Employer says I must return to office

[Dishmatic]

I’m currently wfh. A lot of people at my company are in the office and have always been.

Last year I wrote to HR and requested to wfh due to a health condition which makes me vulnerable to Covid.
This was approved and i’ve been wfh since.

I have my Covid vaccine this week. I told my work colleague that I’d booked it and yesterday I had an email from work asking for a catch up about retuning to the office.

I spoke to them this morning and they’ve said that now I’m being vaccinated I will be expected to return to the “Covid secure” office.

I didn’t say anything on the phone but I’m really not happy to go back in.

There’s over 70 people in my office building.
14 in the room I work in!!

AIBU to not go back in due to risks?

Honestly, you've been very privileged to have been able to work from the safety of your home for so long. There are lots of vulnerable people who have been out working in the community putting theirselves at risk with no vaccine on board throughout the entire pandemic. One of colleagues is in his 70's, has worked throughout, still is and only just had his 1st vaccine.
There also now lots of people looking for jobs, I would be thinking about getting back sharpish as there are plenty people who would happily take your job in the office.

It doesn't even matter if you do work better from home. They don't want you at home, they want you in the office. That's the bottom line.

When is your 2nd vaccination?

@Dishmatic

Are your decisions about risk based on actual fact and medical advice or is this a feeling?

I’m shielding and vaccinated. When I make decisions on what feels sensible e.g supermarket I’ve considered my consultant’s view, the efficacy of the vaccine in people with my disease, the risk of hospitalisation and death from studies of people with my disease, additional risk factors like being BAME.

@youvegottenminuteslynn

Why ask if you're 100% sure you're not being unreasonable?

It’s surprising how many people claim to know my exact circumstances, and answer my post as if they did.

I asked if it was unreasonable for me to want to
work from home.

I’ve explained my circumstances, my employer definitely do not have an issue with my quality of work, believe me if they did, they wouldn’t let it go on for a year.

Yet so many people have just assumed that’s why I must go back in.

People assume I’m getting “special” treatment or that my colleagues must be getting extra work because I’m at home.

It’s rubbish. I don’t get special Treatment and no one has to pick up my work.
Half the bloody country is working from home, because that’s what we’ve been told to do.

Half the bloody country is working from home, because that’s what we’ve been told to do.

Crucially this doesn’t apply to many of your colleagues.

Why aren't all your colleagues working from home?

Half the bloody country is working from home, because that’s what we’ve been told to do.

But not many of your colleagues are. I think you're being unfair on your employer - if most colleagues have worked in the office throughout, it suggests your employer has reasons they want people in the office. They made an exception for you for a year despite you not being on the shielding list and you have now had your vaccination.

You seem so angry with people suggesting they are being fair and reasonable and you're unwilling to see the other side.

You aren't unreasonable to want to work from home, nobody is unreasonable to want that or even request that - during covid restrictions, or before or after.

You are being unreasonable to insist it's unfair in saying you now need to come back to the office. It isn't unfair. It's not what you want (and it's your prerogative to prefer working from home) but it isn't unfair of them.

OP, have you thought of asking your GP? If you’re not on the CEV list and therefore haven’t had the guidance from the Gov’t to stay home until March 31st (so far), they may agree that you should be added to that list, and if so, you should therefore receive any further guidance accordingly...
Those letters can be used to show your Employer that you’re not supposed to go on. (But I don’t know how much longer this Gov’t advice will be for - so far I (CEV) have had a few extension letters...
Hope you get something resolved💐

[quote Dishmatic]@dontdisturbmenow

Is it that you are genuinely worried or that you've enjoyed WFH and would like to continue.

I don’t like wfh, I work more hours, I’ve even found myself working at the weekend.

I’m genuinely worried.[/quote]
This might be the problem. If your employers have noticed your extra hours they maybe have concerns over your mental well-being, which is just as important for them to look after as it is to provide covid secure workplaces

MN is funny about wfh. Always seems to be assumptions that it means you're doing sod all when the reality is longer hours and no lunch break for most of us

I am the opposite .I am actually cev and shielding .I have had my first vaccine if i have to wait the full 12wks it will be May before my 2nd injection .I know it is my right but i cant expect my employer to wait until the end of May beginning of June that would be half a year out of work it is not fair on them and the team who are covering for me.Everyone i work with has been vaccinated , (masks and ppe) as the people i will go to .I know for a fact that everyone is sensible out of work.I will just go to work and back ,no supermarkets and DH will put fuel in my car that way i am keeping the risk as low as possible .Mentally i can't do all that time off i am a people person not seeing my work team is hard and miss being at work.

It does sound like perhaps your colleagues have been carping if the HR call after you told one about your vaccine. There is a lot of jealousy about wfh from home from those that can't as shown on this thread.

*@lovingmyppe**

I think the fact that you haven’t worked from home though this, shows how little you understand about it working from home.*

@Dishmatic I'm hoping I've picked you up wrong here you're not suggesting that you've had it harder to work from home than @lovingmyppe has had it working in healthcare?

@roarfeckingroarr

MN is funny about wfh. Always seems to be assumptions that it means you're doing sod all when the reality is longer hours and no lunch break for most of us

Genuine question? Why does it mean this? Why do you automatically lose your breaks and have to work longer?

@MichelleScarn

@Dishmatic I'm hoping I've picked you up wrong here you're not suggesting that you've had it harder to work from home than @lovingmyppe has had it working in healthcare?

Wow. Just wow.

No where, absolutely nowhere, did I day I’ve had it harder working from home.

@Totallyfedup1979

Genuine question? Why does it mean this?
Why do you automatically lose your breaks and have to work longer?

Probably because there seems to be such a stigma about wfh. Those of us who are wfh are working extra hours with less breaks to prove people wrong about their assumption of wfh!!!

[quote Dishmatic]@MichelleScarn

@Dishmatic I'm hoping I've picked you up wrong here you're not suggesting that you've had it harder to work from home than @lovingmyppe has had it working in healthcare?

Wow. Just wow.

No where, absolutely nowhere, did I day I’ve had it harder working from home.[/quote]
I thought the over dramatic 'Wow. Just wow' had passed its sell by date..
You really didn't need to be as dramatic, I did ask if I'd picked you up wrong.

Probably because there seems to be such a stigma about wfh. Those of us who are wfh are working extra hours with less breaks to prove people wrong about their assumption of wfh!!!

I'm not working extra hours or taking fewer breaks.

@StandupLaughing

It does sound like perhaps your colleagues have been carping if the HR call after you told one about your vaccine. There is a lot of jealousy about wfh from home from those that can't as shown on this thread.

Or it could be that people at work are generally pleased that the OP has been vaccinated and is therefore less vulnerable? At our company we are generally pleased when co-workers at home or in work (and for that matter their family members too) are vaccinated, anyone who is better protected is good news!

The country are on the roadmap to leave lockdown, companies will be removing some of the special measures they had to introduce with a gradual return to more normal working practices across the board and the vaccine is allowing better protection. This wis an important step in economic recovery too.

@MichelleScarn

You really didn't need to be as dramatic, I did ask if I'd picked you up wrong.

Yes. You did pick me up wrong.

Not even sure how my comment could’ve been picked up as me thinking *me *working from home was harder than being frontline NHS worker...

I think some people really are out for an argument, not a discussion.

[quote Dishmatic]@Totallyfedup1979

Genuine question? Why does it mean this?
Why do you automatically lose your breaks and have to work longer?

Probably because there seems to be such a stigma about wfh. Those of us who are wfh are working extra hours with less breaks to prove people wrong about their assumption of wfh!!![/quote]
Well, that seems pointless, because how on earth could it prove any such thing anyway?

I personally think I’ve worked highly successfully from home. I’ve been teaching on line. I’ve had 97% attendance this term. All pupils have handed in far better work than they’d ever have done by hand in school. I might argue that actually for ‘me’ working from home has turned out VERY well.

But this isn’t the case for all teachers/education and we are ALL therefore needed back in the classroom. Remote learning whilst successful for some of us, is not where we want to be as a nation.

It’s the same with other workers, you are not a single person, but a small piece of a puzzle that makes up your organisation. If wfh ‘across the board’ doesn’t work well for your organisation, it’s tough...you do it their way, or you find another job that allows you to work your way.

Few people who WANT to keep working from home are going to say ‘well, I’m doing a shit job from home’. They’re going to say ‘look how great I can work from home!’.
But shouting it out, doesn’t always make it true.

You forget, many of us here have had to deal with people working from home and I can’t wait to deal with them back in a normal workplace based environment. The ones I’ve had the pleasure of communicating with have certainly not been working to a normal standard, which I have put down to Covid and the current ‘new normal’. I certainly hope this is not it though.

Personally I am dying to see something other than these four walls! The sooner I get back in my classroom (tomorrow whoop whoop!) the sooner I can get back to normal, see my family and friends and the sooner I get to go on my holidays!

@Totallyfedup1979

Well, that seems pointless, because how on earth could it prove any such thing anyway?

Because I do more work from home than I did in the office.

I’m an accountant, my month end accounting is dine by working day 5 (very rare this happened in the office)
I talk less at home (no one to talk to) I work more hours and take less of a lunch break.

It’s the same with other workers, you are not a single person, but a small piece of a puzzle that makes up your organisation. If wfh ‘across the board’ doesn’t work well for your organisation, it’s tough...you do it their way, or you find another job that allows you to work your way.

Exactly. It’s not about what works for one cog, but the organisation as a whole.

I’m an accountant, my month end accounting is dine by working day 5 (very rare this happened in the office)
I talk less at home (no one to talk to) I work more hours and take less of a lunch break.

So if your productivity is higher than it was in the office, why aren't all your colleagues WFH? Are they just choosing not to?