Has anyone refused to go back into the office?

[GreenPepperRed]

Just that really. Have a job that can easily be done working from home. Company is now saying compulsory 3 days in the office. Has anyone just not gone in and carried on working from home? How did that turn out?

The majority of my department is insisting they are not going in. Can confirm they are serious because I went in to the office a couple days back and there was probably 10% of the people in.

Intrigued what my company will do. Fire us all?

Do you pay your company to employ you?

No? They pay you? Then you do as they say.

There are SO many entitled home workers now. Yes, if you don't agree with the contract (which will likely say you need to work flexibly as required by the business) then they can sack you.

This is happening to one of my friends. I also used to work there so we know a lot of the same people.

My (private) view is that their workplace will put up with it for a period of time, then get rid of all the permanent wfh'ers with a round of redundancies.

I think my friend will be shocked when it happens. She (like you) is saying that everyone is standing together as they all want to wfh but reality is that many of them are "popping" back into the office for this and that, and actually being quite deceitful with my friend as to whether they are actually at home or work.

And yes this will hit women and parents harder. You need to go back to work at least some of the time to keep you job.

I work in HR for a university and we have been told to spend 20% of our week in the office (1 day for full timers) and the rest from home.

We've been mandated back 'at least' 2 days a week (which currently seems to mean 3). I used to work closely with a couple of people in my office but they have left and their replacements in an office 200 miles away, so on the days I'm in its just me on my own. at a hotdesk, doing exactly what I do at home. Seems utterly pointless and I'm looking for a new job. I'm more than happy to go in if I'm needed or for meetings, but doing the commute just to to sit at a less comfortable desk, with no fresh air, no catering facilities etc pisses me right off! I think a lot of people have seen that working can look very different now, and many people will change jobs to a more flexible employer.

I do wonder tho what would happen if I just refused to go in...would they value me enough to agree a WfH arrangement or would it be 'policy says no'?

Apply to WFH with a flexible working request.

Where i work it is becoming clear from seniors that those who refuse tocome back into the office will essentially get poor scores at end of year review, so no pay rise and no bonus. They will be deemed as not being a team player, and as they are not working with line mangers or teams etc then assessing what they have done will be harder.

I think people who refuse are being very shortsighted, its always been plan to return to a hybrid mix for us

WFH has not ended! My contract has been changed to hybrid working, and there's no sign of us going back to the office any time soon

@Hercisback

A blanket “you must be back in the office x days a week” runs the risk of indirect sex discrimination imo.

How?

If you're WFH you should have childcare in place anyway. Whatever your responsibilities outside of work, you shouldn't be dealing with them in work time.

Yes, but childcare will be different when wfh vs office. It can be really difficult (or expensive) to find childcare places past 5:30pm or very early hours to accommodate a commute.

When my kids were young I switched to part time entirely because of the commute (into central London from zone 3, over an hour one way meant exhausting days for me and kids plus super expensive nursery). If I had been wfh, I could have comfortably managed full time. At the time me and my husband earned similar wage, I am now about 25% of his with no chance of ever catching up. As a family it was the right thing to do, but I would be in a tough place if we divorce.

It's an interesting situation and research has shown that WFH has been largely very good for productivity. Potentially loads of benefits for companies in terms of downsizing office space.

I'm not interested in going into an office full time any more and clearly a lot of others feel the same. The companies that move with this will simply recruit better.

I teach in higher Ed but have also retrained in instructional design. So now do a mix of both. No need at all to work in an office as an ID but so many universities etc struggling to accept that in France. Lots of hybrid posts though.

I'm interviewing this week for a global company but the recruiter is in Poland.

I can't refuse to go into the office, I am contracted to work there. I only go in when I need to or when I feel like it, but I still have to go regardless of my own personal wishes.

You could get together as a department and put forward an alternative so you WFH more but you'd need to understand why the company want the change.

I think my friend will be shocked when it happens. She (like you) is saying that everyone is standing together as they all want to wfh but reality is that many of them are "popping" back into the office for this and that, and actually being quite deceitful with my friend as to whether they are actually at home or work.

I've just realised a couple of days ago that this is happening at my work. I've been very open that I actively want to be in on one particular day of the week and would be open to more - and have been made to feel like I'm letting down my colleagues who are all adamant that they want to work at home forever and that that's how the team works best. But now my boss has put in the formal request that I be given a space back in the office - and, as it turns out from the email she sent, the other three people who are going to be going back in sometimes! They've been completely silent about this and the others absolutely believe that it's only me who's breaking the code of honour of refusing to ever set foot in the place again...

I have been back in the office full time since last year, I can't see hybrid working ever happening, even though it could be possible. I therefore have little sympathy at people moaning about working a hybrid model. *

• I do have sympathy though for those who have high commuter costs especially London and working less days won't actually save any money.

Oh and before I get all the "it's not a race to the bottom" comments, well no it isn't, but moaning about a perfectly acceptable middle ground is very annoying.

@EmbarrassedAllOver

Do you pay your company to employ you?

No? They pay you? Then you do as they say.

There are SO many entitled home workers now. Yes, if you don't agree with the contract (which will likely say you need to work flexibly as required by the business) then they can sack you.

They employ you, they don’t own you. Contracts always favour the employer, but with sufficient leverage (collective pressure from current employees + tight labour market) new terms can be negotiated. Now seems like a great time to push back a bit on employers, as pendulum has swung to favour employees in many industries. Rather than meekly submit, many are making demands- not all will be met, but I think employers will have no choice but to accommodate many of these demands.

What I would say is those who say they can do their job completely from home , tend to need someone else in the office to do things to facilitate this .

I have one member of staff still insisting she can work as productively from home if only we put x y and z in place - x y and z will add 2/3 hours to other people's workload.

Well what does your contract say? If it specifies the office as your place of work then of course you can't 'refuse'. You can try to renegotiate your contract though.

I think for me it's the demand that we got back a set amount of days. In reality a 3 day demand is the same as a 5 day, it's saying we have no respect for your needs, wishes.

It's also a cheek when you think, like the flick of a switch, you go from fully remote for 2 years to demands to be back.

Most people are very capable of being sensible and going in when the need is there, some weeks that might be 1 day, others it might be 5 dats. A prescriptive 3 dats is all about control.

At my workplace they have classed all as hybrid workers. We were expected to be in the office 50% of the time. They have rowed back from that position when they realised that productivity decreased for most people when people came in. It is now accepted that if you are going to the office it is for a social reason (which is not discouraged), but when you are really busy you are better off wfh.

I’ve wfh for over 20 years for myself snd for various firms. Even when my contract was wfh, there was a reasonable expectation that I would come in for team meets, sometimes client stuff or just to be with others and share info. The problem with wfh experiences people had in the pandemic is that they don’t understand that that wasn’t a normal wfh experience. There is so much more to be gained from a wider pallet of options eg meeting half way, team days, meeting on client site or in a cafe. If your org have asked you to return to the office, it’s because they believe there are benefits to mixing, mingling…

If you don’t return… how will you train new colleagues? How will you help junior colleagues have a sense of team? How will you experience any org wide knowledge sharing? I think many people need to move from ‘I’ to ‘we’ again. If you don’t want to be part of something, work for yourself or find yourself an entirely remote role, but don’t take advantage of your social contract with your employer.

@Lilly11a

What I would say is those who say they can do their job completely from home , tend to need someone else in the office to do things to facilitate this .

I have one member of staff still insisting she can work as productively from home if only we put x y and z in place - x y and z will add 2/3 hours to other people's workload.

Yes, this is a really good point. 'Oh I can work perfectly well from home, I don't need to come in!' Ok, but it's overwhelmingly likely that you are relying on the people who ARE in the office to facilitate this.

Very often in my profession it's the support staff who are required to be in the office. When it's the people who are paid the most insisting that they stay at home, not acknowledging that it's the ones who can least afford it who are expected to pay for travel and parking, it leaves a bad taste.

Are you seriously asking having previously done no research into it all? Because the rules are very clear. Endless threads on mn about it. Depends what your contract says. Employer has every right to insist you return. Presumably your Dh can thus be dismissed?

I think the answer is “it depends”. Depends on what’s in your contracts, how many flexible working requests were in place before the pandemic, what your bosses are like and (most importantly) how easy it would be to find other people at the moment. If it would be difficult to find new staff then you may be ok and not get fired immediately, however if the company is serious about needing people in the office then those who are refusing to come in without agreement from their managers will likely find themselves in a disciplinary process once the business can manage without them. Everyone can request flexible working but no one has an absolute entitlement to it unless that’s what your contract says, it’s pretty simple really.

I think for me it's the demand that we got back a set amount of days. In reality a 3 day demand is the same as a 5 day, it's saying we have no respect for your needs, wishes.

Well a) they are the employer and pay your salary so they do get to make demands and b) they're applying the contract that you yourself signed.

If you don't like it, then it's up to you to renegotiate terms.

I work for a large corporation who hasn't done this yet but sure they will eventually. They paid before the pandemic for an expensive office city centre it fits £2000 in and is being used by less than 10% of that. I appreciate its more convenient for some to work at home but others have just got too used to it. Our economy will falter if everyone does this. Also think of youngsters. If we as older generations make this the new way of working life all our children will pay for that as employers may give up and sell the offices ect. Do you really want young people to have to start their working career stuck at home with minimal real life interaction. I hate how much my pre teens do this now and would hate for this to be their future. Hybrid yes FT WFH no and definitely not for the bullshit reasons some use.

Yes, me! Company is also trying to make 3 days compulsory but I've refused and I refuse to force my team.