Not many of us have had a choice regarding WFH

[oranemaiden]

We were told to work from home (12.5 shifts with a laptop) back in March. Since then there has been a few posts on the company intranet to say we have no intention of changing things at the moment . No one has had a choice in this we are just told this is how it is now. Whereas when I worked in a call centre previously teleworkers ( official WFH title ) had to meet specific requirements the room had to be certain size , home insurance had to be informed , you had an allowance to cover things like the subsidised canteen food that you were missing out on. I know you may be thinking well it's different we are in a pandemic but I don't know how companies are getting away with this. Our customers are fully expecting no background noise etc ( no message has been put onto the call to say our agents are working from home and to expect noise. So I am expected to work in a call centre from home 07.45-2015 around DC nap time and DC bath bed . ( DH looks after her fully) but I still keep having to move rooms to avoid them and to not wake DC up at night . I am so fed up of having this situation forced on me .

Unless your customers are living on the moon they should understand about background noise. If you need to, just quickly explain in the call that due to covid you are wfh and to bear with you. You didn't create the situation so don't feel that you need to hide it or apologise for it.
Ask management about allowances etc. At a minimum there is money you can claim as tax return from the government.

I definitely don’t expect no background noise when I call a call centre number at the moment. We are all in the same boat (to an extent) and absolutely wouldn’t mind hearing kids in the background (on the basis that your DH has responsibility for them as you said).

We are definitely fortunate to have jobs that can be carried out from home. No doubt about that.

Threads and articles moaning about WfH really grate on me. Thank your lucky stars.

I like it when I ring a call centre and hear kids or dogs in the background, It makes the staff seem like real people.

My work have given us a £20 allowance for a keyboard and provided us with photos of an ideal WFH set up. Personally I am saving money by not commuting and am happy to be mostly WFH (client facing some of the time) but it definitely has challenges, especially in houses with small children.