To ask what ‘work from home if you can’ means?

[Merryoldgoat]

I work in an independent school. I’m back office staff and from March until September worked absolutely fine from home with the odd visit to school. We (back office staff) all went back as normal in September.

My office isn’t Covid safe. My assistant and I sit within two metres of each other, there is no protection etc.

My assistant wants to work from home. I don’t especially.

I have zero issue with her working from home - she’s diligent, able and thorough. I like going in because I just find it easier to be on the ground but it’s personal preference.

My manager (effectivemy COO) doesn’t want us to work from home. Fine for me, not great for my assistant who is quite unhappy about it.

The basic reason my manager doesn’t want home working is that some other staff are NOT effective at home, and that he feels it’s divisive as there are probably only 6-8 people who can work effectively from home.

I’ve told my boss I need to think about the way forward - we are butting heads on this.

I think that if he wants us to work in the office it needs to be made properly Covid safe. Otherwise he should facilitate a rota for us or allow us to work from home.

YABU - you work in a school - deal with it and go in as normal despite your roles being easy to do from home

YANBU - your manager should facilitate home working, a rota or make your office Covid secure before expecting you in as normal.

To clarify again - I’m happy to work in school. I like being there and I like the space from home.

In case it’s relevant I’m a Head of Finance, my assistant is an accountant.

If the ones not performing well WFH are managed properly, with weekly targets & regular Skype to check on progress ,I can't see the problem.(there's bound to be a few who take the mick/ advantage of WFH) If you aren't safe in your office due to size & there's no screen or other room free of course the other person should be allowed to WFH.

This is a performance issue your boss seems to not want to manage. Working effectively from home is essential at the moment - if there are staff abusing that they should be let go. There are enough skilled professionals across all fields that replacements can be brought in much quicker now.

@Merryoldgoat

Update:

We’ve had a talk. He wants to talk again tomorrow after I’ve spoken to my assistant and clarified her concerns. He’s willing to let her work from home but would like the opportunity to make it safe if possible.

I told him I felt we’d got the message wrong and that staff should be allowed to wfh if possible.

He thanked me for being honest with him and the school will discuss and reconsider tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!

Sounds like you handled this really well. The key point is the office meeting covid guidelines. I work for a large corporate, 600 staff in my office alone. We can only go so far with achieving the guidelines and have had around 25 staff in since August. Everyone else, the entire business, is wfh.

I've been asked for my division to look at how we could become safer to allow more staff in, but. The wfh if you can guidelines came again so we are going to stay as is. It's really not possible to make people safe, it's all risk based and with the knowledge that it is and airborne virus, the actual safest place is at home.

Anyway, so we are basically saying work from home unless you really can't (kids at home distracting, mental well-being), and if you do need the office, you have to book a desk that no-one else will ever use once your name is on it. 2m apart, one way systems, weekly deep clean.

If is your bosses and the boards obligation to make it as safe as possible.

Government advice is to work from home if you can and you should all be following it.

If your manager doesn’t trust some of his/her staff that’s a separate issue and they need to find ways to deal with it.

I can understand if they want everyone in. However, it must be Covid safe. End of.
They can’t have you in if it’s not Covid safe.

I am in a very, very similar situation except I don't mind working from home but happy to work at school. I think in our school the reason those of us who can work from home haven't bern asked to is that there are many who can't and they don't want to be seen to be unfair.

I do think in the next couple of weeks we will be told to work at home more.

Like another pp, the more of us that work from home the safer everyone else is at work.

My job can 100% be done from home. But despite not making it COVID safe at all, we are still being told to go in once or twice a week. Not because we are not trusted , they have actually noticed that more gets done when we are all wfh, but because our manager wants us to "show our faces "in our department.

There are 9 of us but some are refusing to come in and saying they'll work from home thanks. The fact that he wants us in but there have been no COVID-19 safety changes at all despite promises is very unfair.

We had the memo to tell us all to return to the office as it was covid safe. Except it isnt covid safe, some arrows on the floor and bottles of sanitiser dont make the office safe if teams are sitting right next to each other without masks or other shields. I can sit 2m away from my assistant but then have to practically climb over him if I want to get a drink or use the loo.

Having fewer people circulating, whether in the office or elsewhere is safer for everybody.

I think it is estimated that less than 10% of the population has had covid. This means that 90% of the population is still vulnerable to catch a disease which may be mild in medical terms but that only means wont need hospitalisation. It can still mean properly ill for a couple of weeks.

Anyone who has worked in an office for any length of time will know what it is like if a stomach bug or 'normal' flu hits. It starts with one person being off then the next then the next. You can almost see it working its way along banks of desks. You always get a few people who insist on coming in and soldiering on (contaminating everyone else).

If 90% of us are still vulnerable then surely it is better for people to WFH. You wont get whole teams out of action at the same time. Better to have people working inefficiently than not working at all.

I think he should let your assistant work from home.
It makes the office safer for you, and you have said the work still gets done.
It's a no brainer for me.

This

Honestly put your foot down people. The government is telling us to work from home if we possibly can. They are not saying this on a whim but to try to slow down the spread of a global pandemic. The government advice overrides any arbitrary dictates from bosses to come in and “show our faces”. Just don’t do it (and document why not in an email trail). If challenged these bosses absolutely won’t have a leg to stand on.

Dictats not dictates

HI there
I am also senior management in an independent school. We have all our staff back other than those who are high risk.....however, the key difference here is that we have made the necessary changes to office spaces to ensure they are covid safe with furniture moves and screens introduced. If this were not the case then we would be looking at a rota basis work from home as necessary. (I am the same as you and prefer to be in).

@Backtoreality1 how do you square having all your staff back in with the government’s advice that people should be working from home if at all possible? And if they quoted this to you and said they were working from home, what would you do?

There’s no such thing as a covid-secure shared space given that the virus is almost certainly airborne.

I don’t know anyone who has gone back to working from home since the governments latest change of heart.

Update:

Hi everyone - finally a resolution.

My manager and I had a frank conversation and I was fairly blunt but polite about it all. He’s agreed for her to work from home so that’s all sorted.

He thanked me for being upfront and appreciated my honesty.

I’m happy with the outcome although I think all who want to work from home and are able to should be given the option. I have told him that too.

The right result. Well done.
You are a good manager

@middleager

The right result. Well done. You are a good manager

That’s a very kind thing to say. I worry about my ability to manage staff - I’m not a very anxious person but that’s one area that I feel quite under-confident in.

Your employer has a responsibility to provide suitable protection from known health and safety risks and are open to a visit from inspectors if there are no risk mitigation procedures in place.

I'm in a very similar situation to @HollaHolla. Some teams have been forced back into the office as 'key workers' when we can work from home perfectly well and have been for months. Having large numbers of staff on site when we don't need to just to show their faces is ridiculous and puts far more people at risk than is necessary. Add students to the mix and its no wonder cases are rising.

@Comefromaway has it right, I don't know anyone who has been allowed to go back to WFH.

Oh its also worth adding where I am we are going through a restructure (have been since the start of lockdown, good timing there) and there are mass redundancies. So people are keen to show their face to avoid being made redundant.

Well done OP thats a good update. You are one of the few good managers!

@flowerlessorchid

Oh its also worth adding where I am we are going through a restructure (have been since the start of lockdown, good timing there) and there are mass redundancies. So people are keen to show their face to avoid being made redundant.

Well done OP thats a good update. You are one of the few good managers!

Thank you. I must say that my manager is generally very good and I’m going to put this blip down to him being under pressure from various avenues and not indicative of him being a git. We have a good relationship which I suppose is shown by the fact I could say those things to him and I know he won’t be unpleasant about it.

I’m sorry to hear you’re going through a restructure - it’s not pleasant and I’ve been through a few in my time.

You should NOT be going into work if it's not covid safe. Your work do realise they could be held liable if anything happens to either of you as a result of an unsafe working environment. Especially as it seems from your post that it would be easy for them to make it safe by sending one of you home. AND that person wants to wfh.

This completely pisses me off tbh. Cases are going up because people are not complying with what are quite frankly some very easy rules now. Keep 2 m away. Wear a mask in certain settings. Work from home if you can and don't mix in groups of more than 6. Loads of these rules are being ignored by loads of people and we are going to end up in complete lockdown again which will be REALLY shut and potentially not have access to basic medical services again which has been massively detrimental to many many people.

@MiniMum97

The real issue is that a lot of the guidelines don’t apply in schools and education settings.

There’s a whole load of separate guidance for schools and we are technically within the bounds of what is expected.

But morally I think it’s dodgy ground and as we CAN wfh we SHOULD. I know I’m not and don’t want to, but will and can if I’m made to. But that’s my choice and I’m obviously socially distancing and using a mask etc.

I agree with you and the figures today are concerning. The only light is that the doubling time hasn’t increased thank god.

You should NOT be going into work if it's not covid safe

And you should not be going to work if you can work from home.

And you should not be going to work if you can work from home.

Again, I agree with this but guidance for schools is somewhat nebulous which is a real pig.