Leaving because not allowed to wfh

[bctf123]

background- i worked really well from home during lockdown and replying to emails immediately, always sat at my desk etc
as soon as i had made a few errors in my work, i was called back in on the pretext of needing an office environment to work well(around September)
i am the only one called in along with a young apprentice who needs to be on site. i am a bit of a pushover and lowest in the office chain and feel ive been singled out despite my contribution and role.
the manager has been really resistant to me wfh, including in the current lockdown and even on a part time basis, which i dont understand and which i dont want to argue as its a bit of a dog eat dog type of environment.

i am now thinking of leaving as i dont feel treated like an adult at all. the way im being treated feels petty and humiliating.
my motivation has fizzled out since being back in the office and i spend a lot of time watching tv instead of being productive.

aibu to want to leave? they have said they want me to stay but it feels like im being pushed by being singled out as if i need supervision

I can see what some of you are saying but....who is the OP supposed to “bounce ideas off” if there’s no one else there? When I’ve had office jobs, I’ve always been unlucky and had managers who were very resistant to WFH. I don’t do office jobs anymore.

tbh i used to make the same mistakes in the office before lockdown. wfh didnt make things worse

OBVS im working and watching/listening to the tv, not just sitting comfortably. i dont how its that different from others slacking at home

It sounds like you don’t have much of a work ethos if you think watching/listening to the TV while working is okay OR that people WFH are “slacking”.

The people I know WFH are not slacking. DH goes into his “office” set up in the spare room between 7.30 and 8.00. He works until lunch and, zoom meetings allowing, he has a half hour break before working until the end of his meetings so between 4.30 and 5.30 (occasionally later).

@ShirleyPhallus

You made mistakes with your work and now sit around watching tv instead of working?

If that’s your attitude then I think you’d be doing them a favour by leaving tbh

This!

I'd be delighted to get rid of you without having to do it myself!

I'd think carefully before giving up a job in this climate to be honest

They allowed WFH and had to end it for you because the quality of your work dropped. 🤷‍♀️

Sounds like the correct business decision to me.

And now you're basically sulking about it and watching TV at work.

That's the sort of attitude I'd expect from stroppy teenagers tbh

The professional response would be to put forward a plan - Accepting responsibility for the errors. Identifying how and why these errors came to happen and detailing what you would change in order to avoid a repeat of the situation.

You don’t sound very competent at this role OP. Maybe it is time to have a rethink.

Maybe time for a new job if you have a history of mistakes and are now watching TV at work.

You might well be suited to something else.

I’d be a flaky disaster at home myself so I’m somebody who would need be at work 😂

From your responses I wouldn't trust you to work from home either. You are making an awful lot of excuses for what you're doing wrong and by the looks of it you make a lot of mistakes that you seem to just not care about. You need closer supervision, not less.

Can you afford to leave ?

They might welcome it.

At the moment a job is a job.

If I was managing you, I would be actively managing you out the door.

tbh i used to make the same mistakes in the office before lockdown.

Before, you insinuated that the reason you made a mistake was because it was your bosses work that you were doing, so it wasn't really your fault! Now, you say that you made mistakes at home but it should be okay because you used to do the same in the office! . I think you should think yourself lucky you have a job at all. They seem to be very tolerant of you and have given you a chance by getting you to work in the office in the hope you may improve.

I think you should do your employer a favour and get a new job that you actually care enough about not to be so blasé about mistakes!

You would be all shades of daft to walk out of a job now.

"my motivation has fizzled out since being back in the office and i spend a lot of time watching tv instead of being productive."

Go back @bctf123 and read what you have said in your posts. Would you trust someone like that to WFH? Would you employ someone like that?

If you can find an alternative job that is at least as good, then on the face of it there is no reason not to go for it.

You mean you make the same mistakes over and over and over?

Well that's not good. Why have you been unwilling or unable to learn from that, identify why it keeps happening and make changes to how you work so that you stop making them?

WFH is ‘slacking’, and you have a tv on in the background...? Hmmmm

People who work from home are not generally slackers, otherwise lockdown and wfh wouldn't have gone well for many companies.

You, on the other hand, watching TV when you're meant to be working.... slacker. Maybe you do need to be in the office.

They’ve obviously made you go into the office because they think you’re slacking off at home and have been making mistakes...now you’re slacking off in the office watching telly so you have proved them right that you do require supervision.
If you have no motivation to do the job then do everyone a favour and leave.

@bctf123

tbh i used to make the same mistakes in the office before lockdown. wfh didnt make things worse

The professional thing to do here would be to put together a 'case' to persuade your manager that you should be allowed to work from home. Put together all of the arguments you have shared here:

• No one in the office anyway so it is not much different to home
• You are happy to go in 1-2 days a week for the things that are better in the office, it would be great if your supervisor could come in that day so you can bounce ideas off each other better
• No time or energy wasted on commute
• Your mistakes were relatively minor and you really want more feedback and coaching for how to improve, but this can be done just as well from home
• etc.

If you go with a proposal and handle the conversation in a mature, professional way it will get you brownie points AND be more likely to get what you want, compared to sulking and saying 'it's not fair!' which will not get you what you want, and mean you're more at risk of further disciplinary action or even being fired...

I'm actually astonished that there's anyone, let alone nearly two fifths of people, that think you're being reasonable. Unless they're perpetually on the skive, too . . .

i am obvs working simultaneously. not just sat with my arms folded not working

Yeah, cos watching tv is going to help you to stop making mistakes

Op - your description before you started minimising was:-

“ i spend a lot of time watching tv instead of being productive.”

Your letter reads as if you don't really need the job. That might be the key to your problems with your employer.