AIBU about return to the office

[bonfireheart]

We are all currently working from home and it's been going well. We have been told by management that going forward we will be working more flexibly. We have limited desk space in the office. They are advocating a mixture of home and office working, but really leaving it up to individual teams on how they manage that- however management are very clear that they are not setting "minimum days in the office."

The options for each day are:

1. If there is a business need to be in the office that day, you can go to the office.
2. If there is no business need to be in that day but you want to go to the office of your own free choice, you can go to the office.
3. You have no business need to go in, you can work from home.

4 You have no business need to go to the office, you prefer to work from home that day, you can work from home.

The issue is people who like the second option- they have no need to go to office but like the routine of the office etc. Fine. I have no issue with them going to office for however many days if they want to. The issue is that they want to go to the office but are kicking up a fuss that if they (about 3 or 4 members of the team) go to the office nearly every day, its not fair and that the others should be made to go in too! They are being so vocal "well it's not fair that it should be the same people in the office". But you WANT to be in the office. I don't. I don't understand why I should have to go in to appease you. We have no contact with the public, there is nothing I can't do from home. If I want to come into office once a fortnight that should be fine. They are advocating some kind of rota and minimum cover. My commute is long, I can't work in our noisy open plan office...
Not sure I have explained this well because I don't get the logic at all. I am worried that these few who are so vocal are going to get their way.

YABU - I should be made to go in office eventhough I don't want to.
YABNU - I should be able to work from home if I want.

This is my point though...YOU have a place to work and work well from home but not everyone is in the same position. Those who are working from kitchen tables, which then have to be cleared every evening to eat at (like me), those who house share and perhaps don't even have that, those who live alone and whose mental health might be struggling as a result of isolation over the past year. I know people who all of the above applies to and I wish others would have a little empathy for those in a different position to themselves. Surely compromise is the best way.

If you had read my post, you would have seen that my first paragraph did say if you want to go into the office, go ahead. I'm not going to force you to stay at home just because I like it. It works for some, it doesn't for others. All we want is the same courtesy in return. Don't force us to go in just because you struggle with it. I get that some people don't like it, but I do. It works way better for me. Why should I have to go back to working conditions that don't suit me just to suit someone else? Why should op?

Surely if you've saved a year's worth of commuting costs you can buy a desk and chair grin

You have to have somewhere to put them. What if you haven't got a spare room?

Someone wfh impacts everyone in the household, not just the worker. If one room is being used by the worker, no-one else can use it. People have to be aware of noise all the time. Maybe children can't have friends over. There may be issues of confidentiality if calls can be overheard.

[quote TinyGlassOwl]@smudgebutt I realise my post looks like a slightly snide response to yours - it's not, our posts crossed [/quote]
@TinyGlassOwl - doesn't look snide at all. But thank you for your concern.

Each organisation is different. In my company in pre covid times many people were site based so not in the main office. Now that everyone is remote I actually find it easier to get hold of people in the wider team as everyone has their phone on them.

I am actually finding that fewer people go 'off radar' to go and have little chats over a coffee. Yes, people have a chat on the phone but IME these tend to be shorter. It's easy to drop a message on Teams to say 'can I give you a quick call about X' rather than waiting for that person to come back to their desk.

I only have one assistant so I give him a call first thing to check in. I listen to the tone of his voice, ask him how he is and listen to the answer. We talk about priorities and upcoming work. In that time there are no distractions, it is a daily one to one.

At least in my company the WFH genie is out of the bottle. A few people want to put it back in but cant really explain why.

I work in HR and see both sides of this. Some individuals are real

I work in HR and see both sides of this. For some staff working from home has had a significant impact on their mental health. Yet when they come into the office they are sat entirely on their own as everybody is working from home.

They are advocating some kind of rota

Is it that the phone rings all the time and those in the office have to stop work to answer it? I get things like that should be shared out.

My commute is long, I can't work in our noisy open plan office

Presumably you knew those things when you took the job? You can’t not go back to the office because there is the commute and you’d rather not do it! If you can’t work in a noisy office, were you on capability prior to covid?

I wonder if it will get to the point where you have a two-tier system of people who go back to the office and people who won’t and the people who won’t end up pocketing £6k more a year as they don’t have travel costs! Perhaps employers will compensate for that with pay differences in their pay allocation.

I'm struggling to understand the issue. OP's manager is weak so will bow to complainers and ...... try and make OP go in more?

Just step back and let this take its course OP. Policy is behind you, just quote it if need be.

I don't like wfh and enjoy being in the office. Which I have been throughout, but have also worked from home 2 days. Perfect.

I’m another one who is cynical about the whole wfh culture. Yes it’s great for employees who can cut their commute time and stop paying for after school care. Not so good for customers, there have been numerous threads on MN about how poor service is from many companies even 1 year in.

The people “disadvantaged” are those who prefer a normal office environment. They’re the ones who aren’t offered the solution that suits them best. (I am not one of these people) but I do understand where they’re coming from. The colleague who lives alone and has been isolated and lonely returns to the office thinking a bit of normality will finally resume, only to find none of their team is choosing to return so they remain lonely and isolated and demotivated just in a different place

Rotas for many things can be a catalyst for arguments and I hope OP it does not come to that. The issue seems to me a few whingers, and a manager who is either weak or indecisive. I think as others say you should be strident in your preference, and point out it makes space in the office for those who for whatever reason find it difficult to continue to work from home.

I am so grateful I work in a team that does not have the dynamics the OP describes.

I agreaa @Fairyliz. IMO call centres are far less efficient when their employees WFH. Poor sound quality and lack of communication between departments being the main issues.

What do they claim the "minimum cover" is covering?

I think they are being unreasonable TBH! Surely they have the choice of whether to be working from home too? Do they feel this may erode any choices they have though(I.E their circumstances changing ?) This is the only thing I can think of really.They seem to be being very petty .If WFH is best for you ,and OK with the management, then carry on !(If you are at home ,at least wont see them thats one thing!)

For many people wfh is not sustainable or practical long term.
OP if you can’t work in the office environment, how did you manage before? Why did you take that job?
Long term I would expect to see a drift back to office working, with maybe the option to wfh on a Friday ( though some people prefer to be in the office on a Friday as Friday evening is a popular time for socialising.
There needs to be some sort of financial equity; someone who has no space to work at home (I know of some who have to work perched on their bed due to family circumstances) should not ne penalised financially compared to a colleague who has space for a home office. Salaries would have to reflect work location, and lord knows how that would be done,

I’ve work in a team where colleagues are based all over the country so all meetings are Teams meetings anyway and you usually message or call the people you work with rather than speaking to them across a desk so the whole argument that wfh doesn’t work seems odd to me! Having us all sat in offices around the country makes no difference to us all being at home. I think monthly F2F catch ups with the team are really helpful, but where you sit when you are doing emails or dialling into calls makes no difference.

@CaptainCorelli

I’ve work in a team where colleagues are based all over the country so all meetings are Teams meetings anyway and you usually message or call the people you work with rather than speaking to them across a desk so the whole argument that wfh doesn’t work seems odd to me! Having us all sat in offices around the country makes no difference to us all being at home. I think monthly F2F catch ups with the team are really helpful, but where you sit when you are doing emails or dialling into calls makes no difference.

But you can see that not all offices work like yours?

YANBU, OP. The company are offering a flexible arrangement which sounds pretty reasonable to me. Personally, I would always do some time in the office as I would miss the company of others, but I wouldn't say it's not fair if others WFH most of the time because it suited them when the policy allows for that decision. If one person was allowed to work from home because they didn't like the open plan environment () and nobody else was offered the opportunity, however, that would be different .
I think some of the replies on this thread have really missed the point.

@Handsnotwands

The people “disadvantaged” are those who prefer a normal office environment. They’re the ones who aren’t offered the solution that suits them best. (I am not one of these people) but I do understand where they’re coming from. The colleague who lives alone and has been isolated and lonely returns to the office thinking a bit of normality will finally resume, only to find none of their team is choosing to return so they remain lonely and isolated and demotivated just in a different place

I’ll be a bit in this position. I’m not sure what the solution is because as far as I can tell there hasn’t been a drop in productivity in our section. There is a certain amount of F2F with clients but otherwise WFH is fine. I respect my colleagues who prefer it.

My commute is long, I can't work in our noisy open plan office...

These are not valid reasons for not getting back to normal.

The inequity is very pronounced in London and other large cities, where prior to Covid people had either a long, expensive commute, or lived more centrally and had an even heftier mortgage. The former group stand to gain financially if made /allowed to continue to wfh. The latter group may well have small properties where wfh is unsustainable long term. How can this be balanced out? A new pay structure? Bonuses for office working.
I agree with a pp who thinks we will be reverting to something close to pre-pandemic work structures before too long.

@Zzelda

What do they claim the "minimum cover" is covering?

I would be interested to know this too; there must be some tasks which fall to those in the office, in ehich cade it is unfair if eveyone isn’t contributing,

I would be interested to know this too; there must be some tasks which fall to those in the office, in ehich cade it is unfair if eveyone isn’t contributing,

This.

There must be phone calls, deliveries, post etc that the people in the office have to deal with that those who never go in, don’t do.

We have another whole team meeting about it soon to agree way forward. Can't decided whether to stay silent and then do my own thing anyway (they can't physically pick me up and bring me to the office!) Or to speak up at the meeting and cause a ruckus. It's very very likely that I will be promoted again soon and have to line manage some of these people so trying to think of how I can play it - ie you want to come in, great, I support you and hope it is effective for you whilst also recognising that others work differently?

I don't know why you think either saying nothing or 'causing a ruckus' are the options - just ask the obvious question: what would the rota be to cover? If they have literally no answer to this they'll look foolish, if they name tasks that need to be done in the office then everyone can have a sensible discussion about how that can be achieved.

But a couple of further points:
a) no they can't physically force you to be in the office but if your manager says you need to come in then you will have to if you want to keep working there for the same reason you weren't able to unilaterally declare that you work from home in 2019. So you're going to need to try and engage in the discussion rather than just ignore it.
b) it sounds like you're experiencing one of the obvious downsides of a team where some people work at home and others in the office - the office people are able to form a group and so have a disproportionate influence. It might be worth thinking about this as that sort of thing is, again, why you want to engage in the discussion rather than consider yourself above it, and is a good reason to avoid a complete division into office vs. home. You do not want to find yourself line managing people remotely who all see each other every day and who are aggrieved - it'll be absolutely toxic.

@Howshouldibehave noisy colleagues are a good reason why wfh may work for you. I am that noisy colleague when I am in the office, or at least have some who are sensitive to noise.