To resign because my job suddenly requires me in 3 days a week?

[Earlyflash]

We got told on Friday that we would be required to do a minimum of three days a week in the office from monday.

I’m new at the company (4 months) and this was never mentioned in the recruitment phase. That said I didn’t push them for a written answer.

Given we’ve spent the last two years working 100% at home, this seems like a massive overreach, and I’m intending to tell them to do one.

It’s going to have such an impact on me, my partner, and my children (from previous relationship).

I already have interviews for fully remote roles.

So, AIBU for reacting to such a request?

Does your contract state a place of work?

No, of course not. If doesn't suit you and you have other options, change job. It's the perfectly normal thing to do.

They are not being unreasonable unless they had told you it was always going to be a WFH role , which apparently they did not . However if going into work doesn’t suit you then you are not being unreasonable to look for a different job .

Look to your contract as the poster above says. If you have a choice of working remotely in another job I'd go for it. My own job is a hybrid model but I think they'll try and move back to full attendance at the office. It's a very unattractive prospect.

Well I wouldn’t say it was “massive overreach” if they never said it was a fully remote job, and you WBU to tell them to “do one”. You are not BU to resign from a job that no longer suits but keep it professional and polite.

If you are in England, then I think YABU.

Your workplace's change of stance will have coincided with this week's relaxing of the covid rules. That includes returning to your work base. The fact that you're a new starter isn't relevant.

@Earlyflash

We got told on Friday that we would be required to do a minimum of three days a week in the office from monday.

I’m new at the company (4 months) and this was never mentioned in the recruitment phase. That said I didn’t push them for a written answer.

Given we’ve spent the last two years working 100% at home, this seems like a massive overreach, and I’m intending to tell them to do one.

It’s going to have such an impact on me, my partner, and my children (from previous relationship).

I already have interviews for fully remote roles.

So, AIBU for reacting to such a request?

Surely did you not consider this a prospect when applying ?

@TrickorTreacle

If you are in England, then I think YABU.

Your workplace's change of stance will have coincided with this week's relaxing of the covid rules. That includes returning to your work base. The fact that you're a new starter isn't relevant.

Which was a convenient Boris smoke screen and not in any way based on science...

Unless they told you that you would be working from home forever then surely you would have expected to have to go into the office at some stage? The last two years have been exceptional circumstances for goodness sake. Leave the job if you want to, but telling them "to do one" is a massive over-reaction.

Most office based job advertisements that I have seen in the last two years, have indicated that the role will be WFH temporarily or initially. I suspect this did too, even if you missed it. The employer is entitled to want people back in the office, if it doesn’t suit you then yes leave. Just be sure that these other roles are permanent wfh if that is what you want.

Are people planning on WFH for ever?
I know there must be some offices that have shut for ever and gone remote, my dh is one , but I would have thought mist would be planning on heading back in at some point.

What does your contract say? I'm willing to bet it didn't specify wfh for ever. In which case YABU to be so outraged.

But you can resign for any reason you want so knock yourself out.

Posts like this confuse me. Of course you aren’t being unreasonable to leave a job, for any reason at all, provided you have other options / can still afford to live. That goes without saying.

You are being unreasonable to be surprised or irritated that a work place wants their staff back in the office. You are being even more unreasonable if this was a key point to you and you didn’t get confirmation during the recruitment process.

Of course not. There are loads of remote working jobs at the moment. Find something else that suits you better. Totally fine.

The exceedingly short notice would make me very reluctant to work for them even if I was happy to go into the office 3 days a week.

I think that's a wholly unreasonable demand on their part.

In general, you should not tell your employer to "do one" in (almost) any situation but resigning because your job no longer works for you (assuming you can still pays the bills) is always reasonable.

They’re not being unreasonable requesting that people start coming in part of the time in person. You’re not unreasonable to leave if that doesn’t suit you. No one is being unreasonable.

Quite frankly, it's about time people started to return to the office, it can't be good for teamwork or colleague relations to be working from home. In addition, I am sick and tired of phoning up services (eg. car insurance, tax consultant, lawyer etc) and having to listen to "working from home" noises in the background, such as toddler talk or babies screaming/dogs barking and so forth.

However, if it doesn't suit you, look for another job, as other pp have said.

YABU to be outraged, but YANBU to move jobs if your current one doesn’t work for you.

YANBU, although I think you probably could have clarified in your interview whether WFH was temporary or permanent. Surely you must have known it was a possibility that you would have to work from the office?!

Having said that, have you discussed this with your manager at all? Perhaps you should consider submitting a formal request to work from home on some or all of the days.

They are perfectly reasonable to want staff to return to the office for some of the time.

You would be very unreasonable and unprofessional to tell them to "do one" for it. I presume that you will need a reference from them if you do move jobs.

If what they are proposing doesn't suit you then it would be reasonable to either negotiate something that does or to look for another job.

You could have clarified this at interview stage. It really shouldn't come as much of a shock that an employer might want their employees in the office when they can, at least on a part time basis.

It's not a question of reasonable or not. If you can get other roles that suit you better than the market has spoken IMO.

Employers who don't offer WFH run the risk that their workers will move somewhere that does. A lot of employers will think that's worth it because of the benefits of time in the office.

Don't waste energy on analysing them ot your own reaction, your not quitting to punish them are you? You can get what you want elsewhere so go.

You can look for a new job whenever you want but I don't see why you're so outraged at the prospect of hybrid working when it seemed pretty obvious this would happen at many places.

You can resign whenever you want for whatever reason you want.

YANBU.

YANBU- I left my job of 6 years last year for exactly this reason, although I had been pretty unhappy there for a while and tired of the office politics. Haven’t regretted it for a single second. Just do whatever is right for you and your family.

YANBU to look for another job or that the company has given such short notice. YABU to expect wfh forever if it wasn’t advertised as remote, which I presume not from what you’ve said.