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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We've all been at home since march and won't be going back any earlier than April. Our offices are available for field workers who need welfare facilities but other than them the only people in the office are the control room who need to be. I don't think we'll ever go back to being in the office full time.

Yes, thank God. Wfh doesn't work for me at all. Am dreading any change.

Our company is the opposite, we are not allowed to go into work, nor meet up with anyone from work, even outside. It is fine by me as I prefer working from home now.

Dh works in a tiny company (just 4 of them) in a pretty small office. He's been wfh since March with extra work on (online sales, he's the IT department) and doing more than he is technically paid for. His boss wants them all in the office starting last week, because he doesn't believe anyone is working unless he can see them. So dh has had to start doing his 50 mins each way on public transport commute to work in the office, which isn't big enough for them to social distance in.

But hey, he's the most covid secure out of the lot of us tbh, as I work in a secondary school, dd1 is at uni (living there, not coming home til Christmas probably), and dd2 is in a primary school. We all come into contact with significantly more people at a closer distance than dh does, even with his public transport commute taken into account.

I've a team of 22. No-one has been told they have to go in but there's a voluntary rota to cover essential, in person tasks. The two most senior people are doing 2 days a week each.

What really annoys me are the handful of people in their early 20s who are refusing to go in but expecting colleagues to pick up their essential face to face tasks and eye rolled when I suggested they needed to take on something instead.

They can't evidently take the risk of coming in but can, as is evident on Facebook, meet up with their mates socially.

I would be in work every day if I could, i walk to work and have my own office. I just like being at work and am more productive at work than at home. I also don’t have a comfortable desk and chair at home and I like the socially distanced real-life interaction at work. It’s kinda the reverse, I’m being made to work 1-2 days at home and I don’t really want to. 1 day is fine but I hate being in the house all day.

I would quite like to get back into the office but management are keen on keeping us working from home permanently. I have a friend who managed to do her office job perfectly well from home during lockdown but is now insisting that everyone is back in the office meaning she has to use public transport everyday. Her office also hasn't put any safety measures in place baring a few tubs of hand sanitiser.
It boils down to the agendas of your company. Mine have been pushing for home working for a while and covid has been the perfect excuse for it. Remove the staff from the building and it can be rented to others to bring in income.
My friends management clearly have a different agenda and want their staff present in the office.

Live and work in the Scottish central belt (under the tight restrictions) but have to work from the office despite being capable of WFH. Finance in college sector are all in the office but friends doing the same role in the Uni sector have been told not to expect to be in the office until spring 2021 at the earliest.

I’m a teacher. I’ve worked all the way through, although currently my school is closed because one child infected 5 adults. I am scared. Really scared. But I’ll be back after half term because I. Have. No. Choice.

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all. I started working from home when full lockdown was in place, most of my work is office based and I have a home office set up. I actually found I got more work done as there were no distractions, no office gossip or chit chat. However my employer has decided that because we are allowed to open and operate that we should be back in the office. With the door locked, and nobody allowed through the door. I have to travel on 2 buses each way, and could have used my commuting time to just log on and work, but have been refused permission to do this. Don't see the logic myself

No, our office only opened in the last couple of weeks and so far it's been limited to those getting the new graduates started and anyone who has specifically requested access (which I believe is only one person). Clients are all still at home too.

Just want to clarify I’m not saying people should be forced by their employer to wfh - more that people who don’t feel safe, especially in areas the government have deemed as high risk, should be allowed to.

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

To me, ‘just fine’ doesn’t mean ‘with zero problems’, it means ‘with no more problems than being in the office’.

So for every childcare issue (should be fairly minimal now), you’ll have people who are able to WFH effectively despite a class bubble bursting and their kid getting sent home. For every MH issue made worse, you’re likely to have another that’s improved (in my experience) due to no commute, or reduced exposure to stressors in the office. For everyone working at their kitchen table alongside a partner, you've got someone in a hotdesking office who couldn’t get a desk because they didn’t arrive early enough and ended up working on a sofa for half the day, or someone who found it really tough to work in an open plan environment. For every individual drop in productivity, you should (if managed properly) have an increase due to more flexibility, not having to dash out the door on the dot for childcare or a train, or just more time due to no commute.

The MH issues are my biggest worry. My own office (around 350) is open for a very small number, prioritising those whose home circumstances mean it’s preferable not to WFH, or who are really struggling with it. It’s about 10% of staff. It’s a big management challenge to make sure our teams are supported when we’re all operating remotely in strange and stressful times. It’s a particular worry for me over the shorter and darker winter days. We’re investigating with our team whether we should start having longer breaks for lunch (ie no meetings at that time) and flexing the working day differently to make sure people can get outside for a decent time when there’s maximum light.

@JassyRadlett well done, you sound like you really care and think things through.

Your employers will still have to be paying out on building costs etc so it’s not surprising they would want you in. Plus it’s more likely more ‘work’ will get done compared to being at home where someone could take the piss.

Of course the opinions I’m hearing from friends are likely not balanced, but one in particular is aware the business has been doing better since lockdown (they receive monthly updates and reports which prove this).

His CEO doesn’t like the concept of wfh and is open about this.

The office is based in central London and I’ve seen photos of tubes packed with at least 20% of people not wearing masks.

I think if someone doesn’t want to put themselves in that environment every day (and, by proxy, anyone else they live with), then they should be able to request to wfh without any negative impact.

I totally understand that many businesses haven’t been doing as well and prefer to have their staff in the office, but so many industries are taking sacrifices at the moment - for the benefit of the whole country (apparently) - so I don’t think a decrease in productivity is a good enough argument for forcing people to be around others at the moment.

@TidyOmlette on the other hand, they’re paying the costs either way but it’s cheaper to not have staff in (electricity, milk, tea, coffee).

Regardless, why would you not put your staff’s health above saving money though?

@LadyWithLapdog Ah thank you that’s kind! We are only as good as our people and if our people are stressed and miserable we’re fucked. We’ve got really stretching targets and a huge amount on so if we’re not looking out for their well-being we’ll all crash and burn.

Plus I like my team and want them to be ok in all this madness!

I really miss some of the creative energy of being in the office but we’ve also seen massive gains in other ways from being at home. Long term I’m looking at a hybrid for my team where we have some collective time together but not necessarily full time. Not until Covid is over though! Can’t imagine wanting to add to their stress by forcing into trains / into a crowded office unnecessarily right now.

Plus it’s more likely more ‘work’ will get done compared to being at home where someone could take the piss.

I’ve found the total opposite. I’m always a bit baffled by this though - don’t people have the same targets/objectives to hit and are being managed towards that? If someone is able to take the piss that sounds like a total management failure to me.

nope - ive been home since march and will probably remain home until next march (at least).

@PardonMyFrancais

Because a lot of business only see staff as a number and not real people and as others have said, some people probably don’t work as well from hone as they think they do.

Yes - I worked from home and my productivity increased! However been told we must still be in the office full time (back office of a college)

No, my employer has just shut down our huge offices.

This makes me realise how lucky I am & being a bit fed up of my job generally (because it is starting to bore me rather than anything else) is not a good reason to leave at the moment! My boss is happy with us working wherever - from home or the office which is as COVID safe as it can be. We’ve got flexitiming on our hours, total autonomy and he trusts us to get on with it, plus was very understanding and appreciative of the work done during lockdown with the nightmare of wfh & homeschooling etc.

I’d definitely be moving on in a few of the situations described above, but I realise it’s not always that simple. It does baffle me how any employer thinks they’ll have a happy and therefore productive workforce in the current situation if they manage them by ‘forcing’ them in to the office if they don’t want to be there or feel that doing so is putting them at risk.

(& I much prefer being in the office which is pretty much empty and I drive in so it’s ideal for me at the moment, but entirely my choice!)