‘Work from home if at all possible’ yet managers are already planning to get us back in.

[Beenjuice]

Our team provides an email and phone service to customers who buy our products. We cleared out the office the day that boris announced lockdown, took all our gear home and apart from the little loss of service the day of the swap over have worked hard to keep the email responses dealt with and incoming phone calls answered.
We all thought we were doing as best a job as we possibly can - we know there’s been a small dip in the number of enquiries answered per day than usual but that’s due to the extra communication issues that working apart from one another brings.
Today we were given the heads up that it’s looking likely we’ll be back in the office from May 11th albeit spread apart. Apparently the dip in numbers of enquiries being sent has been noted by the powers that be above.
So what was the point of the last 4 weeks at home? A group of about 15 of us having to use the same office kitchen, loos, door handles, stair rails and other places.
So what’s changed? Why does the rule ‘work from home if you can’ no longer apply to us? And how can it be justified if we’ve just spent the past 4 weeks working from home! Our customers haven’t seen a drop in service just the number game from the people above.
AIBU?

@EmpressLangClegInChair The OP wants to work from home.

@Jojobar You are being disingenuous

If everyone goes back and people get infected and die, there was no point in lock down

That’s a bit simplistic isn’t it? People will get infected and a tiny percentage will die, as will a percentage die if we don’t go back. No one persons life is worth more than another’s. Its not you can die of cancer or substance abuse or mental Illness and we only care if you die of Covid.

It’s a balancing act, we need to protect people’s lively hoods as well as manage the virus.

If I catch covid 19 at work I am suing my employer

Ok, hopefully you don’t but if you do, let us know how that goes for you.

Look it’s clear you don’t want to go to work. I think we all get that.

Where I work we have been told to prepare for 11th May return as has my husband both non essential . Seems to be that it will be back to business as usual then. Public transport will be back to packed trains and buses.

And dying is the worst thing that can happen.
I will be suing and encouraging others to if they catch it at work.

And I plan to see and go nowhere outside of work so transmission route will be obvious.

@Bluntness100 I am desperate to go back to work, but i dont want to die Kids are not going back to school either

Cantory can you not resign if you’re this adamant you don’t want to go to work? We don’t know if it’s fear or you just don’t want to work that’s driving you. But either way if you don’t want to, why not quit.

How in the name of holy shit could you prove you got it at work? Not from a parcel you had delivered, your shopping, the supermarket? 🙄

The transmission route would only be obvious if you could prove that you were infected by colleague X.

Otherwise I don't see how you could discharge the burden of proof.

There are many other possible transmission routes...if you walk to work you could have caught it from someone passing you in the street. If you drive, well I've heard of people spitting on car door handles, disgusting though that is.

And 3% of the population are suppose to have been infected with this level of deaths.
There would have been no point to lock down because if we all go back to work lots of people will die. So we will have destroyed the economy and still let lots of people die. It is literally the worst of both worlds.
Bet well off people will stay hidden in their second homes and won't be going back to work in a crowded office and sharing toilets and kitchens.
And government has made noises about a second lock down. This is also the worst outlook for my company. We are closed. It takes time and money to get up and running again. So that time and money is spent, we get up to full capacity, and then close again? Makes zero sense.
And you think most people are going back to pubs, restaurants, leisure stuff? Most will not.

Is there any compensation for increased household bills for those wfh? As there must be some savings on bills for the companies surely?

And dying is the worst thing that can happen.
I will be suing and encouraging others to if they catch it at work.

@cantory do you always sue your work when you catch a Coronavirus? You must be loaded!

Actually cantory are you nd your kids in the shielded group? I’d assume so as you’re so adamant you will all die if you get it? As such special measures will likely be put in place to protect you.

If not, then I think if you refuse to go to work or put your kids in school you have no option but to resign, they need to be home schooled and your employer is hardly likely to let you decide to just not come in. Maybe you can take a career break?

You prove balance of probabilities. If lots of people are suddenly ill at your workplace, a few hospitalised, then you can prove balance of probabilities.
People have successfully sued around norovirus. What you have to show is that the employer did not put measures in place to protect employees. So shared toilets cleaned once a day, shared kitchen in most places never properly cleaned, people walking by desks with no social distancing possible.

Businesses can't continue like this for much longer
The sooner people get back to work the more chance there is of the business surviving
If I was WFH or furloughed I would see I as a positive that I was being called back to work

Yes in shielded group. And no nothing has been said.
But even if we are protected, it will be those in vulnerable group who will die.

@user bully for you. OP is working from home and wants to continue ding so

Do you have a union, OP? I would expect the guidance that you should WFH if you can to stay in place for a while. Sorry to hear your employer is putting money before your safety.

I am entitled to my opinion
No need for rudeness
😄

Does the fact that you are dealing with (slightly) fewer queries in a day mean that you are failing to meet service levels or that customers are waiting an inordinate amount of time for replies/resolution?

If neither of those are true, then I don't think your employers can really complain too much. If they are, then a partial return to the office eg a week in and a week off, or alternate days might be justifiable. Or maybe they should look for volunteers to go back first. I like WFH but there are some people who are going stir crazy and would welcome a return to the office.

I think when the government updates its guidance next week it should make clear that office workers should be wfh unless it is absolutely critical that they are in the office (and a slightly slower pace of work does not = absolutely critical).

Its not you can die of cancer or substance abuse or mental Illness and we only care if you die of Covid

Unfortunately there seem to be a lot of people who think exactly that.

It's possible for you to work from home, but due to drop in production your employer is suggesting that you all will need to be back in the office.

Has anyone done a proper analysis in terms of the reason for the dip in productivity? Is it a general lack of business that is the root cause?

Would it help to keep track of productivity, for a week?

The OP wants to work from home.

Sure. I feel very lucky at the moment that I can work from home. That doesn't stop the comments about how much less stressful WFH is for everyone being a huge generalisation.