To complain to my boss about her decision?

[thewinenotthelabel]

I work for a small family run business.
Including myself there are 10 of us.

Myself and one other staff member are younger than 35 and the rest of the staff are 50+

During lockdown the company stayed open and we all worked from home.
We returned to the office early June.

Since the announcement from the government regarding working from home, I expected our boss to send us home, but she hasn’t.

She sent an email to us all at the beginning of the week advising that the office was Covid secure, we’re all small company, we aren’t in a busy city centre and none of us use public transport to get to work.

She thinks it’s better for team morale for us all to be in the office rather than working from home.

The thing is, we “can” work from home as we did for months during lock down with no issues.

My area of work is on a local lockdown area and I’m starting to feel anxious being there.

Would I be unreasonable to approach her about this and tell her I’d like to work from home?

@Oblomov20

You come across as completely neurotic

You come across as completely rude!!

I’m hardly neurotic for wanting to follow the governments advice and wfh!!!

You do sound neurotic.

😂

[quote thewinenotthelabel]@loobyloo1234

If your office is Covid secure, what are you anxious about OP?

Being around people in general!

I feel like the office is Covid secure. We’re all 2m apart. We have automatic hand sanitisers on several places around the office.

But if Covid is airborne then what difference is all that going to make! Sure the best way to eliminate risk is to not be around people.[/quote]
We’ve been working in the office throughout this. 26 people on a half in, half out basis. All the measures you have said in place.

Not one of us has been off with symptoms/Covid.

@IndecentFeminist

*Neurotic' is a term colloquially used to describe someone who is uptight, anxious about the tiniest of slights, emotionally unstable, quick to anger, and frequently obsessive about small things.

I don’t consider myself those things!! We’re in the middle of a pandemic and it’s been advised that you should work from home if you can. I can!!

How does that make me neurotic?!

Because you are in a covid secure office, with few other people. You can work from home in the strictest sense, but can't because your boss doesn't want you to. They have made the office secure. You're not at any great risk, so you do sound neurotic to me.

You can’t work from home though, because your boss has decided that you need to be in the office

The government advice isn't to work from home though. That was the headlines from Johnson and Gove but the actual guidance makes it clear it's work from home if you can do so effectively. The introduction of the word effectively makes a massive difference and I would speak to your boss about what it was about WFH that means it wasn't effective.
We are using that to enable those struggling with WFH and the isolation to come back into the office on a voluntary basis - for now.

*I feel like the office is Covid secure. We’re all 2m apart. We have automatic hand sanitisers on several places around the office.

But if Covid is airborne then what difference is all that going to make! Sure the best way to eliminate risk is to not be around people.*

It's Covid secure, it's only 10 people!

You can't rewrite the rules to suit you.

It's safe.

Some people seriously need to get a grip. Some of us haven’t had the luxury of working from home. At all.
I’ve worked in an office throughout the peak. No hand sanitiser and no social distancing at first. I’m fine. Everyone else at work is also fine.

I work at a senior school so I’m 😂😱 at this post.

If your office is Covid secure

There is no such thing.

You’d best call the HSE.

Isn't it the older members of staff who have more to worry about?

Your boss has likely invested in making the business Covid safe and I think she's be pandering to your worries if she let you wfh for this reason alone. Just go in, follow guidance, wash hands, you can't stay in a bubble forever.

@IdkickJilliansass

I work at a senior school so I’m 😂😱 at this post.

@IdkickJilliansass

Are you vulnerable? Because I am.
Pretty shitty that you find that funny.

We worked from home between March and August
It proved to me that we work more effectively in the office environment
Most of it was the small things like generation of new ideas, problem solving, shared responsibility, helping out colleagues, we also send less emails and make phone calls as we can just talk to each other - that in itself saves time
I sympathise with your boss

Over dramatic much 🙄 there’s plenty of people more vulnerable than you, asthma hasn’t shown itself to be a major risk factor with this particular virus and as for being overweight well that’s up to you.

You are over reacting

By your own admission the office is covid secure you don't use public transport and not in a high risk area.......

You're not clinically vulnerable, assuming you weren't required to shield? So yes, a bit neurotic. Which is fine, there's a pandemic etc but take it on the chin and keep going.

You went back in June...that’s against public guidelines.

The rules now in England are...lf you can work from home, then you should work from home, regardless of what your boss thinks is best for morale, unless you’re an essential* service worker.

It’s not hard.

I think people are being very unfair to the op! I have asthma and a few years ago almost died from the flu after it turned into pneumonia. As covid can cause pneumonia it's totally logical for an asthmatic person to be concerned.
I wouldn't want to be in the office either if there was an option to wfh...why take the risk when you dont have to, even if it's only a slightly larger risk?

Business needs change all the time, what may have worked in June may not work now (plus thats only your opinion). YABU

From what you describe, you should be working from home. 'Boss does not like it' is not a valid reason in my book.

Has your boss thought about what might happen if one person brings the virus in to the office and infects everyone else? She could easily see her entire workforce wiped out for two to three weeks. From a business continuity point of view, splitting her team 50/50 (so one week WFH, one week in the office) would be good insurance.

We're also going into office. Guidelines here in ireland are continue to work from home if you can. Our owner feels that they have made enough changes to make the office safe so into work we go.. many of us wouldn't mind staying at home but c'est le vie. I'd ask but definitely wouldn't go in complaining. It won't change anything and will just put you in your employers bad books.