To be agog at this incentive to Work from office?

[GretaGip]

DS1's chum is 18 months through a Grad Role and has just secured another job with a different company

They are incentivised to work in the office 4 days a week by 15% of their salary, with a minimum of £10,000. It's not included in income for pensionable purposes.

AIBU to think this is not normal??

I'm feeling quite old and out of touch

@formalineadeline

There's a reason the highest performing teams work largely together, in person.

What are you basing that on? Scientific research and evidence or your personal belief and experience?

Don't get me wrong, I think remote work is fine for many jobs, maybe even a majority of office work.

I do think high-intensity, high focus collaborative work is better in person. I will die on this hill.

As for evidence, who knows. I've seen enough social science axioms turn out to be non-replicable / completely reversed over the years that I fundamentally doubt the ability of the field to measure this.

I do think, though, in cutting edge fields you're simply going to out-compete with a highly-motivated in-person team, on average.

The work market is amazing for employees at the moment in my experience . Employers are having to pay more to get the right people and to get people to stay in their role.

Look up "great resignation" OP. Big global trend since the pandemic.

Yes I am one of the great resignations, didn't want to wfh so resigned

That amount is very high. Is it somewhere where most people would have high commuting costs?
I know in my field anyone not offering wfh is struggling to recruit.

Where are all these jobs struggling to recruit? ('m not in a big city but curious!)

London here.

I know in my field anyone not offering wfh is struggling to recruit.

So it makes sense to give increased pay to those who'll come into the office, and less for wfh.

@TeloMere for £10k I would go into the office.

Someone told me this week that some of their employees were demanding a 4 day week for no downgrade of pay. I found that shocking.

So it should do! Costs me £350 for petrol, lunch and stuff to do to work, never mind when it’s someone’s birthday or they are leaving, another £10. Replacing clothes etc.
It costs more to go to an office compared to working from home

And learn from us older grizzled ones

How? Unless there's a comparable and proportionate incentive to get them into the office on more days a week?

In the OP 's scenario, perhaps everyone has to do a core 3 days a week but in other companies, if it's fewer days or optional then it would need a very decent incentive.

Not heard of this before. But by the same token employers that provide 'London weighting' to recognise the additional cost of living will now be considering whether to remove it from staff who WFH. So giving a work in the office incentive could simply be a re-titling of that - with potential removal for others who work from home. This only applies to London workers obviously but it will go hand in hand with reviews of whether to continue to maintain expensive offices in city centres if everyone is working from home.

@OutlookStalking

Where are all these jobs struggling to recruit? ('m not in a big city but curious!)

My workplace is struggling to recruit (professional type job). Northwest.

This week my beautician has said she is expanding and struggling to recruit. Northwest.

Some friends who own 3 restaurants have had 2/3 of the management team leave and struggling to replace them. Wales.

@Mundra why not?

@TeloMere

I know in my field anyone not offering wfh is struggling to recruit.

So it makes sense to give increased pay to those who'll come into the office, and less for wfh.

It's not a binary choice. My large org did a survey and the most preferred options (over 80%) was hybrid working. In practice this can mean any number of things, from 1-2 days in the office to twice a month. It would be impossible to pay people based on specific days.

People don't want to work for an employer that's 100% office or WFH. I personally like the office but I like not having to take leave for errands, and saving on the commute. New starters also benefit from office time.

Managers will just have to put more effort in their jobs, ensuring team cohesion. Global firms already have teams spread out in various locations, so it's not new. However it's usually groups of people, as opposed to them being dotted all around the globe.

@Bouledeneige

Not heard of this before. But by the same token employers that provide 'London weighting' to recognise the additional cost of living will now be considering whether to remove it from staff who WFH. So giving a work in the office incentive could simply be a re-titling of that - with potential removal for others who work from home. This only applies to London workers obviously but it will go hand in hand with reviews of whether to continue to maintain expensive offices in city centres if everyone is working from home.

May happen in some jobs. But a friend is doing a job wfh with a London weighting included. She lives in Northern England. Employers will offer what they need to, or they won't attract good people.

@sanbeiji yes every survey says people want hybrid. Some things can be better done at home in quiet. Other things are better done with others. And a lot can be either way.
I love being able to get deliveries without any drama. I haven't had to pick up a parcel at the sorting office for two years.

@Mundra

Someone told me this week that some of their employees were demanding a 4 day week for no downgrade of pay. I found that shocking.

In what context? If their salary was say 50K but he market rate was 60K an extra holiday is a cheaper way to keep staff Equally they could be asking for compressed hours. Since people actually do MORE when WFH. If they work 8-6 p.m. why can't they have the Friday off?

Again it's very common in my org and helps keep a lot of staff, mainly women who would otherwise have dropped out of the workforce for a few years. As it stands many have gone on to become senior management and given their staff the same treatment. Loyalty is invaluable, because paying market rate each time someone leaves is more expensive, not to mention the additional expense of recruiting etc

My husband would spend £500pm on train fare and spend 4h travelling per day. His role doesn't require you to be in the office really in order to perform well. I actually think he has become better at his job since WFH. Long may it continue.

The compromise so far is to be in 1 day a month which will likely to increase to weekly. Everyone can schedule meetings they think are better face to face in this time and no one has to spend more time than necessary in the hellhole that is London.

With the cost of living the way it is and long term depression of salaries it is only reasonable to have pay uplift to come in to the office.

You do know ordinary working hours used to include a Saturday morning about fifty/sixty years ago? We got a five day week through employees demanding fewer hours with the same pay.
You may find it shocking and would have been happy when people worked six full days a week. But working hours have been gradually shortened throughout history from people standing up.

[quote Monopolyiscrap]@sanbeiji yes every survey says people want hybrid. Some things can be better done at home in quiet. Other things are better done with others. And a lot can be either way.
I love being able to get deliveries without any drama. I haven't had to pick up a parcel at the sorting office for two years.[/quote]
The issue isn't just 'things' that can be done though. It's employee preferences, company culture and career growth as a whole. Also someone's starting point.

A lot of people claim that their job can be done equally efficiently from home, forgetting that it's due to the network and contacts they've already built. Others are isolated at home, or don't have a comfortable work environment, and want to be in the office as much as possible.

Of course it depends on the team, and personal situations but hybrid working is the fairest, requiring people with both preferences to compromise. Adjusting pay to specific days, hours etc smacks of clockwatching and it's output, not presence that should determine pay.

The effect on promotion, networking etc is harder to predict. Like companies, individuals now need their own marketing strategy, utilizing the appropriate channels to get their name out there. And like companies, social media/WFH has opened up a whole new dimension, that must be managed for maximum engagement. Especially with shorter and shorter attention spans.

It's a brave new world, and very interesting. IMO too many variables to predict what's 'best'

I really hated wfh, just stuck in the box room all day, DH was stuck in the spare bedroom, I lasted a month. I didn't save any money as work was only a mile away and I sometimes used to pop home anyway at lunchtime.

I work in central London and know several people who have saved just short of 10k PA during the pandemic from not commuting in from the home counties, so this doesn't surprise me.

I haven't heard of this happening before, but it doesn't surprise me. If it's a role where employers need to compete for talent, and they want something objectively unpopular and undesirable like lack of flexibility in the location where work is done, there's a cost to that. Actually pretty smart of the employer to recognise this and make themselves more attractive instead of just bitchinh about it.

I know it varies in every field, but I started a new job during a lockdown that I had no relevant contacts for.
In my field, senior people are normally flying all around the world and are very hard to ever speak to. Now I can easily schedule a quick meeting with relevant people. It has been way easier.
I have built up fewer contacts with people just to chat to like cleaners or caretakers. They were nice to chat to, but it makes zero difference to my job.
I wonder sometimes if senior people who talk about making contacts face to face are talking only about people in their position and don't understand what it is like for everyone else at work.