To think 9-5 attendance at work is becoming a bit unnecessary?

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With modern technology an awful lot of jobs could now be done remotely cutting out long commutes etc and also giving people a bit of flexibility around the hours they work.

Yet the default position in general seems to be that everyone should be in the office, between x hour and y hour, 5 days a week.

AIBU to think that this is becoming less necessary and far more workers could work from home at least part of the time, using remote access and being contactable by phone when needed?

I agree.
can't think of any more to reply than that

Totally agree. Sadly many employers still haven't woken up to that. Mine insists on me being there between those hours. When my boss isn't there, I go for a swim before work and start a bit later, or take a bit of a longer lunch and do work in the evening. It's so much better and gives me a much better feeling of work/life balance.

In theory yes, but many businesses are reluctant for many reasons. I worked for a business that had a lot if remote workers but productivity dropped, there was an awful lot of take without much give from those working from home. I work full time from home but you do have to be disciplined to work without distractions and I think many companies see this as a potential issue. I’d love to see more flexibility in workplaces, the commute is horrendous for many people but I also understand why many companies don’t allow it. Sorry, firmly on the fence here!

I'm stuck in the office til 6pm!

In my previous role, they brought in remote working but unfortunately some people took the piss and never answered their phones, fell behind on their work etc, so the option got taken away from everyone. This really riled me as I think they could have just dealt separately with those people rather than take it away from the majority who were doing their jobs.

I actually get a lot more done at home as I have no young DC, so it's really peaceful as opposed to the god awful open plan office I was in. I've now got a full time home working role which suits me a lot better. It's not for everyone, some people miss the "social" side of work. But I prefer it.

But yes, you will generally find that there are a few that abuse it, which ruins it for everyone else.

I agree, although in a workplace there's many other factors come into play; technology costs (new lap tops and phone's), poor culture - presenteeism and lack of trust in staff. In reality it's easier for firms to just insist staff come into the office. One firm I worked for had a big focus on 'fairness' which was used as a reason never to agree flexi time, or staggered hours as there is 1 team that had to have core hours and winged when others didn't. Very hard to over come that.

I can see both sides. I do think there should be a shift from 9.5 to more flexible shifts acceptable though. Councils do this I think, it's ridiculous being present sometimes when there's no work today and having to look busy. Conversely other times you can end up doing overtime for no time in lieu.

Flex shifts such as allowing 7-3 or 11-7 instead of 9-5 would also help traffic - I'm sure the roads get worse every year!

I agree. I am employed by a company where everyone works remotely from home. I am trusted to get the job done (which I do), and as long as I do my contracted hours and fulfil any obligations around rotas, I can set my own working pattern. I feel very lucky and love it - fab company! (Interestingly, the company is run by a working mother.)

no work to do*

If people start taking the piss then their right to work from home should be immediately withdrawn. Any agreement to work from home should be at the discretion of management and there should be safeguards to ensure that someone just arsing around, not answering phone calls or emails etc, can be pulled back into the office without claiming 'discrimination' or some such.

I do agree that there's usually a handful of people who ruin it for everyone.

I'd love to find a job of any sort working from home!

I work flexibly five days a week and two of those I WFH.

I'm a local government employee but I know that not all of the teams have embraced flexible working like we have.

Well we were promised home working 30 years ago. They said we’d have whizzy hovering cars, and a big box called a modem each and other flash looking stuff. So giving us the promised homeworking is the least they could do

Can you go freelance? That’s what I did and a lot of the time I get to do projects from home. There’s the odd contract that I still need to wear silly clothes and go and sit in an office for, but less now than ever.

I'm freelance and work from home, remote working for employees would work if you changed how they got paid their salaries to how it works for freelancers. So maybe employees could be paid only if they have completed set tasks/projects to be logged in special software by specific deadlines.

I have a kind of 'under the table' arrangement with by Manager and I work from home now and again. My work is entirely deadline driven, involves a lot of research and I work in a room on my own most of the time. It would be very obvious if I wasn't hitting my deadlines and producing good quality work.

Yet, our senior manager won't officially sanction home working.

What i mean is if you're freelance, you fuck around wasting time (like me right now on MN) you dont get paid. You'd have to implement something like that for employees to allow them all to work remotely.

I work from home for 75% of my working week , I get so much more done as the open plan office is noisy and people stop for chats all the time.

Totally agree. I could have done my old job from home. Never phoned anyone, everything done by email and paperless. I've moved abroad and could easily have carried on working from here but I don't think they even considered it as an option. Would actually have had some advantages as well as different time zones would mean people would get quicker response to emails.

It's a good idea, though wondering how teachers could do this.

Actually they could, but would they be allowed to?

I limit my time in the office as much as possible. My tech, desk setup and general ability to concentrate are all better at home.

I suppose it depends on the type of work you're doing really. A fair amount of mine requires my physical presence to carry it out. You can't exactly count a load of cash and put it in the safe remotely, can you?! We also get tons of paperwork, delivery notes and the like, and although I could do the actual data entry from home, it would still need somebody to scan the stuff in and send it over.

Can't see me being motivated enough to work from home really, I'd be surrounded by distractions...

Not much good if you're a nurse or a bricklayer.

The last two companies I’ve worked for have been very flexible with start times, part time working, condensed hours and wfh.

I’ve got a meeting in the office tomorrow but the rest of this week I’ve stayed at home as I’ve got a bit of a cold virus. Our team are remote to each other so there’s always that degree of trust.

I don’t think I could work for a company now that didn’t let me do at least one day a week from home.

oh don't get me started

also the amount of jobs where it's about what you need to achieve in that time but you have to sit there pretending you've not finished or they give you more work.

my current boss is fab, she accept that different people take a different amount of time to do the same tasks so lets me vary my start and end times or knows full well I'm chatting on social media because I've finished for the day, but some days we can't get away with me going early because it would raise questions.

in terms of working at home, I'm amazed rush hour problems haven't forced more examination of this. Last I heard the big wigs at the business institutes weren't in favour.

I work from home, although nip into the office a couple of times a week usually.

The team I manage is located throughout the world, so there is no reason I can see for me to need to be in a specific location.

I actually work harder and longer hours from home and since I cover 3 time zones on a daily basis, it seems far more fair.