WFH - What are your employer's plans going forward?

[Burntbiscotti]

Was on yet another empty train at rush hour this evening which has inspired my question. Apologies if this has been posted before, but I thought it would be good to have a thread specifically to see what everyone's employers are doing about "going back" to the office.

I should be returning in September and personally I'm really excited, although I totally get why some people aren't. I WFH part of the week anyway (before Covid), so I see the variety as a good thing. It seems that September seems to be the general goal for many of my friends' companies too.

I wonder how many out there will end up going half and half, or straight back to the office full time. It will be interesting to know!

Will be at home until January at the earliest. You can book time in the office if you absolutely cannot work from home, but I don't think I will need to make use of that. I really don't think I will be returning to the office, we usually hot desk so can't see how that will work.

I don't think we will be any rush formally people have been going in all the way through....because they feel comfortable - but only because we’re not all there.

It's not been fully discussed but don't we’re only a small office so don't think there's a rush, personally I don't want to pushed into going back in when it's not fully safe...we couldn't social distance fully without there being some changing of working days (a lot of us are PT) and know I and one other certainly can't because of child care. Resent being shoved bk to prop up the lunchtime economy - I only get 30 mins for lunch, it's not long enough to walk to somewhere and back and eat so I bring mine from home. I spend more money on my days off!!!

We also have the issue that lots of our office live in different cities to where we’re based - 2 of which are now back in lockdown as they have really high cases - I don't we should be forced to mix with people from high risk areas.

I used to think I would like to work from home but the current crisis has taught me that I don't want it, after all.
I would prefer to be in the office, with a change of scene and meeting work colleagues....we all come from different areas so it's new people to meet and share news with.
As I work part-time and had only just started the job before lockdown I'm hoping I will be back in September as expected and not given the 'push'. I need the different focus in my week.... As we're education-based I don't think we'll be working from home.

OP you are BU to use "going forward" instead of "in future" - or indeed in the interest of brevity just "WFH - What are your employer's[sic] plans" since presumably the future is implied.

@Hingeandbracket

OP you are BU to use "going forward" instead of "in future" - or indeed in the interest of brevity just "WFH - What are your employer's[sic] plans" since presumably the future is implied.

Your user name has just reminded me that I have a copy of Dear Ladies and ought to watch it again.

I loathe "going forward" and all variations of it. I probably have a mass of annoying phrases I've picked up and of which I'm no longer aware.

Also some would say that companies should increase salaries to pay for increased electric/gas usage at home..?

Or reduced salaries for lack of commuting cost? Works both ways.

DH has been told wfh until January 2021.

His office is in the city, large with air con.

@BYGIDAFY

Also some would say that companies should increase salaries to pay for increased electric/gas usage at home..?

Why should companies pay for that? They don't pay for your commute to work.

An update on my post, I’d expected to be wfh for a long time - however, on Friday I received an reoccurring meeting invite, a full service group virtual meeting - until January 2022! I really hoped we’d be back to something that resembled “normal” earlier than that.

I dont have an option to wfh, but my concern is what city centres will look like in the future. I work for a retailer in a big train station, current footfall is 35% of pre covid figures. There are only 3 shops open in the station, all of us are in minus figures. The people coming into town are mainly families and groups of young people, no rush hour commuters. This will change in September if schools, colleges, universities
open and presume more/most people are back at work they wont be having their leisurely day out in town. There is a lot of office building going on, surely they will all remain empty...our cities will resemble ghost towns

I did see a different approach to all this - saw a post on Linkedin a couple of weeks ago about a small company which had taken more space in its building so that it could get everyone back in the office but spaced out more! But I can't see many firms doing that in the big cities, it's just too expensive.

Interesting.

I run a commercial property site in the countryside. We thought we'd lose tenants due to covid but in fact have had a surprising number of enquiries from companies wanting more space.

HE Sector and back in September. I am in student engagement, so I need to be on site but my desk is so open plan in student space that we have been told we have to wear a mask at all times. I'm not looking forward to that bit I have to say. Waiting to see what other "covid secure" measures they are going to have in place for us.

I actually hope, from a customer/"service user" point of view, that office staff are back in actual offices as soon as possible. I have had several phone calls which, in non-covid times, I wouldn't have found acceptable but tolerated it because of the pandemic. The first was a phone call to the bank. I received a text from the bank about fraudulent activity on my account so phoned the number on my card rather than the number they asked me to phone. I was transferred to someone in their fraud department. She was very helpful and sorted everything out for me but she was clearly on a mobile and the signal was poor (I was phoning from a landline which I had used not long before so knew it wasn't my end that was the problem) and it was difficult to understand some of what she said. If I'd have phoned the number they provided and spoken to her, I would have thought it was a scam (until receiving my new card a few days later). The second was phoning the IT department at work. Again he was very helpful but he was interrupted several times by a young child. The IT department can remotely access our computers and, as I work for the NHS, they are then able to then see any confidential patient information on my screen, which is fine as that may be the issue we are phoning them about. But obviously, if his children can then just wander over, can they or anyone else in his home also see that? Or overhear the conversation?

Here the view is that we won't be going 'back to the office'. Lockdown has shown that most of our work can be done remotely so we are a virtual office for most people with only a few going into the office where they can't work at home or need to be out of the house. A few colleagues haven't grasped that yet and think it will go back to how it was. It will never be the same again.

I've been back to the office once under my own request and I will go back again as it is quiet. I am signing up for an online course and if I was home I'd use any excuse not to study but will study in the office.

@ramblingsonthego

HE Sector and back in September. I am in student engagement, so I need to be on site but my desk is so open plan in student space that we have been told we have to wear a mask at all times. I'm not looking forward to that bit I have to say. Waiting to see what other "covid secure" measures they are going to have in place for us.

I'm HE sector too (but not student facing). We've been told everybody has to be back at the start of September to prep for the students' return, although they haven't elaborated on how that's going to be achieved. A lot of teams work in small offices rather than big open plan ones. A few of the non teaching teams are resisting being forced back as they've been working perfectly well from home.

I would love to be able to work from home a couple of days a week but it doesn't look like its going to be possible. They're determined to have everything back as it was pre-Covid.

We are back in on a rota, I hate working from home, so it suits me down to the ground, and looking forward to being back full time (whenever that is). They've been pretty open minded though, but no one has expressed an interest in working full time from home since the office reopened, but people can without penalty or hoops to jump through. We have some new joiners starting tomorrow, and it's really beneficial imo to be able to support them face to face as well as remotely, it's just not the same. I can appreciate why for some who have chosen jobs a fair distance away because they're better paid who can now see the alure of not having to go in, but the entitlement from some ie my utilities should be paid but I'll keep my commuting costs is a bit much; especially if there is a choice as to whether you go in or not. Usually when accepting a wfh position you'd factor in the costs when considering accepting a salary. Although this would open the competition up nationally for roles, so I doubt we will see salary hikes, if anything they'll go down.

Our office re opened at the end of July and we were told to come back if we wished, hardly anyone took them up on the offer 🙄 so everyone has to now return at the beginning of September.

September does seem to be the magic date, maybe Covid expires then?

Tricky.
I have an old fashioned boss who does not seem to be happy unless his team is under is nose although all our jobs can be done from home. We have a tiny office where social distancing is impossible and he has made no effort to arrange regular cleaning for the office. Frankly I don't feel safe there to the point where I am applying for new jobs. I hate the company and I am not sure my job there is that secure anyway so I am trying hard to find an alternative. More generally unless a job can't be done from home, I see no reason to rush back into public transport and office which will only result in more covid cases...

In our office the number of lifts is an issue, given only two in them at present for social distancing.

Likely to be wfh for a long time. Those who have limited space at home and have real difficulty wfh will be able to return first of all.

My firm (blue chip large UK based - offices all over the country) initially said we will see in September, and now saying wfh until at least Jan 2021. You can book desks in an office if you need to for personal circumstances, and they are opening more of those every week across the country.

To be honest I don’t think being sat with a bunch of randoms from across the company would be the same socially.

I like wfh in some ways, and used to enjoy the odd day, but the dawning realisation that the only “colleague“ I will ever see lots of for the rest of my life is DH and Dkids is quite daunting. I miss the office banter and conversation in the office, and interaction with others not in my team/dept.

I rode a bike to work for the past 4 years so I had no costs and miss the daily exercise/change of persona and pace between work and home.

I seem to start a bit later (procrastinate really) trying to squeeze in 5k on the x trainer first thing while reviewing work intranet and blogs and then feel worried I’ve not done enough and work a lot longer now, juggling cooking kids tea /fielding them and simultaneously ‘finishing up’ for hours.

I miss the structure of working out of home, and the people. I miss having personal space and alone time. I don’t miss riding a bike in all weather and rushing out of the house to be on time even when the kids just want a cwtch.

We’re wfh until January and then who knows! I work 3 days a week and hope I won’t ever need to go to the office more than once a week next year.

I was freelancing for a local firm and did a few mornings a week at their office. That's completely out for the foreseeable, though the bosses have returned to the office.

I've applied for and successfully got a new part-time admin position within the NHS, as the precarity of freelancing really doesn't appeal to me given the economic shitstorm that I think is going to hit us soon.

Not sure what the deal is with the NHS role but suspect it'll be working in the office, although the management team seem to be working via Teams at the moment.

Work for a household name organisation. Many thousands of employees nationally.

Offices are reopening from next month but numbers will be massively restricted, at most 15-20% of staff allowed. Those returning will be those who have asked to return, have nowhere safe to work at home, or whose performance when WFH is poor.

In the long term the business is looking to increase WFH numbers. However anyone wanting to be permanently home based or work more than 50% from home will have to pass various performance and psychometric tests, also to evidence they have a designated and separate room they can use as a workspace. Anyone not fitting those criteria will be phased back to the workplace from Oct.

To be honest I don’t think being sat with a bunch of randoms from across the company would be the same socially.

It isn't. When I'm asked, I just say think of it as a desk and that's it. In our offices no breakout spaces are open, no gym, no coffee shop etc. It is a nice change as I live alone but I won't be going in often.