To think my employer demanding I go back to the office is just cruel

[Runnyrose]

I work full time over 4 days. DD attends nursery and DH and I split drop offs and pick ups between us. We live 45 minutes from my work in one direction and an hour from DHs in the other but I've been working from home since returning from mat leave in February. My job used to involve a lot of travel around the county and before mat leave, I could easily not step foot in our main office for weeks at a time and generally would start from home and finish at home and go to meetings or appointments in between. Because of the efficiency of Teams, these meetings are almost exclusively virtual and there is no plan to go back to face to face meetings. There is literally not a single aspect of my job that requires me to be in the office.
Suddenly, it's been announced that we have to go back to the office and work there. This will be impossible to manage with DDs childcare setting so the only way will be for my DH to take over both drop offs and pick ups which will mean, to ensure he's there on time, losing 2 hours of work a day. He's self employed so this is a significant amount of money lost every day. I will also lose 2 hours of seeing DD for travel time every day. Not to mention the sudden increased cost in fuel.
I've spoken to my manager and she was completely inflexible and the only solution we could come up with was for me to drop my hours so that I can drop DD off as soon as nursery open, race to work, leave the second the clock strikes 5 to race to pick her up again which frees DH up at least but makes my day a race everyday and costs me a full day a week's pay which works out at nearly £5k a year in bring home pay, not to mention the impact on my pension etc . I can't work full time over 5 days because the nursery don't have availability for her current day off and also, I don't want her going in 5 days a week. Going part time won't even feel like a break for me because I'll literally just be replacing the 2 hours a day working with traveling.
I feel so unbelievably angry at my employer that I work so incredibly hard for them, they know this and my manager said she knows this, but there is no flexibility to allow me to keep working from home when it's going to cause complete devastation to our family set up and financial situation and not in any way shape or form change what they get out of me whilst I'm at work.
I'm trying to find another job but my work is quite niche and there just aren't that many jobs around that pay the same level I'm at now. And I do love my job and don't want to leave it.
I have no problem going back into the office, I just want the option to still be allowed to start and / or finish at home like the job was when I first started and what DH and I planned our situation around before we even had DD.

I would definitely recommend looking at childcare near your office. I have dc at school /nursery within a 5 minute drive of my office (school was an in Year admission so easier to explain why I wanted the place) and it's a game changer

They can not change your terms and conditions without consulting you.

They can as long as notice is given.

This is easily solved by engaging a childminder rather than nursery. Get someone who can collect the child from your house or else who minds the child in your house. You can then set whatever hours you want. It's common where I live. This is what I have to do because I leave for work before a creche/preschool place opens. No drama.

They're being really shit, sorry they're doing this to you. I would submit a formal flexible working request, and then look carefully at whether what they're doing is indirect sex discrimination. The charity pregnant then screwed could be helpful for you to have a look at.

The key point in OPs post is that her working conditions PRIOR to the pandemic have changed. So I don't think she is unreasonable in being upset.

I did not RTFT so maybe someone said this already, but you absolutely are entitled to request work from home as part of a flexible working request, and they are legally required to give it "reasonable consideration" - of course that's quite a vague term as everyone's idea of reasonable will be different, but the legislation for this has existed pre-covid. Are you in a union? They will be able to help you with this.

I assume the working conditions are just reverting to the norm.

You could try reading the OP's posts, then you would see this isn't the case.

On every single thread of this type, and there have been many, the OP is adamant that they are working better, more efficiently, and far more productive than being in the office. It would be VERY interesting to hear the employer's take on it as it seems unlikely that they are insisting that everyone go to the office just for the hell of it.

OP I used to have a job like yours for a large car manufacturer, I started and finished from home and my role involved making visits to dealers across my "patch". But my place of work was listed as the company's head office and they could have called us all back in should they have wanted to do so.

Op have you submitted a formal flexible working request? It's a legal right as long as you've worked there for more than 26 weeks (soon to be day 1) and haven't already put one in in the last year.

They might still deny your request but they've got 8 legal reasons they can use to deny it and would need to provide an explanation along with it as to why. They also need to respond within a set period of time etc.

As others have said, it sounds like you need to make a flexible working and your employers can then explain why they think it won’t work. Lots of firms are requiring staff to return to the office and your OP reads as if your previous working pattern wasn’t officially in your contract as being home-based so if you want a permanent change, you have to apply for it formally.

I feel for you OP
However it does irk me when people.declare that the employers decision is senseless because they 'work hard' and get their work done and there is no benefit to being in the office. Sometimes it is the truth but more often than not, the employee doesn't understand their business
Working 'hard' doesn't guarantee more efficiency. And given the majorshake up to the business you've described through no more site visits, maybe even efficiency isn't enough right now to guarantee profit. You have not commented at all on whether fees are down, are these clients asking for reductions in fees now that there are no site visits?
What about junior members of staff, how do they learn if everyone with more experience is never in the office?
Is productivity down generally? Do you all do better and get more repeat business when you can discuss issues with colleagues/share ideas. (If not, I don't see why you don't go freelance, if being part of a company literally has no benefit)
Roles don't exist in vacuums but are part of a bigger picture.
I think its really odd how many people on MN seem to think of jobs a bit like getting the laundry done..doesn't matter how or when, as long as it gets done. Sure, for laundry. But for most jobs and businesses just completing 'tasks' and not ever interacting in the office long term will not make for a successful business or growth in a lot of industries.
Maybe your situation is notlike this OP. But you've only really spoken about your day to day life and routine and not really reflected on why your employer might want you back.

You have absolutely no idea if there isn’t a business need and no one has simply going by the OPs post, other than she wants to continue her current working conditions due to childcare issues.

well, we can always only go on what the OP posts and based on that, her job remains the same, except her physical meetings will take place virtually now, and the company has decided that these should be done in the office.

There is no demonstrable business need.

She doesn't want to continue her working arrangement 'based on childcare issues' (snide take on it); it's that the nature of her role, before Covid, allowed her to manage her personal circumstances in the way she wished - she started at 7 from home; travelled to meetings, and finished her day at home, only rarely working in the office.

She reasonably based her arrangements, including childcare, on this, and now her working conditions have changed, seemingly without reason, and this affects her childcare.

It's not that she has decided what her childcare arrangements are & expects the company to facilitate it, as you suggest.

The advice about employers having to give you time off for interviews only applies if they are making you redundant. Please don’t listen to that OP. It is spectacularly bad advice.

But as to your main issue; i understand why you are devastated by this. I have a self employed husband too. He works entirely on his own. And can work any time of the day or night. But I fully understand the anxiety around protecting self employed work.

And I think some posters are not reading your posts correctly (I just made that mistake on another thread!). But some people are thinking you are failing to realise that your employers are within their rights to act as they are. You have acknowledged that. Also, as I understand it the meetings and visits you used to travel all over for are now virtual via MT and you are being required to conduct these MT meetings from the office rather than from home?

I think if I were you I’d put your proposal for home working in writing (and concentrate on the benefits to the company rather than you). Maybe you could suggest 3 days WFH and 2 in the office; with a review after 3 months so your boss can compare productivity. I know your DH will miss out on work for those 2 days, but it’s better than all 5.

Other than that, I would concentrate on finding other work. Use your energy for that. But it’s very very disappointing for you. My children are older now (20, 17 and 10). I really sympathise with younger parents who have had babies in lockdown, dealt with hugely challenging circumstances and are now having their workarounds snatched away from them.

@PersonaNonGarter

OP you are in the right - although I think use of the word ‘cruel’ undermines your case. This policy is not directed at hurting your family.

Do not involve them in the minutiae of your domestic arrangements. They aren’t there to care about that. Instead, write to them setting out the amount of time you previously spent in the office with detailed reference to eg a six week calendar Feb-March 2019. In your letter, request that you return to the office only for the same attendance time as previously. In the letter say that you consider that the terms of your contract will have materially changed if they insist on office attendance and you will need to take legal advice.

You can and should win this. However, I don’t think you are going about it the right way. Your domestic arrangements are a matter for you. Very few people will be able to argue against going back to pre-covid arrangements - you have a good case.

This.. .. Take all the emotion out of your request & stick to facts. You are undermining yourself by using the word "cruel" and listing your domestic arrangement.

I actually agree with you that it's bonkers to insist that you're now full-time based in the office, unless your productivity has declined.

I think your best solution is to find a nursery near where you work. It's what I'm doing and I'm in a similar position.

My job did a similar thing post-Covid, insisting that everyone suddenly work 9-5 from the office with a staff who had always worked flexible hours in the community.

Some people quit straight away. Others struggled through but found that zoom/teams doesn't work as well with several different people attempting several different meetings simultaneously on the same internet connection. (Much more effective when everyone is in separate homes)

Interestingly, some of the people who managed to adjust to the 9-5 in the office then found that their job prospects had improved. They moved on to 9-5 jobs nearer home.

@KingsleyShacklebolt

On every single thread of this type, and there have been many, the OP is adamant that they are working better, more efficiently, and far more productive than being in the office. It would be VERY interesting to hear the employer's take on it as it seems unlikely that they are insisting that everyone go to the office just for the hell of it.

OP I used to have a job like yours for a large car manufacturer, I started and finished from home and my role involved making visits to dealers across my "patch". But my place of work was listed as the company's head office and they could have called us all back in should they have wanted to do so.

Quite a lot of this is where the company has not given due thought to how this new virtual world will work.

They've simply thought - oh, no f2f meetings, they can do Teams calls on site instead.

It's not that there may really be a reason.

In my workplace we have brought in blended working. All staff will spend portion of time on site, and a portion at home. They need to be on site for some work functions, and also for more general issues, like collegiality, having in-person engagement with colleagues and so on.

Not everyone wanted to come back - and some would have said they could work better from home every day.

However, we had thought through the needs of the organisation, and what would work and so were able to give valid reasons for our decision, and that has worked well. We are also trialing in on an interim basis, which is sensible as we know that everything will be reviewed, hopefully a blended approach will be a long term model.

What about junior members of staff, how do they learn if everyone with more experience is never in the office?

They were almost never in the office pre-Covid. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So that was always an issue, and clearly didn't cause a problem before.

It baffles me why women think they should have dispensations in the workplace because they chose to have children.

It baffles me why employers have to be so intransigent, when flexibility would have no adverse impact on them. Quite the reverse, as they would have a productive, happy, stress-free employee, whose role is not going to be impacted at all by not traipsing into the office every day.

Employers who continually hark back to a pattern of working which has been superseded by something which works better all round are eventually going to find themselves seriously out of step when trying to recruit.

The op has said she will look for something else which fits in better with her life. How sad, when a slight adjustment in thinking on the part of her employer would enable her to continue happily in a job she enjoys and is good at, without impacting the employer in any way, but making her life easier.

Why shouldn’t employers take steps to make their employees lives easier if there’s no negative impact to them? If nothing else, it’s basic psychology. A contented employee can only benefit an employer, surely?

Why don't you look for a nursery by one of your workplaces instead? Or change to a childminder

I agree with a lot of what @PennyWus says in their post.

They have changed your T&C effectively from a mobile role to a fixed location role but if your contract has a head office base you may have limited legal recourse.

I'd want to know how many people are affected - is it just the mothers, just certain sub groups, just your team?

Also ask them what they are aiming to achieve by this? Is there a specific business goal driving this or is it some jobsworth at head office who thinks people are not working unless in their sightline?

Childcare is absolutely and employer's issue if they want to keep good employees. If an employer doesn't care about the well being of their employees or have an investment in keeping them longer term then its time to look and see if there are other options.

In your case OP I'd also start looking around. Even if a very similar job isn't easy to find you might find something parallel which suits and tbh a good employer is worth a percentage on salary.

@KingsleyShacklebolt

From an employers perspective we had to get our staff back in as we had noticed that they were not as productive at home and despite them being needed to cover phones between 9-5, many were doing school runs and not being available when we needed them. Therefore we had no choice as the flexibility we gave was being taken advantage of.

On every single thread of this type, and there have been many, the OP is adamant that they are working better, more efficiently, and far more productive than being in the office. It would be VERY interesting to hear the employer's take on it as it seems unlikely that they are insisting that everyone go to the office just for the hell of it.

Agreed I suspect alot would have lots of vague ideas , nothing concrete they would ever reveal to staff. I think alot of management are stuck in old ways of thinking , if I can't see them they aren't working so get them back in. Rather than review how to manage people and projects they switch to default because it feels safe and what they know.

Shame OP, your employer is being very irrational and short-sighted. Better start quietly looking for something else, with flexible working conditions baked into the contract from the outset.

However, in the OP’s case, this is a strange decision as she was never in anyway.