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?

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

Sorry if any of that sounded snippy *@Notyourtypicalvirgo*. As you can probably tell work is not going well at the moment and lunchtime is my 'pull yourself together you need the job' time!

I really hope things improve for you, life is too short lovely. Please always choose your happiness and your health over everything else x

When I am in the office I spend all day on zoom meetings and when I am at home I spend all day on zoom meetings. Easier at home but a bit nicer in the office. I like to chat to people but if they aren't going in to office there is nobody I can have a chat with to avoid working.
Wonder why businesses continue to pay for office space if it's not needed.

Speechless at the posters on here who seem to think WFH is a substitute for childcare. Not only that but their colleagues should accommodate them leaving meetings or not attending them in order to do the school run.

And then they ask why their organisation is being so very unreasonable and ‘forcing’ then back to the office? Hmmm I wonder why!

I don’t know a workplace that would permit one person dictating when everyone else can take their legal entitlement to a break, or dictating when meetings can happen, because they’ve decided to have their child at home so that they can be paid to safeguard them rather than work.

If that makes me a dinosaur then so be it, I guess. I’m old-fashioned in believing that my employer pays me a salary to work!

I'm going to ruffle feathers but I'm so tired of this.

I've been trotting into a hospital and working every, single, day of this Pandemic.

Unlike many of our clerical and administrative staff who are now pulling this exact same thing.

I've been paying for parking even on my vacation and the sick days. They've had their parking suspended because they are working from home.

The job they were hired for is in a hospital, show up and do your job or find another one it's that simples.

I don't take patients home to tend. I don't take the paperwork home.

@MabelsApron

I don’t know a workplace that would permit one person dictating when everyone else can take their legal entitlement to a break, or dictating when meetings can happen, because they’ve decided to have their child at home so that they can be paid to safeguard them rather than work.

If that makes me a dinosaur then so be it, I guess. I’m old-fashioned in believing that my employer pays me a salary to work!

Ah I've clocked you now Mabel.....you deliberately misconstrue what someone says in order to argue. There are better hobbies in life, yoga may work for you?

Top trolling though

Thank you @Notyourtypicalvirgo and sorry again

@Rosebell75

Speechless at the posters on here who seem to think WFH is a substitute for childcare. Not only that but their colleagues should accommodate them leaving meetings or not attending them in order to do the school run.

And then they ask why their organisation is being so very unreasonable and ‘forcing’ then back to the office? Hmmm I wonder why!

I'm speechless at the fact that people once believed the world was flat and women were once denied the vote but low and behold here we are.....things change the more knowledge we accumulate 😊 family friendly working is better for society and our mental health

Family friendly working is fine providing contractual obligations are fully met.

I produce far more work working from home and if I am forced.to work in the office that will become very obvious very quickly. For that reason I will do my utmost to stay at home. There is no business reason at all for working in my office

@Notyourtypicalvirgo I mean, you responded to a poster pointing out that working around school runs meant holding meetings during peoples’ lunch break as follows:

I think we can all agree that child safeguarding is more important than when we all fancy a lunch break and it's a fact of life.

Did you mean something other than parents should be able to dictate when other people eat or when meetings happen, based on their desire to safeguard their children by having them home whilst WFH?

I’m interested to understand why people feel they’d be so unproductive in an environment with colleagues around them?

I genuinely feel this is often an excuse to prop up the argument of why people should exclusively WFH. I don’t know of any office environment where staff sit around for hours idly chatting. I also don’t believe that people who WFH have zero interruptions, deliveries, cold callers, hanging the washing out because you can, popping to the post office, making lunch during the day as opposed to doing it in your own time before you leave for work etc etc all adds up too.

[quote MabelsApron]@Notyourtypicalvirgo I mean, you responded to a poster pointing out that working around school runs meant holding meetings during peoples’ lunch break as follows:

I think we can all agree that child safeguarding is more important than when we all fancy a lunch break and it's a fact of life.

Did you mean something other than parents should be able to dictate when other people eat or when meetings happen, based on their desire to safeguard their children by having them home whilst WFH?[/quote]
I also don't agree that YOUR child's safeguarding is MY responsibility. I'll look after my children in a way that doesn't impact my job or my colleagues and would expect other parents to do the same. Expecting your colleagues to routinely have to curtail or move their lunch break to accommodate your childcare arrangements is not reasonable.

Why is it so hard to understand that some jobs it is not possible to accommodate school runs every day for every member of staff who wants it? If our external clients and stakeholders need a meeting that runs over the school run time and it's in someone's working hours, then they need to be there.

Things have changed rather too quickly. It must be a nightmare for HR departments, and worse for those with no dedicated HR who have to try to manage the “new normal” and some people’s demands.

Wfh is often fine and dandy, but I’m surprised at some on here thinking it eminently reasonable that looking after their dcs at the same time should be accommodated. They are in fact pushing back the cause of women, by positioning themselves as the caregiver and homemaker as their primary role . If someone can never join meetings at certain times (and depending on industry you may have clients who if they say 3pm you are bloody well there at 3pm and waiting till 4 if they so demand) or there are small children interrupting constantly then no employer is going to be impressed.

Obviously wfh is handy in lots of ways: saves money, you are in for pets, deliveries, kids, workmen etc etc. But ultimately you are being paid to do a job and I think a fair few people (particularly on here) seem to have forgotten that in their glee at being more comfortable.

Wfh is often fine and dandy, but I’m surprised at some on here thinking it eminently reasonable that looking after their dcs at the same time should be accommodated. They are in fact pushing back the cause of women, by positioning themselves as the caregiver and homemaker as their primary role

They are reflecting the reality of the last two years when women have overwhelmingly borne the brunt of the pandemic on the domestic front. I'm sure each and everyone of them would love to beat down the patriarchy if only they were not also doing a triple shift at home.

Large numbers of childcare providers and nurseries shut up shop during the pandemic and many staff are simply struggling to replace the provision they had before it started. Any organisation which doesn't acknowledge this is not serving its women well and not investing in them for the future.

The other real concern we have is the extent to which more vulnerable people have been completely abandoned. Our own offices and most of our clients offices still have heightened cleaning regimes, requirements to test regularly etc but overcrowded public transport is simply not safe as even masks on moving transport are abandoned.

@Whitefire

People are being strangely defensive about wfh, and seem at great pains to justify any possible unreasonable behaviour.

I do wonder what jobs people do that require no soft touch working with colleagues, today I have had a number of three way conversations, face to face discussions made much easier sat next to each other, support from colleagues when I found out a client (who I was quite fond of in a professional kind of way) had died, and had an informal conversation about school proms, - all a lot more difficult on the phone or teams, maybe the difference is I am in a job that is people focused, I can't get away from them (even if I wanted to) and I can't do my job in isolation.

Contact centre. I don't have time to drink a brew let alone speak to a colleague It's much easier to hear at home too as no background noise

family friendly working is better for society and our mental health
Family friendly doesn't mean mothers of younger kids get to dictate working hours for anyone else so that they can save money on childcare.

Everyone has needs, not just mothers. They don't get to rule life for everyone else. This attitude that mother needs are more important than anyone else's is pure self-centeredness.

@naffusername

I'm going to ruffle feathers but I'm so tired of this.

I've been trotting into a hospital and working every, single, day of this Pandemic.

Unlike many of our clerical and administrative staff who are now pulling this exact same thing.

I've been paying for parking even on my vacation and the sick days. They've had their parking suspended because they are working from home.

The job they were hired for is in a hospital, show up and do your job or find another one it's that simples.

I don't take patients home to tend. I don't take the paperwork home.

Sorry but I'm not willing to give up my increased quality of life just because other people can't WFH.

"If I'm suffering everyone else should too."

@naffusername

I'm going to ruffle feathers but I'm so tired of this.

I've been trotting into a hospital and working every, single, day of this Pandemic.

Unlike many of our clerical and administrative staff who are now pulling this exact same thing.

I've been paying for parking even on my vacation and the sick days. They've had their parking suspended because they are working from home.

The job they were hired for is in a hospital, show up and do your job or find another one it's that simples.

I don't take patients home to tend. I don't take the paperwork home.

Are they doing the job effectively? My DB works in a corporate role and the team has been told throughout they can't go back into a healthcare environment whilst they can work from home as there isn't enough room to socially distance- as the rules haven't been relaxed in those settings yet they are still at home. They've been told they will probably just be back for vital meetings etc in the future, as long as the work is getting done though is it an issue? Just as your job doesn't afford the same opportunity does that mean no one should get it?

I’m interested to understand why people feel they’d be so unproductive in an environment with colleagues around them?

@Rosebell75 - this may be specific to my job but at the office, when their manager is sitting in front of them, the threshold for asking questions is much lower than WFH. Every five minutes I'd have someone say 'hey QuirkyTurtle, remind me what I need to do if X'. WFH they'd have to message or call me, while the answer is easily found doing a quick Google search or just thinking for one second before asking. In the office, I hardly got ANY real work done until everyone else had left for the day.

@vivainsomnia

family friendly working is better for society and our mental health Family friendly doesn't mean mothers of younger kids get to dictate working hours for anyone else so that they can save money on childcare.

Everyone has needs, not just mothers. They don't get to rule life for everyone else. This attitude that mother needs are more important than anyone else's is pure self-centeredness.

Then you need to address the societal situation which makes women overwhelmingly responsible for childcare whilst also not providing adequate and affordable childcare (leave it to the market!) and berating women both for being WOHMs or SAHMs.

The commonest problem I'm seeing around childcare is not women wanting to save money on childcare but simply the affordability since covid and the reduction in capacity.

We invest a lot in our juniors and frankly if we took the attitude that the women were disposable when they had children we would lose them to our competitors. A bit of flexibility and support during a limited time results in retention of star performers and future leaders. Its a no brainer.

Google The Great Resignation.

People are moving/quitting jobs based on whether companies are retaining Hybrid Working & WFH, and employers are scrambling to retain them.

I've been Hybrid Working for the past 6 years, it's the only way to manage a Pan European team - I certainly can't be in the office for all of them!!!

If I was told I had to be in the office "just because" I'd take my skills, experience, knowledge (and probably half of my team) elsewhere to a company that had evolved and could meet my requirements.

Most problems with WFH are caused by Managers who aren't capable of doing their job properly, and who lack the confidence to manage people they can't see.

They're dinosaurs.

@naffusername

I'm going to ruffle feathers but I'm so tired of this.

I've been trotting into a hospital and working every, single, day of this Pandemic.

Unlike many of our clerical and administrative staff who are now pulling this exact same thing.

I've been paying for parking even on my vacation and the sick days. They've had their parking suspended because they are working from home.

The job they were hired for is in a hospital, show up and do your job or find another one it's that simples.

I don't take patients home to tend. I don't take the paperwork home.

I'm probably going to ruffle some back then....

Rather than expect them to find another job, why don't you??

You could also lose the commute, not pay parking, not have to go in every day....

@FithrightOpinions

Google The Great Resignation.

People are moving/quitting jobs based on whether companies are retaining Hybrid Working & WFH, and employers are scrambling to retain them.

I've been Hybrid Working for the past 6 years, it's the only way to manage a Pan European team - I certainly can't be in the office for all of them!!!

If I was told I had to be in the office "just because" I'd take my skills, experience, knowledge (and probably half of my team) elsewhere to a company that had evolved and could meet my requirements.

Most problems with WFH are caused by Managers who aren't capable of doing their job properly, and who lack the confidence to manage people they can't see.

They're dinosaurs.

This.

But you'll find this opinion is verging on evil on here. How dare you.

But you'll find this opinion is verging on evil on here. How dare you.

I don’t think it’s ‘verging on evil’ at all, but it is perhaps exaggerating what ‘hybrid’ means in many workplaces and how much choice employees have actually got at the moment.

Many places are offering hybrid and will continue to. But the OP’s workplace is already one of those! Three days a week in the office and two at home is hybrid. When employers say they offer hybrid, a lot of them mean working patterns like that with minimum days in the office.

The pool of employers offering “come in as and when you like and nobody’s fussed if you want to be out of action between 3 and 4 for the school run” does exist but it’s a lot smaller. So if you want one, perhaps don’t burn all your bridges with your current employer while you’re looking, no matter what you’ve read online about the Great Resignation…