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?

@ontana

It takes no account of people who may need to make arrangements for childcare, commuting or other responsibilities. Some of which will have changed,

Don't people need childcare whether you wfh or not?

You don't need it to cover the same hours as you do when you commute. And for some older kids you may not need it at all when you WFH but will when you commute.

I mean really ffs until covid everyone was expected to work in an office so what is the problem

I’ve worked in remote roles for many years before the pandemic. When the role is fully remote, it’s called ‘telecommuting’ in the states or ‘home based’ in the UK.

I think the pendulum swing of locked down life has set up a completely unreasonable expectation for remote work. I felt very restricted to my desk and my house, when normal hone working provides a lot more flexibility of location and a more sociable and connected experience.

In my decade in remote teams, there was still a reasonable expectation that you would take off your lounge pants, get off your arse and leave home to be with colleagues at least once a week and to meet clients whenever needed.

And to travel when work demanded it.

So I’d say it looked like 3 days home to 2 days out and about, coupled with 6 international trips a year ( consultant in the learning space).

If you really don’t want to come in, you probably need to leave this role. But just to say that even the fully remote ones can still require your presence, to a reasonable degree.

Also, when you are new, it’s valuable to be visible to make connections and know how things are done. I work with many companies now to help them with induction at a distance, as the reality is, home working is much easier and likely to be successful if you are networked across the firm, know how things are done and already have full mastery of your job. Some of that will often still be benefit from in person time.

@SquirrelG

I know I totally agree. My friend got a new job in a 2 hours away during the second lockdown. And now is totally pissed off she’s being asked to go into work because of the commute…!!!!

Sorry I meant in a uni

It is a reasonable request to want employees to return to the office, what is unreasonable is the short time frame of a weekend they have given you to sort out the logistics after being out of the office for so long.
I would contact HR and ask if there is any way of phasing in a return at a slower pace and confirm their vision for WFH in the future if it's not defined in your contract.
If it doesn't suit move jobs to a WFH model that does.
My employer is going to increase days on site by 1 day a week each month to allow for transition.

As an employer it's really interesting that now we're allowed to work in the office again so many staff no longer want to do so. It's a really tricky situation actually

You're not unreasonable to resign, but they're not unreasonable to ask you back to the office if they never said it was a WFH job.

So when they recruited you what was the discussion about work from home vs office ?

It's going to be very hard to put the genie back in the bottle for a lot of places, now employees have experienced the benefits of home working. Our workplace has gone entirely flexible with employees and teams free to decide if they want to work full from home, hybrid or in the office.

Of course you're not unreasonable. You can resign any job you like for any reason.

You can resign for any reason you want. I did exactly the opposite a year ago, my work said we would be fully remote for ever so I found a job that would let me work in the office. I now do 3 days in and 2 at home and am earning £10kpa more and a more interesting role.

Sometimes it's good to shake things up.

I mean, YANBU and you should not feel obligated to stay at a job you are unhappy in.

However, I can’t relate to this “omg I’ve been expected to GO INTO WORK for a few days!!” thing. I can’t imagine not having to get up and go to work every morning. Working in person is not any harder or morally better than wfh and I personally would absolutely hate to wfh but I do find it strange seeing people complain about something I take as a given.

You are especially NBU if they said it was a totally remote job or that the expectation would be less than three days a week. You’ve only been there 4 months as well. I would just leave if you’re not happy - life is too short.

Can you negotiate a 1 day a week instead if it was mentioned before?

What is the particular problem with going to the office?

If it’s childcare or school drop offs, how have you managed this before in other jobs?

I have sympathy for you but also for employers as I can see that some people (not saying you), do probably spend a lot of their working from home time doing non work things by the sound of it.

Neither side is unreasonable and I believe there will be a lot of staff movement. Some businesses that have gone remote will have staff leaving who prefer an office and businesses returning to an office will have staff leaving who prefer to wfh. So, all the movement will likely balance out.

If you were told you'd ultimately have to work in the office 1 day a week and now they're giving you a couple of days notice to work 3 days in the office, I'd say they are being unreasonable

But if you've got nothing written down there's not much you can do apart from suck it up or leave

Employers can move the goalposts as long as there is nothing which says otherwise in your contract

@MeanderingGently

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.

Do you work in an office?

@ontana

It takes no account of people who may need to make arrangements for childcare, commuting or other responsibilities. Some of which will have changed,

Don't people need childcare whether you wfh or not?

Probably - it’s the logistics that are an issue. So say you finish work until 5 and can nip down the road to collect from after school club before 5.30, but now you work until 5 in the office, have a 10 minute walk to the station, 30 mins on the train and would only arrive at school when after school club had closed. Before COVID you relied on someone to help you with this but they are no longer available because it’s been 2 years…

It’s not difficult to understand that you may need longer than a weekend to sort it all out.

I suspect not @Iggly.

Didn’t you ask at interview? Or did you just presume?

Many companies have been working at home temporarily in the pandemic. What did it say in the advert? I doubt it was listed as a home working role. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for them to want their staff back at work, and 2 days still working at home isn’t a bad home / life balance. We already did 2 days at home pre covid and will be going back to a 50/50 model, though rumours of it being min of 2 days. So I don’t think they are unreasonable wanting their staff back in the office, but if that’s not for you then yes the answer is to leave.

Just saw your second post on one day a week. I would just clarify that you were told one day a week.

I don’t think it is an overreach - I think we all knew that the WFH was temporary and some employers might adopt it as permanent but no guarantees.

We have been fully WFH since March 2020 but following last weeks restriction changes Monday is all back to the office 5 days a week.

We were all expecting it - have taken on lots of new starts during that time but none have questioned going into the office now it has been announced

YABU for not having asked about the long term plan at the interview stage. And for being surprised that the company would like people back in the office now that the wfh guidance has been lifted.

If I was your employer I’d be concerned about your lack of critical thinking.

@MeanderingGently
I feel the same. Services got conveniently reduced to “covid” reasons and there is no end to it.
However I don’t really understand the reason for this post. Of course it’s not unreasonable to search for another job when something doesn’t work for you. There will be another person who’ll be happy to replace OP.