Anyone's employer changed their stance of wfh after Bojo's ..

[Cosmos123]

Announcement of end of restrictions?
I heard from some.friends that their employers are now encouraging a return to the office of up to 3 days a week.
Other suggesting a gradual return.
Some of these organisations are the ones who initially stated that wfh was here to stay.
Anyone else's employer done a u turn?

DH’s firm have sub let floors in their offices so wouldn’t be able to u-turn on their WFH policy. Have also taken on staff who live 100s of miles away so wouldn’t be able to commute. They have found being flexible has worked for staff retention, have taken on staff from other firms who weren’t so flexible

We are hybrid working and that doesn’t seem to be changing. I wonder if the boss may want us in more days eventually- my team only do one day a fortnight, but we are out at meetings with clients frequently as well.

So interesting that the homeworking effects of Covid are lasting. This will have massive implications for society. Not great news for people who lease commercial offices, I suspect.

I don't really see the point of hybrid working for my job. Its literally just to have an arse on a seat. I don't see clients, I don't have customers, I work in IT. Everything is computer based. And the people I work for are in a different country! So going in still means I have to use technology to talk to them. I'm going to be very unhappy if they want me back in, it makes zero sense. And I like wfh, I get some people don't, that's fine, they can do flexible working if that suits them. But I do.

We were always told that we'd be doing hybrid approach after the pandemic because they want the headquarters to be a sort of central hub of activity. We don't know yet what that will actually mean and we're still fully WFH. But I'd be annoyed if they went back on that and said they want us at the office full time.

We’re hybrid but we were pre pandemic anyway. Works quite well.

I think there are benefits of going in sometimes for most work because it’s energising to see people, and I think humans mostly need that. There’ll be exceptions of course.

My employer was in the process of refurbishing our offices to move to hybrid working in early 2020; I'm still WFH at the moment with no pressure to return imminently, but it will come in the next few months I think. Probably a 2/3 or 3/2 split for most. We are recruiting at junior end and they will need supervision which can be done remotely but is frankly easier face to face.

The company I work for have chosen to let the employees decide what works best for them.

Some have chosen to WFH full time but can come into the office anytime, if they wish. Others have opted to do hybrid working as they like to get out of the house and others absolutely hate working from home and work in the office on a full time basis.

The preference of most staff is to hybrid work.

I’m interested to see what my work will do (I’m on mat leave). As part of the SMT we found that for every person loving WFH we had another begging us to reopen. And productivity was variable - especially when parents didn’t have proper childcare in place. Morale and what I might call team spirit was also affected, but that’s possibly as much to do with the whole “global pandemic” thing! We’ve always had 1 day WFH as standard but I think will increase to 2-3 if people want it. But it will be different for different roles and sectors (personal preferences aside).

@Wheelz46

The company I work for have chosen to let the employees decide what works best for them.

Some have chosen to WFH full time but can come into the office anytime, if they wish. Others have opted to do hybrid working as they like to get out of the house and others absolutely hate working from home and work in the office on a full time basis.

The preference of most staff is to hybrid work.

See now companies should do that. It should be up to the employees to decide which they choose. Then you're not forcing people to go along with what the majority wants when it doesn't work for them.

No. The company I work for has now closed all the offices permanently and all staff have to work from home. It’s saved them a fortune.

I find it funny that large companies were more than happy to dictate people had to work from home when it was that or nothing but now it’s apparently not good enough. It’s been two years! Custom and practice! People WFH now. End of.

Yes, DH's firm are very keen to get everyone back in the office full time ASAP, despite most of them having jobs that can be easily, and possibly more effectively, from home, and the WFH period having shown an increase in productivity.

We’ve moved to hybrid working and the company is in the process of getting people to come back to the office a couple of days a week. I think that’s a good thing.

I work for a huge company in the UK and they have now followed Boris's wording to the letter.

We have been told that every one must come back to the office and that Covid is now to be treated the same as the common cold. If you are vulnerable you should look at agile working and discuss it with your line manager.

There is to be no nesting and no reason not to return to the office if you have not had a personal test positive and take sick to self isolate.

Money before lives!

Nope.
My dh company said they would open the office again in March but you still need a ‘proper reason’ to go to the office. Even then it will be very part time (1 maybe 2 days in the week)

Client facing role for me so ive never stopped …..

Most I know are hybrid which I’m pleased about as it would suit me best

With regard to companies letting staff choose how they arrange their week, how does this work with the accommodation/amount of space allocated? If only 2 out of 100 decided to work in the office for example, would they still keep space for 100 people in case next week others wanted to work in the office?

I work for a very small business (less than 10 people) who sub-let some of their space to other people. The people who sublet are generally very part time or semi retired and later this year, the lease is up for renewal and our company is moving to a smaller premises as it doesn't make sense (practically or financially) to have the space being largely unused for chunks of the week.

@Exhausteddog

With regard to companies letting staff choose how they arrange their week, how does this work with the accommodation/amount of space allocated? If only 2 out of 100 decided to work in the office for example, would they still keep space for 100 people in case next week others wanted to work in the office?

I work for a very small business (less than 10 people) who sub-let some of their space to other people. The people who sublet are generally very part time or semi retired and later this year, the lease is up for renewal and our company is moving to a smaller premises as it doesn't make sense (practically or financially) to have the space being largely unused for chunks of the week.

At the moment my teams desks are staying free. However, the company is expanding so we will need to revisit that when we need the space for new staff.

We have, however, bought a building next door which will serve as conference facilities, hot desking (but I can book a whole floor if we are all in), cafe etc

So I would imagine I would book a floor 2 days per month.

We introduced hybrid working last summer so minimum 3 days in the office which you can choose - we then went back to WFH just before Xmas (?) and then back in hybrid model from next week. This is a trial until summer but after that who knows ... I think it will be difficult to recruit good staff on a full office model.

Nope, we're continuing working from home. The office is open but they're sub-letting a floor (although no-one's taken it up yet...) and we're expected in once a month for a contact day, although it's not mandated.

To be fair I used to work at home regularly anyway pre-Covid, so my job adapted to home-working easily. Life is much easier without a long commute and the cost of train fares, but I'll enjoy my day in the office and I might go more often in spring/summer, just for a change of scene.

Yes.

My employer told us we could work from anywhere quite early on, and has been recruiting on a location agnostic basis for over a year.

They are now backtracking developing the policy and there's lots of talk about doing what's best for the team, and how expenses will work if you do need to come into the office (there won't be any).

There have been some lively chats on Yammer - many people have moved further from the office, or bought a dog that needs to be walked, or otherwise rearranged their lives. The workers are revolting!

Most people I know will be doing hybrid - there are a very few whose employers have instigated a full return to the office but the majority are recognising the benefit of having a balance between home and office working.

I think @Aozora13 makes a really good point. My family and friends are definitely divided between those who find WFH has a positive effect on work-life balance and others the opposite. BIL is happy to never set foot in a commercial office again, has no desire to engage with colleagues other than via email or over the phone and loves the fact he has no commute. DH, on the other hand, finds WFH quite isolating and relentless, misses his commute (he found it useful to switch on to work on his way to the office and to switch off from work on the way back home) and feels relationships within his team are less positive and productive because they miss out on that natural face to face interaction. He also feels like he never gets away from work because his office is at home.

Everyone has different circumstances of course and it very much depends on an individual's approach, home, commute time etc.

But I will be interested to see how this changes society in years to come. When I think about young, single people (post uni and in their 20s and 30s) who are working from home full time, I actually feel quite sorry for them. A colleague of mine has a son who is single and in his mid 20s whose job is permanently home based and it's really quite isolating. His uni friends are scattered over the country, he never actually sees his colleagues. How are people like that supposed to develop a social life, meet someone etc? I know you can take up hobbies, do online dating and so on - but when I look at my own life, so many of my long term friendships, not to mention my marriage, all originated from the social life I had via various workplaces during my 20s and 30s.

I know not everyone develops a social life or meets their partner through work, of course, but prior to Covid, an awful lot of people did.

I do feel sorry for younger people who might have liked a more 'normal' full time work experience and who are now going to miss out on it.

Originally we said wfh as much as you want, no min in office. And it was said this would be forever.

I have the feeling things are changing though. I didn't work there pre Covid but I gather home working was rather frowned on.

I suspect we'll have a weekly team day in the office. And I could stomach that. My boss knows my views, I won't be commuting again. I'm 53, and as a side hustle I run my own consultancy, so I can easily resign and just do that. In fact, one client has asked me to work for him one day a week anyway, which would be £12k pa and he won't expect me in an office. I've told him maybe next year.

For me, it's both time and cost. It's nearly two hours each way all in, and c£60 per day, or a £6k season ticket. I'm over it.
Plus WFH I can go swimming after work, manage my diet better, not have to wear smart clothes, be here for parcels and trades people, pop to the post office, meet a friend at lunchtime......