To think ‘hybrid working’ is a bit shit actually?

[OctopusDare]

(Full disclosure: I’m really hoping all the replies are “YABU because my employer is doing it properly and it’s great”, to give me some hope to look elsewhere. Please also let me know if you’re hiring.)

My office job went WFH at the start of the pandemic. This was shit for those of us who don’t like WFH, but okay, pandemic. This year we have been trying ‘hybrid’ working. What this means is that coming into the office sometimes is ‘encouraged’. In practice it looks like this:

• Senior people mostly don’t, except their bosses want them to, so what we get is them regularly hassling us to “have a conversation with your manager about what works for you and your team! But come in sometimes! But it’s entirely up to you! But also you should definitely come in sometimes,” on Zoom calls from their lovely garden offices.

• About two-thirds of people say they want to work out of the office some of the week, but that they don’t want to go in if it’s nearly empty, they only want to go in if there are other people there to work with. And this never seems to get co-ordinated, so in practice people just… don’t go in because it’s empty because of all the other people who aren’t there because they don’t want to go in if it’s empty.

• For those of us who are in, the office is bleak and weird to work from and feels like a post-apocalyptic disaster film.

• Because of all this it’s really hard to train up new people to do anything other than very process-based work. We have lost some newer recruits because they felt like they weren’t getting to meet people or learn from them, and because they didn’t like the choice between working from home and working from a near-empty office on their own.

• There is ENDLESS whining, on and on and on and on, from some of the people who want to WFH full-time and feel like they’re being ‘pressured’ to go back in. “But I am more productive from home!”, says the person who just emailed a distribution list of 40 of us to complain yet again at length about how much he hates offices.

• Endless amounts of time trying to work out “hybrid ways of working” which all just end up the worst of both worlds. Like meetings - the rule is now that we encourage meetings to be in-person, but everyone in person should have their laptops in front of them with cameras on and talk to the camera, so that the people joining from home don’t feel left out. Which is rubbish. So people don’t do it and just work from home, which the managers then complain about, which… etc etc etc.

I liked the idea of hybrid working, but in practice it feels like the worst of both worlds. All the bad points of WFH except with added faff and stress and whining and uncertainty.

Are there places which are making this work? (And by ‘making this work’ I do not mean ‘the office is open for people who want it i suppose but I personally don’t leave my house’, we already have that, I mean a proper mix of in-person and at-home.) Or is hybrid just inevitably shit?

Like others have said, it only really works if you have a Rota. In my team, we all go in Monday and Tuesday for meetings and to work together which is great. Then one other day which you can choose which is great as you tend to get a nice quiet day when you can concentrate on stuff.

We don't have a rota, but we have to go in about half the time and it just works for us.

I hybrid work and it works for us. We have set days when we are in the office although they can be negotiated if necessary. New staff are in office full time initially but there is at least one member of the senior team in every day so they get support every day and get to meet everyone.

Meetings tend to be on teams still as standard as most meetings involve wider colleagues than those in the office. If it just us and all in that day we'll meet in person though.

We’ve to go in 3 days a week. There are a few people in across the office but in my own team, about 3 or 4 a day, apart from one day when my whole team is in ( about 10). So I guess it’s working.

I hate going in so much. I wish I could work from home full time.

We relocated just before the pandemic and now it takes me 55mins to get in instead of 20/25mins.

Similar situation at my work to the OP, it’s ‘do as you feel’ with some teams being more organised about when they go in than others. I go in most days cos I like to and I don’t really care if others prefer not to, but it is noticeably difficult to train the kids, and those of us who come in are doing more of that than we would otherwise.

They’re about to combine two offices due to both being quite empty most of the time and this will mean the Dreaded Hot-desking and presumably some kind of rota. People who are in a lot will keep a set desk and everyone else will share. Unsurprisingly all hell has broken loose at this news, and even as a ‘set desk deserver’ I’m not sure it’ll work - popping by to see someone in an office of 300 when I don’t know where they’re likely to be means I might as well phone them, at which point we might as well be at home…

Our big bosses do come in a lot and are all very pro office. The middle tier of management much less so. I suspect staff who show up are seen as the ‘good’ ones by the big bosses and are probably going to be more likely to be promoted/invested in. People who wfh successfully will be seen as perfectly good at their role but won’t be noticed as much for advancement, which is fine for someone whose reached a decent level and is happy with that but it’s shit for the younger lot.

Overall I personally would like it if everyone was in occasionally (maybe minimum 2 days a fortnight?) but I would never want anyone to be forced to - I think part of why I like going in is because I don’t have to!

I do however think full time WFH is absolutely not going to work for young people starting out in industries that rely on relationships rather than qualifications/structured hierarchies for success.

I think I’m in a better groove with hybrid but the key really is some organisation and coordination. At first because of our desk booking system, I had times where I was in and say no-where near my team as some speedy people got in there quickly and blockbooked. Now I am the speedy blockbooker and having everyone together is the key to it actually working. There is literally no point enforcing office time if people are still on a teams call to their own manager because they’re sat on a different floor.

My team are spread across different locations in different time zones.

We are encouraged to do two/three days a week in the office.

There is no team related benefit for me being in the office but the facilities are good (gym, restaurant, coffee shops...) so I'm happy to go in a couple of days a week. When we started going back, we were encouraged to arrange to meet up with people for breakfast/coffee / lunch which has been working well

A few people have been in all along, mostly to be fair people going through divorce or extroverts who lived alone. Generally it's been working well, using Teams means it really doesn't matter where anyone is actually sitting.

Introverts holed up at home, extroverts enjoying the human contact in the office. What's not to like ?

Hybrid working has I improved my quality of life tenfold. It’s a fantastic way to work.

We agreed as a team to come in when we actually needed to. There was no real pressure from management to be in or not in, the focus was on getting the job done well. We found we really needed to e in far less than expected - max 1 day a week but usually one day every 2 weeks. We are a team of technical experts working with international stakeholders, we have been successfully working with people overseas via video calls etc for years, doing it with people in the uk is no different.
The things that make a difference:

• we have no really junior staff or trainees. The lowest paid staff are on £60k and the bulk of the team are on £90-£140k.
• management genuinely don't care
• staff with younger kids are largely on flexible contracts that allow them to work some shorter days and collect their kids from school. This usually means they are happy that on the days they wfh they get to do that, on record, and they happily pay childcare & accept the commute for the days we need to go in.
• we all understand that when we need to go in, we go in. I had an important project where for a few weeks I needed to meet people 3 days a week, so I did.

Oh and we do calls camera on. Always. If you are going to build rapport with people, you need to see their faces, expressions, reactions.

People who always want to do meetings camera off tend to struggle.

Totally agree with this - a cameras on rule makes a huge difference, unless you've got a good reason, your camera is on!

I think hybrid is great for a lot of people. For many, the office 5 days a week would be too much but so would WFH as you get a bit of cabin fever when you are confined all day and glued to a screen. A mix can be perfect though. There are drawbacks but I think if you can find your balance it can boost productivity for sure. Of course, dependent on circumstances though, it’s easier for those with space to work rather than scrunched up on an armchair or at the dining table. If you can afford to convert a room it’s perfect.

I'm used to doing it from conference calls in the Dark Ages 😂 and much prefer it. I am also the queen of poker face!

We’re a large organisation so our hybrid policy is quite structured, otherwise I suspect there would be chaos. Every department has to have at least one person in at any time, so no completely empty areas, we all do 2 days per week in the office, my dept has a rota, but other areas have fixed days, our IT has been massively upgraded, we have rooms/screens dedicated to hybrid meetings (which work really well). It feels incredibly flexible compared to pre COVID but it actually takes quite a bit of organisation to achieve productive flexibility. But I feel it’s been well managed and we seem to have a happy work force.

There are many places making this work

As most large organisations especially, make the effort to co-ordinate

At my work we go one day a week but it's one of two days, since thousands of people work in our office it means there usually is always a good vibe when in.

Teams co-ordinate too, so my entire department go in on a Wednesday for example.

Slightly different, but I dislike the underlying notion that junior people without a decent work space “should have sorted something out by now”.

I have a colleague who lives with her parents, works from their dining room table. They insist she packs all her large monitors and screens, IT tech etc away every night so they can have dinner by 6pm. Every night. She has a small bedroom, so no room for a desk unless she gets rid of her bed or gets one of those high sleepers (she’s 30). One manager even helpfully suggested she pay for space in a private hub. On her junior salary.

Horrific.

It works well for my team. We all try to get in on Tuesday and plan our diaries around that.

Personally I’d WFH forever but one day a week is fine if it keeps the troops happy.

It seems to be working ok at my office, but it’s taken a while to get to this point. We’ve got a high degree of flexibility and people are discouraged from coming in if they’d just be sat on teams calls all day not interacting with their colleagues. I’m averaging 50% of my time in the office because that suits the nature of my work, others are doing a bit more or a bit less. Haven’t noticed any drop in productivity for me or my team, if anything it’s improved. The senior managers are in more than 50% of the time, and most of the new trainees and graduates are in the office 4 days - their choice. Different teams make plans together for when it’s going to be useful for them to be working together. Then there’s a whole team meeting once a fortnight that you must come in for.

This thread makes me so happy that we've all been fully back in the office since the day we were allowed, with the benefit that since we are set up to WFH after covid, we can from time to time if we need to (delivery due, something important to get finished without distractions etc).

My work is similar but senior people and big teams do now WFO.

The problem is you can't please everyone all the time. Hybrid working is a compromise but a good one.

Hybrid working is hard to sort out Id agree, but i dont think its that bad.

I feel bad because I've just taken on 2 new junior staff and me and my other local team member have barely been into the office to meet them. Think is its all very well for single people in their 20s who live in the city centre to come into the office every day. It's really hard if you have children and commute in. We are really too busy to waste days WFO which is epically less productive. Can't even have teams calls as easily because the office WiFi is rubbish!

My life has changed since March 2020 and I have got used to WFH. I have got used to doing a larger amount of work and it would be difficult to go back to doing less. It's so much better for my family. It helps me to work really hard at my job and still fit in my domestic commitments.

Yes. Full time staff go in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays are up to you - some prefer being in the office everyday, others just do the minimum requirement.
Seems to work well and no complaining.
I'd prefer to work entirely from home but I can see the benefits of a catch-all, minimum requirement in the office from a recruitment and training POV so I'm fine with it. Mostly because I remember what it was like commuting and working in an office environment everyday pre-pandemic! Feel very grateful we haven't gone back to that.

There is literally no point enforcing office time if people are still on a teams call to their own manager because they’re sat on a different floor

Totally agree with this. We can book desks and it seems to work fine, but there are enough desks available for everyone who wants to be in on a given day (I am not sure if this will be the case in our new office though).

But a few years ago I worked mainly from home and went in once a week and couldn't book a desk. I kept asking for a desk booking system because I said there was no point making the effort to go in if I couldn't sit with my team and my boss just said I had to be in earlier! I wasn't impressed and couldn't get in earlier due to when the school breakfast club opened.

Slightly different, but I dislike the underlying notion that junior people without a decent work space “should have sorted something out by now

I think in the circumstances you describe I would be paying for a co-working hub, or even going to my local library to work. Presumably she's not paying a market rent at her parents so she could afford to go to a co-working hub. Her parents do sound very unreasonable though. I assume she isn't allowed to be in the office full-time?

That is mad. I suppose a lot depends on what her contract says and when she was hired.