Potential new job and working arrangements

[lunepremiere79]

Posting here for traffic.
I have a dilemma that I am hoping someone with recent experience of applying for jobs might be able to help with. For reference, I am currently in full-time employment and reached the last stage of interviews for a job that would be a good next step for me. However I am currently in a very privileged position of being able to work from home pretty much full-time and only go into the office whenever there is a social or a team event (so not very often), which saves me 3 hours commuting time per day and given we have a 3 year old, this makes life a lot easier with drops offs and pick ups from nursery (no family around to help).
During the interview I asked what their current working arrangements are and I was given pretty vague answers, like it would be 2 or 3 days a week in the office and then they also asked if I'd be willing to commute 1 or 2 times per month to a different city to meet teams there. Now to me it seems like a big leap from where I am right now and I was wondering (if I am given the offer) if I could try to formalise the working arrangement in the contract somehow, but given how vague they were I am not sure how to go about this, as I've never been in this position before. Have any of you been able to do something like this? It doesn't have to be all or nothing, so I could maybe do 2 days in the office and then once in 1-2 months in another office etc. Would be grateful for any insight or advice!

If they offer then you just say that you would be delighted to accept in principle but you need the hours and office arrangements formalised in a pre-contract offer letter before you can make a final decision. It’s a standard ask, the interviewers may well have been hazy at interview because they aren’t in a position to give you the final say in things like that, which would be agreed with HR.

Thanks for the reply! Make sense to formalize after the offer has been made.. I know some negotiate permanent working from home, but wasn't sure about how it worked with hybrid. Don't want to lock myself into a certain number of days per week, if it could be more flexible than this in practice...Guess I'll figure it out if and when I get to that stage

I would bring it up at the last interview to discuss what they have in mind or what your preferred working patterns would be.

Definitely get it formalised in writing. See all the threads there have been about promises or comments which have been broken by employers who want people in the office. Often because the manager wants to be there or is a micro-manager.

The commuting to another office may be less flexible as this is likely to be based on when you're needed for meetings etc. Our work is asking for 2 days in the office but other places it's as needed with 1/2 days being suggestion.