Return to office and BAME risk.

[Moominmummy12]

I’m expected back in the office shortly (I can do my job perfectly well from home). I suffer from anxiety, are in BAME category, have underlying health issues (but not shielding).
AIBU to expect my employer to let me continue working from home until Covid is better controlled?
YES - YABU to expect employer to let you work from home.
NYABU - to work from home.

If you can fully do your job from home then I don’t see why your employer should put you at risk by forcing your return to the office.
If you can’t do your job properly at home then your employer should be making your workspace covid secure.

Your employer should be carrying out risk assessments for those at risk and they should be frequently reviewed. They should be making adequate adjustments for workers to have a safe environment.

Unfortunately the government has stated those who are shielding are due to return to work from 1/08/20. So YABU, however I do understand your concerns. Plus we do not know what the state of the country will be like therefore, you never know your employer may look at working from home in the future.

Yabu.

You've not said your age, BMI, sex, or the nature of your health problems.

It sounds to me like you're being a bit pessimistic.

It’s not your decision to make , even if you had been shielding that would be coming to an end Saturday and your managers may have a very different view of how well you are doing your job

I don't know which way to vote because it depends on a lot of things. Yanbu to want to WFH as you can, but is there such thing as office cover at your work, does someone have to be there? And if so, how do the others compare to you in terms of risk, eg are they men/fatter/underlying health issues/vulnerable family members, BAME as well, etc? Lots of employers just want your arse on a seat in the office all day for no good reason which is shit, and totally an unnecessary risk, on the other hand, it's not really an unreasonable ask, unless things start getting worse again or you can't make the 2m and mask thing work at the office for some reason.

Have you asked?

If not do so, if you have and been refused as long as it's been fairly considered I think you are being unreasonable. If you've been discriminated against you should follow the proper procedures.

It's difficult for both employers and employees to take all the possible factors into account.

They are still doing a lot of research into exactly why BAME means an increased risk. It is still not clear if it’s other health conditions, jobs, poverty, social factors or another unknown genetic factor.
Only you can make a judgement about yourself but your age, health, gender and the precautions that have been put in place at work should all be taken into account.

I am actually worried that if too many people from ethnic minorities are scared to go back to the work place that their voices will go even more unnoticed than they do already.

Have you done a risk assessment ?
We all had to before we returned.

It’s not just the office though

It’s how you get there

OP it’s worth an ask

Are your children going back to school? I’d imagine an office where you can wear masks, social distance etc is far less a risk than a school with no PPE measures and no social distancing and lots crammed into small rooms.

Hi. Have Cardio vascular problems. Normal BMI. Age 51.
Have been doing my job from home for last 4 months without issue. Wouldn’t impact anyone else by not being in office. Have asked manager and listened to concerns but the overall message is we’re expected back.

YABU. It isn’t your choice. It doesn’t matter if you can “do your job perfectly well at home”; that’s totally irrelevant when your employer wants you back in the office.

I think it's unreasonable to actually. If you can work from home and are just as productive I can't see the requirement to bring you back in but it depends what you do I guess.

I understand your anxiety but rather than saying you don’t want to go back, I think it’s better to ask what the risk assessment is and what the new way of working will be.
My contract states I am employed to work at XYZ office so I have been told we will be starting to return. However it’s quite a small office in a larger building so I think we will be doing a rota of who is in what day. I know other offices are starting to do this also.

I’ve just filled in our “return to office” health questionnaire, and being BAME and anxiety automatically gets you into the “potentially vulnerable “ category, so fir us that means employees only go back if absolutely necessary, and with specific precautions