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?

That's a fair point. I know for me I'm counting down to the end of working for a living (sooner the better, due to shit management in a toxic culture!)

I do agree that for younger people starting out, or moving up the career ladder, then it's more difficult. No 'sitting with Nellie' for example and less chance to pick up ideas. My children are all starting out in professions that are never going to lend themselves to wfh.

I WFH 4 x per week as we've recruited so many people over the last 3 years, we can't fit into the office anymore (University Admin)

Unfortunately we only go in 1 x per week, which is a shame as I love seeing everyone although I get bugger all done as I just love seeing people and want to chat!

Most weeks I do 1 day in the office although some weeks I do none and some I do 2. This week I'm not in as I'm elsewhere, and next week I'm not in as I won't be able to drive and it would take me 3 hours on public transport.

I have days where I'm not very productive and some days where I work non-stop. But I'm always around to answer emails and take calls and always get my work done.

I have a habit of answering Teams messages whilst cooking dinner at 6pm or if I see an email pop up on my ipad. And when I'm in the gym in the morning I look at my emails so I know what I have in store when I log in. Yes it's a bad habit.

but my job was advertised as hybrid so it will never be 5 days in the office.

We've gone hybrid, need to be in an office at least 2 days a week, i think most places are doing this now

Nope, i work for a huge national law firm. We went WFH during covid and now its work from wherever you want. As contracts come up to end we have been making our offices smaller. Most people do aim to go in once a week to show their face but plenty dont

They're not over, no. That particular societal trend is not going to be reversed.

I think the commonest model going forward for office based roles is probably going to be hybrid though.

We're back in full time. Some staff resisted but to no avail. We need to be in to perform our role as well as all the conversations with other professionals and training new staff, we do a lot of multi agency work.

Permanently home based now since covid. Work for a large council. Our team are geographically dispersed. Several of the team were recruited during covid and have only ever worked from home. Go in maybe 3 times per year, and it might increase slightly, if required to attend meetings or committee etc, but as many other have said, we haven't the desk space now for regular office working, and the estate has been massively reduced!

Surely, at one point I time, you were the young one who wanted to chat to and learn from colleagues. I've noticed that there seems to be a growing, incredibly selfish, view that working from home works for me and sod anyone else.

My bosses son is on his placement year at a company in London. He can spend days alone in the office and has now moved back home to Cornwall to sit in his bedroom during this "important learning year" as he was so lonely. Would you have wanted that at the age of 20? To spend all day in your bedroom on teams calls and never meeting your colleagues in real life, having to schedule calls to ask questions and have no opportunity to learn from those in the office? How is that teaching anyone about the world of work.
I think we are going to see a real issue in the future where young people just haven't been taught the skills they need to succeed in life, practically and emotionally.

We're hybrid working but in reality only expected in 1 or 2 days per week (and even that isn't strictly enforced so long as you get on with work at home).

We have to hot desk now as there are more people than desks so there wouldn't be space for everyone in as at the same time. And the office has been freezing cold all winter to save on heating costs, people often go home because it is too cold to concentrate on work.

Some people have moved further away but that's mainly from necessity because our (public sector) pay hasn't kept up with the rising cost of living in the city rather than being a lifestyle choice.

Yeah fuck the disabled people whose lives have been made easier by wfh, and the ones who have been able to get jobs when they couldn't work before. Wouldn't want it to go to far and enable them 🙄

DH has been WFH since Covid, he goes into the local office once a week usually, it suits him well enough and he travels to head office once or twice a month as well.
His company are actively closing offices across the country and moving to hybrid working for a lot of their office staff.
He works for one of the big UK banks.

I hope so
As someone who works in a front-line job I don't have 1.5 hours to wait for Admiral or BA or Scottish Power to pick up the phone as they are working from home.

Whilst the guys baby crying or dog barking in the background may have been amusing in March 2020 it is now an inconvenience as it disrupts a call that I have been holding on for 40 minutes already.

Bet its Natwest

They cant answer the phone or an email

DH is Civil service. WFH since 2020. They started making noises about getting people in the office more but when he does go in he spends the day on zoom talking to all the people who are working from home! So there's zero point him spending £50 and four hours travelling to do a job he can do perfectly well from home. They also don't have desk space to have everyone in at once now.

Lots of places doing hybrid, with three days in office. Sometimes this seems like it's just for presenteeism, so team are spread out in different offices, all on teams. Plenty wfh before the pandemic and it was fine. It should be according to business needs, rather than blanket policy. Some work better in office, some work better at home, some take the piss in or out of the office. My OH has just done a fifteen hour day from home as on a big deadline. Yesterday he came home at seven, but meant he had to then work past midnight to fit in a pointless commute away from his team.

I’ve not been in the office since before the pandemic . Officially we’re due in one day a week but I’m not going in. My MH and general life is so much better now and I am
much better at my job. I’d risk losing my job rather than go back, I’m in quite a niche role and been with current company over ten years so I’m hoping they want to keep me enough not to mess with my working arrangements! Otherwise I’m not sure what I’d do as I don’t think I could return to office working .

Tech contracts entirely remote.
My community development role is hybrid, only 1 day in the office. Although travel around to see actual people as well.
Am job hunting at the moment, lots of hybrid with one day a week.

Judging by the announcements in the budget I think the government are looking at WFH as a means to getting more long term sick and severely disabled people back into work. They’re looking at alternatives to the work capability assessment which forces people to prove incapacity, and trying to encourage people to consider instead, what they may be able to do if they had the right support. It’s being targeted at people who, at the moment, are exempt from looking for work as they are deemed too severely affected to warrant compulsion, so if the government manage to pass the legislation there will be a significant influx of these people into the jobs market, and WFH may prove to be the solution.

As someone who has had extensive experience in this area, I’m not convinced. The devil is in the detail and there is very little of that beyond the plan to allow the disabled to keep their benefits until they are sure the job is suitable. I think this is just another attempt to present something as positive when it’s nothing of the sort.

Do people genuinely not remember being on hold for ages with call centres before covid. And barely being able to hear the person on the other end because they were in a noisy call centre? I remember it taking 6 months and hours on hold to fix a simple issue with npower about 6 years ago.

It's like some people were remembering a utopia where calls were always answered quickly pre covid.

In reality, having worked in call centres, the reasons wait times are so long is that companies refuse to pay for as many staff as they need. They want all their staff on the phone all the time. Which means if you have the number of staff needed for your quiet periods you never have enough for your busy periods.

We're doing 2/3 days in the office per week. Having worked full time, 5 days a week year in year out for over 28 years prior to Covid I'm over the moon at this arrangement.

You know that some young people are actively disadvantaged by the things you list as positives here too, right? Being young doesn't mean you aren't neurodiverse, disabled, living away from the major job markets, having to balance work with being a carer. There are 20 year olds for whom the ability to spend their time 'sitting on Teams' has significantly improved their options and prospects. Can't generalise.

I do think it's terrible for young people or anyone trying to learn a new job. I moved to anew city for work when I was younger workmates helped me settle in and am still friends with lots of them from different jobs now

But more than the social it's the learning how to do the job that is really important. And the soft skills - which you learn by seeing and copying and then young people are slagged off for not having.

Can't you allow some staff to wfh and others to be in the office based?
It's a management issue isn't it.

I would have not been great at wfh when I was more junior and my kids were younger. In my current senior role with my kids needing me less it works very well for me.

Not for my employer, we moved to an office two thirds smaller and our productivity/profit is above pre-covid levels and has been since Autumn 21.