Are your employers still making you go into work?

[PardonMyFrancais]

For people who could work from home - AIBU to think responsibility lies with your employer to allow you/encourage you to do so?

I’m in an area which has just been put into tier 2, however I have quite a few friends who are still being told they have to travel into work - on public transport - every day.

All of them spent lockdown working from home with no issue.

It’s annoying me far more than it should. Reports have shown there is a greater number of infections in the workplace than in pubs, yet hospitality is the sector which seems to be demonised the most?

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our office is closed, but employer rented a temporary one for anyone that prefers to be office based, completely optional.
I prefer it - couple of miles walk, no public transport. Most days I'm the only person there, large enough if anyone else does turn up that it doesn't feel crowded.
Gives me a complete split between home and work - an no temptation to snack at biscuits all day, so probably good for physical and mental health.
Tier 2 - but I plan to continue working from there, as I don't feel that I am putting myself or anyone else at greater risk by walking in or being there.

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@Florencemattell bit dramatic. Are you vulnerable? I can't WFH, I'm in a factory environment of about 100 people plus doing the school run every day with my own DC. I certainly don't feel like I'm going to die. The vast majority of people who catch Covid don't.[/quote]
Yes I am unfortunately.

My employer won't let us won't work from home. Everyone worked from home March to august. Had to go back in the day guidelines changes in August, and now home working is not allowed.
I've argued it as it's a very small building, not much room to distance etc but been told it's safe so tough.

I'm working from home for the next six months I suspect. At least. That's assuming a vaccine in that time. And I have always had a working from home facility, and always will.

Whilst I do not disagree with the broad premise that it may be possible for more people, I think you have also to take into account that "I can work from home easily" is not necessarily the fact of the matter. What people see as convenient and easier for them can also be less productive and more complicated for employers. It's a judgement call - some people do better, some don't, and some take the piss. In my team I have all three. I have staff who have moved to fully working from home easily and are just as productive or even more so. I have returned some staff to the office after they begged to go back because they hate working from home even though it is possible (and their work was definitely suffering in measurable ways). And I have one member of staff who has had two formal warnings for unauthorised absence (supposed to be working but disappeared and uncontactable) and is now in formal performance management procedures for not doing any work! Fortunately, I won't have to sack her because her contract runs out next month and it won't be renewed. But to hear her speak she's working hard and can work from home totally!

I worked in my office from day 1 of lockdown and have done every day since. WFH is absolutely the last resort. Not sure how well I’d fare WFH I’d I had to.

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay That sounds perfect!

DH's work have been great. Anyone who can WFH has been encouraged to do so throughout, but anyone who wanted to work odd occasions in the office to help feel less isolated has been welcome to do so. The staff that have to work in the office or on site have been put into teams and they've spent a lot of money on equipment and the likes so that people are in contact with as few people as possible. They've also sorted out an allowance for staff that basically has meant people with cars get free parking (there's no onsite parking so they've basically hired spaces in another car park) and those without can get a taxi rather than buses or trains.

BIL's work have been the opposite. They've been ridiculously unhelpful. They've cut their staff bus because of Covid (which means staff had to use bigger public buses instead), closed their canteen because of Covid and banned shift swapping. They also hastily removed one of the bosses saying that their productivity went up when they were WFH because the CEO doesn't like "staff below a certain level" WFH as he feels they need closer monitoring.

I don’t see how you can be so certain that there were NO issues for any of your friends employers because of their staff working from home. Your friends personally not having an issue wfh doesn’t mean there weren’t problems with it somewhere. I think businesses should be free to decide what works best for them.

My now-ex employer dragged everybody - except those with children / living with shielding people - back to the office in early July. Everybody else was expected back on 7 Sept.

As I was in my notice period by then, I negotiated WFH until I left (long commute on public transport).

In the supposedly Covid-safe office (which doesn't even have sanitiser at the entrance / exit), they've now had at least 8 cases in the office in the last 4 weeks, 5 in the last 7-10 days). Everybody has been told to WFH again for at least a fortnight.

It's in a tier 3 area and the MD has wanted people back in the office from the minute we were told to WFH in March, hence getting people in ASAP in July. She just doesn't like people working from home (potentially as a minority of staff doss about / aren't productive).

My new employer only has the staff in who can't WFH and have strict rules in place to keep people safe. Everyone else is WFH for the foreseeable future.

We are all in and have been since the beginning of all of this (save for a few weeks furlough). No room to social distance, no screens between desks, no extra cleaning, visitors still allowed on site. There are some notices around the building and some hand sanitizers so we’ll be just fine . By contrast DH has worked from since early March and will continue to do so until early next year, a company who were very anti wfh before this and they’ve made it work.

DH’s workplace have been really good. Complete change, really uncharacteristic for them but totally stepped up to it. DH needs a better office chair for home which he can buy with the money saved on transport. Now the kids are back at school he is definitely working at maximum capacity.

I’ve been working in an office throughout and continue to do so, although 70% can be done from home.

I'm in charge of this decision at our office. I consult with my team, and make sure they always have a chance to raise issues publicly or privately.

We've all been working excellently from home, but we're meeting two days a fortnight in the office to have brainstorming meetings. We're very busy developing new projects, and find that a day or two of talking shop helps us get much further ahead than spending the same amount of time on Teams where you can't read the room so easily. We also have a new starter to integrate.

I think that for businesses that are conducting the same workloads as usual wfh is fine, but we're doing a lot of new things that are better done in person.

My employer lets me work from home, it's basically down to me how I want to work.

Employers insisting on staff coming into work when they can do the job at home are weird and controlling, and I wouldn't want to work for them if I could help it. So many employers flapping that their staff might be sat with their feet up watching TV and getting upset that they can't track their every move as easily.

It's been a painful experience trying to get the most basic tasks done. I've been office based throughout and all this talk of being so productive wfh just hasn't been the case as far as I can see.

My team has been fully WFH since mid-March. Their average monthly performance is on average 20% higher for this period than for the same period last year despite increased challenges in doing what we do. WFH has meant we’ve had to be leaner and more focused and the results have been great. The results could have been very different if we’d run WFH differently - but that wouldn’t have been because of WFH, it would have been because I was shit at managing it.

I joined the team in November so the increased performance could be all me and it would be even higher if we were in the office. That seems pretty unlikely though.

Productivity is more often a function of management and systems rather than staff WFH/not WFH. It’s easy but lazy to blame the staff themselves though.

My office is opened for those that want to come in but they’re encouraging us to wfh.

Some employers are being stubborn. What will they do if there is a positive in their office ask the rest of workers to self isolate and wfh then? They’re risking that some others will catch it badly and then will lose staff for a few weeks or months when this could have been avoided

As other pp has said the productivity of my company has been up. We’re even making more cash than was expected pre covid so would be stupid from business side to force us all back to the office

I know I’m being lucky not all employers think about the people they employ like mine does.

Btw my team is based all around the uk and even someone has been all this time abroad. We’ve the right tools in place to make things work.

I gave up my job to take a career break back in June but we were all working from home. Most people still are with the exception of a handful who need to be onsite, they went back in September but they’re operating with a skeleton staff, have PPE etc. The company where my husband works have just let their lease lapse and now have working from home permanently. In the future when they need to meet they’ll just hire meeting space and potentially a few hot desks somewhere. It’s a tech company though so this is fairly standard even in normal times.

@EasterIssland

My office is opened for those that want to come in but they’re encouraging us to wfh.

Some employers are being stubborn. What will they do if there is a positive in their office ask the rest of workers to self isolate and wfh then? They’re risking that some others will catch it badly and then will lose staff for a few weeks or months when this could have been avoided

As other pp has said the productivity of my company has been up. We’re even making more cash than was expected pre covid so would be stupid from business side to force us all back to the office

I know I’m being lucky not all employers think about the people they employ like mine does.

Btw my team is based all around the uk and even someone has been all this time abroad. We’ve the right tools in place to make things work.

We wouldn't have to self isolate in our office as we all wear masks and are 2 metres apart. We are NHS though so would be a nightmare if the whole office were off.

Thankfully, my employer is not encouraging me to work from home, even though I could. I left my last job because I was forced to work from home. I really don't want to change jobs again

Our team were mostly WFH before Covid; with a bit of travel. Whilst those who have kids who were home until September had a drop in productivity, the overall team performance actually improved a little as there was barely any sick leave taken. Flexibility with work/illness meant that those who were showing symptoms/positive (two in our team!) and felt well enough to work were able to continue, and with track and trace, any potential issues there are eliminated.

It's good to see people's anxieties about having to go into workplaces that aren't covid-secure being treated with respect and understanding. A shame people aren't always as sympathetic towards teachers who have the exact same worries.

Only essential visits to the office are allowed. My firm has already closed several smaller offices permanently and all those staff now wfh exclusively.

We're getting mixed messages from my company. My department manager is keen to get us back asap and has told we will be back in the next month of so. But our top level management keep saying that those who can wfh and don't need to be in the office to do their job should continue to wfh.

@WipedoutMama

You're not being unreasonable. It's absolutely up to the employer to encourage people to work from home where they can and be as safe as possible. My offices of over 300 people have been closed since March and the latest staff brief said there were no plans to reopen before January. Everyone is working from home just fine.

I'm really quite surprised that over 300 employees are WFH just fine

No childcare problems, all with adequate space to work, no internet problems, no mental health issues, no lack of productivity?

How do you know how everyone else is getting on, if true your workplace isn't like any other.

I never went back at all yet - just contributed working at home since March and we’ve been told unlikely we be back at the office til next year some time

Yep- in on a rota, 2 days a week. Hoping the government say we have to wfh- but I doubt it’ll happen.