just been told I have to go back to the office

[Sarah510]

and I don't want to!!!!! Have been wfh since lockdown and I love it. The freedom of it, and just not having to spend 2+hours commuting. I really thought I would be allowed to keep wfh as my job is not customer facing - I can do everything on teams, and a lot of it is with people in the far east so most is virtual anyway. But my team leader is the leader of another team as well, and she said to me today that she has put me on the rota for coming back to the office. I tried to say that I was happy to help out at busy times but that my priority had to be my own job, and that that wasn't people facing, and that it was going to be difficult to have these team meetings in a large office setting. She was unmovable though. I feel it's unfair. I mean, I'm not on that team, I'm a separate team, just me, the TL and a part-time person who is shielding so will not be coming back. I know people will slate me on here, but I really thought that things would change after lockdown. Team Leader is very anti wfh - she had denied requests even before Covid. She seems to be oldfashioned - like she always made a point of checking if I was in at 9am and telling me off if I was 5 mins late kind of thing. Never mind that I've been working weekends, late nights, early mornings since wfh, she just seems to want everyone back in the office under her watchful eye even though everyone is saying productivity is way up since we have been wfh.

Feeling miserable :( I guess I can 'see how it goes' and maybe put in a formal request to wfh. I tried to say to her that it was matter of being flexible but she's just not - she said no.

Office work is as much in peril as other proffesions and trades and manual workers and the easier to be replaced by the very machines you sit in front of every day whether wfh or in an office. Then true worth will be proven.

If you have to learn reception duties then do it. Everyone has to pull together and learn different tasks even if not your role. They pay you so you should do whatever duties they ask of you. Wfh was for good reason and now you can go back to the office. After all you were not employed as a home worker so have no right demanding to stay at home....

@Sostenueto

Nope I believe people should actually really work for their wages with others overseeing that they actually do do a full days work for a full wage. Perhaps a stint in a factory would show you what I mean? If I was an employer I would expect everyone from the toilet cleaner to the manager to work full days if that is what I am paying them for be on time or at a time they are allocated to work with set breaks ( no hanging around the coffee machine of which you would have to pay for just like a factory worker) and yes if you want a toilet break then you would do it in your time not mine just like factory workers. There is no one overseeing wfh. Yes as long as you get your work done your thinking well imo I don't think you would be doing it so well at home as you would if you were in a place of work. And surely as you say it's really so hard to work from home with all those distractions would it not be better to go into the office? Less stressful I would have thought! Plus you get to see and interact with fellow office workers and you might miss out on promotions gossip and forewarning of redundancies as the modern tech world replaces you with an algorithm! Surely going back to office is a win win situation?

This sort of attitude would make you a shit employer in a lot of setups. It might be ok in some, but with lots of more professional or skilled setups, you wouldn't retain decent staff and your business would struggle.

To many ppl been spoilt with wfh and now see it as their given right.If you took an office job then any wfh days are a bonus not part of your contract.

Wish I could have worked from home throughout this 🙈 YABU

@Ilovegreentomatoes

To many ppl been spoilt with wfh and now see it as their given right.If you took an office job then any wfh days are a bonus not part of your contract.

This. However if office working isn’t your thing now - just quit. There is always some one will be willing and able to take your place.

He narrowed it down that the only way he could have caught it is from a 5 min conversation, in the office, with a colleague who also had it.

Absolute bollocks. They must have been within inches of one another for that to be a possibility.

No, actually that’s not bollocks at all. It’s been well proven that aerosols are the most prevalent way of catching it, can spread several metres, and can last in the air for hours indoors. We’ve seen several outbreaks recently in open plan offices, e.g the contact tracing office in Scotland where 11 staff tested positive.

@PiataMaiNei

I’m glad you are saying “if I were an employer” as that means you aren’t one. As I can’t imagine anyone wanting to work with you!

@Penners99

OP, would a “Sorry, that doesn’t work for me” be a workable reply?

Seriously? I'd imagine that isn't the best advice, to say the least. I mean, unless OP wants to join those without a job.

I used to work from home before I retrained to a different career, b u t it was a job where I was client facing and did physical visits to clients and so was home 'based' rather than only working at home all the time. I did also occasionally go into the office for meetings. And was a perfect solutions when DC were in primary school as arranged client meetings around drop offs/pick ups:sports days etc. My colleagues were all office based.
That job could be done with the face to face replaced by Zoom, and I assume it is. However, that means that over time the UK workers will be replaced by people overseas who are cheaper and just as well -educated with excellent skills, and numerous nowadays who speak perfect English/in face better English than a lot of UK citizens.
It you have a complacent attitude- you will not last long! There is a hungry world out there of enthusiastic and energetic people and they are entitled as anyone hereto the opportunities on offer.
It will be interesting to see what happens politically when 'middle class' jobs are outsourced overseas as opposed to only blue collar jobs traditionally done by UK working class were taken up by enterprising migrants.

@Sarah510 how many days are you expected to go back (you say it's a rota basis)? Apologies if you've already said but I can't see in your posts.

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@PiataMaiNei

I’m glad you are saying “if I were an employer” as that means you aren’t one. As I can’t imagine anyone wanting to work with you![/quote]
You mean Sostenueto.

The OP has already said (on another thread she started) that she wants to continue working from home because 'I have so much time to myself to do the things I love'. She has been working for her employer for less than 12 months. Her employer wants to train her to be on reception - she might just be better considering returning to the office on the 'rota' she has been offered or find another job.

I cannot believe how unsympathetic so many posters on this thread have been.

My entire company (a major service company) was able to work from home within 2 weeks of lockdown starting, with the exception of about 100 people who process cheques and deal with bereavements. Unless you're physically handling ORIGINAL documents there is almost no office based work that can't be done from home. Hence why the DVLA and Passport office, who deal with original documents (i.e. the birth certs and actual passports) had a backlog.

But my point of real concern is that forcing people back to the office when it is not absolutely necessary will (a) help trigger a second wave and (b) place an unnecessary additional burden on working mothers. The complicated informal network of support that the vast majority of working mothers rely on has totally fallen apart. Shorter school days, lack of breakfast and after school clubs, elderly GPs unable to help, friends not able to collect children from the school gate (our school has a policy of immediate family only collecting). It is a total fucking disaster and if managers insist on people being back in the office, they clearly have NO CLUE how ordinary working mothers operate.

And yes, I deliberately use the word "mothers" as the overwhelming majority of childcare responsibility will fall on the woman in a M/F relationship. (For the dads out there that do the childcare "management" role, be proud of the help you give your partners, because trust me, you're in a minority).

Many senior managers are men in their 50s haven't got a clue what it takes because their wives do the childcare management. And forcing workers back into the office is going to have a disproportionate affect on women - having managed to work in an office for the ten years with children, if they now force me back, i would have to quit. The world has changed, and management need to understand this.

@Tekaloid

Imagine how your colleagues in the office are feeling having to commute to work each day while you have a leisurely breakfast and enjoy fiddling about at home.

It's a massive bone on contention in my office - I spend 1 1/2 hours commuting and about £15 in fuel a day, 5 days a week and it annoys me that others are "wfh". I'd love to be able to spend that time with my family and save the cash but I can't.

Presumably no one forces you to live that far from your office?

I still haven't seen any convincing reason why the office is preferable to working from home, if your role can be done from home. "Wahhh I don't get to do it so neither should you!" is something a child would whinge.

@Sostenueto - curious. Do the owners of a factory or the line managers dock their pay when they go to the loo? I bet you they don't. I know it happens, but it's fucking barbaric.

I agree that a big risk with WFH is that employers will realise that if Doris, the senior accountant, can do her job effectively from her home in Dorking, they could employ someone at half the price to do her job in Delhi.

I do wonder if HMG should take this as an opportunity to change the world though - accept that some Prets in the city centres will close, but incentivise those companies to operate differently - mobile Pret orders coming to small town at lunch? Small, local cafes re-opening in villages that have been hollowed out by the black holes of their local city. The key for governments is to rebalance an economy whilst minimising the economic pain for its citizens - something Maggie did the first part of but abjectly failed on the second.

What WhatWillSantaBring said, with bells on.

There are people in our company who need to be physically present at least part of the week; there are an equal number who could WFH full time. Majority of the workforce are women; C-suite are men.

And it was the men who issued the recent edict that we should all return to the office en masse, on the basis that if some of the workers had to, we all should. Never mind that that would make social distancing ineffective, and makes no sense anyway, and that we'd have to take public transport anyway. It was abundantly clear from Zoom calls that these men had big fancy out-of-the-city houses where they could commute direct to the office without sullying themselves on a tube, but I also never once saw their kids on a zoom call – but I saw plenty of my female colleagues'. The edict to return completely ignored curtailed childcare and public transport.

Thankfully there was a mass revolt and they backed down in the face of sheer fury.

All of which is to say I find the whole "party's over" mindset on this thread utterly bizarre. I've been WFH full time since my job began – even when there was no childcare and I had to sacrifice sleep and washing and free time to do it. I still clock in my 40 hours at home but, yes, I spend my former commute time and lunch break in the garden or sticking a wash on. It's not a crime or slacking off to do so, nor is it a party. A lot of you seem to enjoy capitalism's boot in your neck and think work/life balance is for hippies.

I would have thought all of the environmentalists on here who cry everytime someone uses a 4x4 would be thrilled for everyone to wfh? Less pollution from commuting, less pollution from big buildings with lights on all day and night etc.

But no, not bothered at all.

So.... the only reason anyone office based in UK has a job is because they have to be physically present and not because they are good at it and delivering results at a reasonable market rate?

I still haven't seen any convincing reason why the office is preferable to working from home, if your role can be done from home

I agree to a certain extent. As the lease on the building I work in ends later this month, and the company are downsizing office space, all of our contracts have been amended to WFH with the occasional appearance at another office.

WFH is working very well for my department, but there is a missing element that is difficult to define. The camaraderie, the banter, the brainstorming just isn't the same on Teams. We are very lucky that our HOD encourages a bit of banter on Teams, and we have a weekly quiz on Fridays to keep team morale going - taking part is optional BTW.

However, I miss my workmates, and am looking forward to the time when we can eventually make the odd appearance in the office.

@Sostenueto

Unfortunately my DD can't wfh. She has been working on the Frontline for minimum wage, zero contract hours, no sick pay and until very recently insufficient ppe. In fact she didn't get a Covid test till last week. She has a DD who has an auto immune blood disorder who is shielding since first week in March. She has been putting herself and DD in danger doing her job. She doesn't have a canteen having to have her breaks with the clients as they cannot be left alone ( severely autistic young adults with severe learning difficulties) and staff are short ( I wonder why?) She is a single parent and over half her wages goes on private rent because she cannot get either a council house or housing association house, her universal credit for Dgd stopped in June although Dgd does not go to uni till September, has never had help with rent earning £2 too much a week for help. If it were not for me they would be using foodbanks. So my answer is get back to work! You have had it easy for far too long!

So because your daughter chose a role that she cannot wfh in, others have to get back to the office. Ridiculous assertion. Perhaps as a parent you should have aided and guided her into better paid work? "Your older generation has had had it too easy for too long" - would that be offensive to you?

The OP has already said (on another thread she started) that she wants to continue working from home because 'I have so much time to myself to do the things I love'.

A couple of people have mentioned this and I don't see why it's (generally speaking) a problem to say that?
I have a 45 min commute, cutting that out means more time with DD as she gets picked up from nursery earlier, i can spend my lunch break reading in the garden (or having a 30 min nap because DD was up at 4:30). I'd say that a benefit of wfh is me getting to do these things I like, but it doesn't have any effect on my work or my employer. I don't get why OP is criticised for saying it.

Ginfordinner I haven't found that - we have a Teams team meeting every day and we call each other just to chat when we're not busy. But it does depend on the team dynamic and you make a good point. Personally I would solve this by having team meet ups (obviously not right now with the pandemic...) once or twice a month, outside of the workplace. That's better for team building than all sitting in the same room looking at individual computer screens.

Our company are doing 2 days wfh and 3 in the office and everyone is in on the office days so we are a team. I get that we will need to do this especially since covid and furlough - does make me nervous travelling on the busy trains though.