Posting for traffic, the work topic doesn’t seem to get much action!
I work in an online based role for a technology retailer. My shift finishes at 2 a.m. and I am required to work from the office twice a week and the rest of the time I work from home.
The day team has three shifts, the last of which finishes at 10 p.m. (the late shift) after which point there are only 4 of us left working the 2 a.m. finish. The department managers decided that it would not be great for the night team to work in a huge empty building til 2 a.m. by ourselves, so their brilliant solution was that we should start our shifts in the same building as the late shift team (which consists of maybe 5 or 6 people), then at around 9:30, we (the night team) have to log off, pack up all our stuff, leave the building and walk across a gigantic car park to a different building where a different department which also has a 2 a.m. team is based, and work the rest of our shift alongside them.
For various reasons I have requested a change to my start time on the nights I am in the office so I will be starting at 9 p.m. As part of this request I suggested that instead of going to work in the same building as the late team for all of 30-45 minutes, I head straight to the second office and work my whole shift there.
But no. The response was the loss of productivity is worth it for the half hour or 45 minutes I would spend sitting on the other side of a bank of monitors in virtual silence with a few people from the late team.
I just find this whole setup utterly absurd. There is usually at least 15-20 minutes per person of time lost in packing all our shit up, schlepping across the car park whatever the weather, setting everything up again, usually people will go to the loo, get a cup of tea etc. Not to mention the disruption of getting to the office, logging in, getting into the mindset and flow of working only to have to stop, pack everything up and start all over again less than an hour later. (Don’t get me started on the fact that the 2 a.m. team is made to come into the office in the first place when no part of our role requires our physical presence there…)
I don’t want to argue it with my manager but I really don’t want to continue with this absolute farce- but would it be something to approach HR about? And how should I frame it if so? Grateful for any advice and suggestions.