Working from home expectation...

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A few weeks ago, before COVID-19 was as big an issue as currently my employer told us they were making arrangements for us to be able to work from home in case of any self isolation.

With the new guidance about working from home if possible AIBU to expect them to allow anyone to work from home?

I thought the guidance was clear. You should be working from home if possible. I am now working form home for the foreseeable future - i suspect until September as i work at a uni.

Do you mean as standard, once this is (eventually) all over?

I think more employers will become open to the idea (mine already is so we're well prepared in terms of kit) but some people do struggle with doing it all the time. For those of us who are singletons, a bit of human contact is good. I have a full life of sport and pastimes but because these have been curtailed, even this introverted antisocial woman is struggling a bit.

I think “if possible” Is the key.

My his and is working from home, I can’t.

Sorry. For clarity I mean now. I think as the company has plans and the resources for us to work from we should, but no one has said anything about it yet. I'm becoming increasingly anxious about the situation especially with an 8 month old at home. Yet I dont want to seem like I'm being demanding about it.

If you're able to work from home then ask them if you can

I find it crazy you aren’t actively being encouraged to wfh. Our place is everybody who can is strongly advised to wfh. Some people can’t so need to be in, but if others do it increases social distance etc. Really poor of your work place if people can genuinely do their jobs from home.

If you can work from home, you should be. That has been the government advice since Monday afternoon.

I'm one of about 3 people in the office today (usually up to 200 here).
I had to come in to get something to work better from home.
We have been told in no uncertain terms, not to be in unless it's absolutely necessary.
I'll be WFH as of later today.
If you can then you should.
Have a chat with them.

What will the baby be doing? As if nursery shuts you'll need to take parental leave rather than working from home. I have 3 under 5 including a 5month old but work in frontline health so can't work anywhere else! But kids don't really seem affected by the virus.

If nurseries close then of course it will be parental leave for me or my partner so one of us can work. As I am the one with the ability to work from home I assume when the time comes he can care for her and I can work.

Business as usual here, until we're told to work from home then we're in work

My company made the decision to have all staff work from home on Thursday night last week, before the Government advice. I would expect that since the announcement on Monday that your company should be telling everyone to work from home.

All the office staff at my work are working from home, we are a manufacturing company, so the rest of us are still at work because we obviously cant work from home, 4 people have already been sent home to self isolate, and we are still getting new temp staff in everyday without knowing where they come from

I work on a military base, it’s business as usual with no advice for the civil service, contractors or the military! I have a laptop so I’m mainly working from home now.

Friend in a different department only has access to a pool laptop that he shares with 4 other people! They can WFH but there aren’t enough laptops!

I feel your pain. My bosses haaate us working from home even though we 100% have the capacity to do so. The London bosses told us on Friday that no one is allowed to wfh. Luckily it's an American company and the American CEO overruled them and said on Monday that everyone should wfh if they can. It's honestly mind boggling, wtf is wrong with people??? They care so much about facetime, they are willing to get into an argument with the CEO and more importantly risk their own health. I'm in central London btw so everyone would have to commute etc as well.

As a local authority worker we are being asked to come in if possible (fit not at risk and no symptoms) at our system is struggling to cope with too much remote access and practical stuff like staffing phones still needs to be done

my employers are also traditionally reluctant to encourage working from home, but even they have now said that we can if we are able, to avoid everyone commuting to central london. Do you have the necessary access on your home computer and are just waiting for the nod, or would you need your IT department to help out configuring access etc etc?

My bosses haaate us working from home even though we 100% have the capacity to do so

Mine hates it and over the years has reduced any flexibility with WFH as he thinks anyone he can't see isn't doing anything. We have 90% of staff WFH.

One of the positives i see once we get through all of this is the argument for flexible working will be stronger. Ideally rather than have staff commuting into a central office in London we could argue for WFH or smaller localised offices instead

DH started a new job last week. Old job - everyone is WFH. New job - no chance. Everyone must go into work and managers are disparaging towards a couple of staff with health issues who are self isolating. Really regrets the move now.

Our whole company will be working from home for the foreseeable future. We will have someone checking post and servers once a day. That's it.

Bosses who don't like people working from home need to ask themselves whether they would prefer their staff to die.

I work from home already. My company is encouraging those that can work from home to do so.

It's been a pain in the arse. The server can't seem to cope with it. If everyone ends up WFH then I doubt much will get done.

Not WFH is also terrible for business continuity. If you have your whole team sat together then they will all catch it at pretty much the same time and therefore all be off sick at pretty much the same time.

If they are catching it at random over the year then it will be one or two people at a time - much easier to keep the team working

It’s such a shame that so many companies treat their staff like this, it’s really horrible and shows such a lack of care.

In my job we all work from home, always have so no change there, but we now have lots of kids out of school and at home too (employees are based all over the world) and they’re not expecting parents to take parental leave, it’s more of a “we’ll do our best to get through this together” attitude. I massively appreciate their attitude to all of this after reading how some companies are treating their staff.