices in London and NYC and allowed some staff to move around Europe. But then - we were open to remote work before covid.

I am working from office since 2021 (I hate WFH), but I noticed less and less job adverts in my industry offer full time WFH. Husband is looking for job in IT and most require at least 2 days of office work, but it's junior position. Probably fully flexible for seniors and mids?