The drumbeat is starting again...

[DadAManger]

Our fantastic NHS have done a great job at getting the vaccines out and on convincing people to take them (many other countries seem to have greater vaccination hesitation). Every day we get back to "normal" a little more, and now the media pieces telling us to get back to the office start again. Remember September when Alan Sugar told us we might lose our jobs if we didn't get back to his buildings and that he didn't know anyone with Covid? Then his brother and sister died from it and he stepped back. And then the various business leaders started telling us that we had to spend 8 pounds at Pret, 10 pounds at the dry cleaner and 20 pounds on travel fares each day or we weren't "backing Britain"? Then the cases rose...and then Christmas (and the less said on that the better). Are you really ready to go back to the office or do you want blended hours if you can get them?

I bloody hope they do start pushing to allow people back to the office before I hand in my notice! If I find out I won't be allowed back 5 days a week when restrictions are lifted I'll be looking for something else, I can't stand WFH much longer

The economy is interlinked. The guy making sandwiches in Pret uses his wages to buy your companies product. We need him to keep his job. Similarly your pension is tied up in commercial property investments. I have no desire to go back into the office 5 days a week, however, I think 3 days in 2 days home is reasonable to keep the wider economy moving and allowing me to still have flexibility.

I think many of those stressing about going back into the office even part time are those who rashly moved hundreds of miles away from their places of work based on some promises their employers made at the height of the pandemic.

DHs friends wife is often on Facebook and LinkedIn sharing articles or writing about how ‘nobody’ wants to go back to the office and how employees should be allowed to WFH full time permanently if they chose and should be supported by their employers to do that. This is because her and her DHs employer (same firm) told them last year year that they will only be expected to go in twice a month so they moved from a Hertfordshire commuter town to a small village in Devon. Last month the company changed that to ‘once or twice a week or as per business/client need’ as of July. They’re shitting themselves that it will go up to 50/50.

@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

The economy is interlinked. The guy making sandwiches in Pret uses his wages to buy your companies product. We need him to keep his job. Similarly your pension is tied up in commercial property investments. I have no desire to go back into the office 5 days a week, however, I think 3 days in 2 days home is reasonable to keep the wider economy moving and allowing me to still have flexibility.

I think many of those stressing about going back into the office even part time are those who rashly moved hundreds of miles away from their places of work based on some promises their employers made at the height of the pandemic.

DHs friends wife is often on Facebook and LinkedIn sharing articles or writing about how ‘nobody’ wants to go back to the office and how employees should be allowed to WFH full time permanently if they chose and should be supported by their employers to do that. This is because her and her DHs employer (same firm) told them last year year that they will only be expected to go in twice a month so they moved from a Hertfordshire commuter town to a small village in Devon. Last month the company changed that to ‘once or twice a week or as per business/client need’ as of July. They’re shitting themselves that it will go up to 50/50.

Blimey. That was such a gamble no wonder she's being loud about making out nobody wants to go back to the office.

I see the OP has been predictably bashed and beaten down because the army of ‘I hate WFH’ Mumsnetters have lashed out just as expected as soon as you dare mention the possibility of perhaps wanting to not go back. 😏

I often wonder if it’s actually SAHPs desperate to send their OHs back so they can spend their time watching Loose Women like the good old days...,🤭🤐🤫😉

Interesting reference here about last year when the work from home directive was slightly lifted:

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-majority-of-coronavirus-restrictions-set-to-be-lifted-in-june-but-some-could-remain-in-place-12302815

I often wonder if it’s actually SAHPs desperate to send their OHs back so they can spend their time watching Loose Women like the good old days...

Ha haaaaaaa aren't you funny.

It's fine to not want to go back to the office. Just like it's fine to not want to hug your family, or not want to go on holiday, or not want to go to your MIL's for Christmas. What's a bit off is suggesting that nobody really wants those things, and the only reason there'd be a movement towards it is the evil Pret-subsidising government marching us back by force to inevitably lead to another third wave. If you don't want to work in an office/hug your mum/eat your MIL's Christmas dinner, knock yourself out, but don't pretend like you need to mount a national campaign against it to save us all from Covid.

@Thewiseoneincognito

I see the OP has been predictably bashed and beaten down because the army of ‘I hate WFH’ Mumsnetters have lashed out just as expected as soon as you dare mention the possibility of perhaps wanting to not go back. 😏

I often wonder if it’s actually SAHPs desperate to send their OHs back so they can spend their time watching Loose Women like the good old days...,🤭🤐🤫😉

Not here, just someone who's sick to death of feeling as though they are living in the office and resenting having my work stuff permanently in the living room.

I also resent the fact the DH feels as though he can't sit in his own living room as I'm often on calls. Why should he feel as though he has to stay in the bedroom out of the way when there's a perfectly good office I can work from?

To be fair DH probably wants me back in the office so he can have his home back!

I ask myself who would benefit if the majority of workers went back?

Well, it isn't the workers is it? It's not NHS. So, who?

Could it be those that garner rent from renting the offices? Yes.

Could it be the coffee shops, sandwich bars? Yes .

So, do I put people above profits? Yes.

That's my answer.

I think there is a middle way. Some people find the the isolation of working from home bad for their mental health, some don't mind it. Id like to see some kind of return (to help those whose mental health is suffering) that allows for some return, but not wholesale.

@GoldenOmber OP wasn’t suggesting any of those things though, just complaining at some rather bizarre media manipulation.

Like I said I don't do a job that could be done from home. I would imagine it all depends on the set up of your house if it's comfortable/enjoyable to do.

If you have a home office where you can shut the door while you are working, and shut the door on it when you're not that's quite different to being squished on the end of the kitchen table with other family members banished or having to watch noise levels because there's nowhere else.

I can understand why your DH would feel like that @PinkSparklyPussyCat what's the chances of you being able to go back in?

Some people find the the isolation of working from home bad for their mental health, some don't mind it.

I've never cried so much since I've been working from home. The workload has increased and rather than being able to chat to other people about it I type a bloody Teams message or wait until I can call someone. I feel isolated and miserable most of the time.

I think the company will work for a blended return but I'm going to push to go back full time as if the office is going to be open once restrictions are lifted why can't I go in every day?

@Sparklingbrook I've been going in now and then and work know how hard we've found it so I'm hoping they'll be sympathetic. I was told to tell him it's no problem if DH is in the background (I never said it was!) but understandably he doesn't want to be sitting in on my video calls!

I've moved my desk into the shed for the summer so we can both have a break and we need to do some work in the living room but that's obviously not a long term solution.

I've now got that song used in dr who stuck in my head 'baby baby baby, here come the drums here come the drums'... I like @BonnieDundee and all my nhs colleagues have not had the chance to work from home. Am sure there are tons of proper wfh jobs and always have been, would those who want to continue to do so not just do that rather than look for huge conspiracy?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56972207

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9548993/Nearly-Britains-50-biggest-firms-planning-hybrid-model.html

A lot of companies arent going back - most have realised that actually having a hybrid week does something non covid related that they like - it saves money

I give it a fortnight until the CBI, IOD and others will explicitly start telling us to get back to the desks alongside more media pieces on the dangers of WFH or blending WFH.

I would be surprised because of the above. Companies like and what hybrid working just as much if not more than we do - and as I said not COVID related

this is like some parallel universe

a large proportion of us have worked all the way through this shitshow...you know, those of us who can't work from home? we just go in and get on with it

non of this asking for blended this and blended that!!

retail workers are just getting on with it...working with the public, many of whom seem to think the virus is gone!

[quote user143677433]@GoldenOmber OP wasn’t suggesting any of those things though, just complaining at some rather bizarre media manipulation.[/quote]
OP pretty clearly thinks that positive media stories about returning to offices are part of a big push by profit-minded businesses to march us all back for their profits, not ours - 'telling us to go back to the office'. Without really factoring in that a lot of people really do want to go back to the office, and many of us are increasingly annoyed that we still can't!

I know WFH works for a lot of people, that's fine, I hope employers who didn't previously allow much flexibility in that space will allow more now they've seen it really can work. But I hope people can get back to the office, too.

We are being forced into WFH. :(

I really panicked when I saw this thread @DadAManger, I thought you might be my neighbor. Then I remembered I haven't played my drum set this evening so you couldn't be talking about me.
Off to do it now.

I hope employers who didn't previously allow much flexibility in that space will allow more now they've seen it really can work. But I hope people can get back to the office, too.

Bizarrely I find that we agree with each other then.

I hope people who want to go back to the office can.

I also hope people who don’t want to go back to the office don’t have to.

And I really hope we don’t have to sit through another round of bizarre media stories about how we should all buy more sandwiches.

I also hope people are a bit more considerate to OP particularly given that she didn’t say most of what she is accused off, but I don’t hold out so much faith in that.