To ask what your employers are doing regarding wfh?

[Starwarslover]

I’ve recently started a new job which officially has no set days required in the office, although I keep hearing things that imply they want people in more. It doesn’t bother me as I’m in 60% anyway but it made me wonder if most employers are like this now, not wanting to put in minimum days but actively pushing for more than people are choosing to do.

YABU - employers are being honest and open and putting in set days

YANBU - they are saying they officially don’t mind when really they do

This.

Made huge savings closing offices globally, seen increased productivity and staff morale, increased percentage of female workers due to ability to be more flexible with hours, reduced travel costs due to rise in use of remote tools.

Our office is dependent on which team we are in - my team for example is in the office every day as our job is really difficult to do from home long term although the odd day for emergencies is fine. However, the sales and commercial teams are pretty much 100% remote.

If I were applying to the job, I'd want them to be honest so I could focus on truly WFH jobs if that was what I wanted.

But most people are already in the job, in which case I'd prefer them not officially stating a set day. So you can push the limits, whether every now and then or all the time (someone I know does the latter!) depending on what your needs/wants are.

I write the policies. ;)

80% of our staff can’t WFH. The 20% that can are expected in an office 2 days a week on average. My team (and me) travel elsewhere in the country between 2 and 4 days a week (including weekends) so I don’t enforce the 2 days a week for my team. There’s no point me going to my designated office - a) it’s 2 hours away from where I live and b) there’s nobody else there.

Officially 40% in the office. Direct managers are often happy for less. I work PT and I'm the equivalent of 25%.

As a business it’s one day a week. However, some of my wider team have become lazy and are falling behind so my boss has decided our whole team needs to be in two days a week now. I’m well ahead of targets so am slightly pissed off, especially as on office days I leave the house at 6am and get home at 8pm. As soon as I find another job I’ll be resigning.

Depends on the team. Head Office now closed Monday and Friday (you can prearrange to go in and there are a small number of desks available…apparently we were averaging 4 people in a four storey office block on Fridays!). Other offices (with younger staff on the whole given the roles there) are open every day. That said, I’m in Head Office and our team is in two days. But there’s no problem if you can’t do a day eg because you’ve got Parents Evening to get to…that said we also don’t earn overtime and certainly work it so I’d expect flexibility!

We're in the office 4 days a week because the organisation is going through a complete overhaul, as it's been dysfunctional for a while.

I'm hoping we can relax it to 2 or 3 days a week in the office on about 6 months time, when everyone and everything is more settled.

We don't have enough room for everyone to be on site at the same time. Some depts insist everyone is in 4 or 5 days a week and invade other depts space, some depts have a rota because of the lack of seats. It's really frustrating, I work much better at work than at home and hate not knowing where I'll be sitting (I'm on site 3-4 days a week). But some of my colleagues are quite happy WFH all the time, usually the more senior ones so since I'm usually on site I end up being the one who answers lots of questions from the less experienced staff.

I work for an NHS arms length body. They’ve told the London people that unless they go in two days a week then they’ll lose their London weighting. As for the rest of us around the country, it varies team by team. However, if you say you can’t/won’t come in then no-one ever enforces it which is ideal.

I should say about 50% of our staff were on site throughout the pandemic so I'm managing people who are on site most days so for me it make sense to be there too.

Four days in the office and all team leaders have to be there in person on Monday morning for the main meeting of the week. The place is like a ghost town on a Friday and I know some people take the piss and essentially take it as a long weekend, just checking their phone intermittently.

My ‘office’ is at home and my onsite work is often literally a building site, so it’s a bit different. I’m onsite as often as needed, could be most of the week sometimes or just a brief visit. In a previous life I used to work on engineering projects for BT when they were heavily into home working (teleworking as it was then known), then it all got changed as new leadership preferred office based. This was years before Covid. There does definitely seem to be a trend for getting people back into the office at the moment if my friends roles are anything to go by.

Roughly 50%. I do kind of have set days but that was my own doing. If one week I don't go in at all, nobody cries. Don't go in over school holidays at all.

Two days a week in office, 3 expected at senior level. In practice it’s not enforced rigidly unless it’s clear people are a long way from hitting that level, or if people are missing f2f team meetings for no reason. I mostly think 2 days is enough to get the necessary collaboration done.

Some of it is definitely encouraged due to business needs, but the office is prime London estate and costs £££ so a lot is them needing to justify the rent.

We have moved to a minimum of 3 days per week in the office, including at least 2 Fridays per month, up from 2 with no stipulation to come in on Fridays. ‘Operational reasons’ were cited as the justification. Didn’t go down well…

I mostly have worked throughout. I did work from home a bit in 2020 but to be honest I prefer being at work. The job I do was classified as a key worker anyway and I had a letter to the council to that effect in March 2020 and they offered a place at school for my kids - they refused to go on account of being already at university! Dp worked a few days a month throughout and has had all his employees in since May 2021. Wfh was fine for some but others just weren't productive, it was less discriminatory to say everyone back in

I WFH now FT. Most others are back in FT
Mine is an adjustment as I'm immunocompromised, caught covid and had three weeks off work. I think my manager doesn't want me off again so... WFH it is

Same here

It's been rather changeable for us. At some point last year we were told that it was going to be mandatory to be in 1 day a week from September and 2 days a week from November and it would be monitored.

There's been a bit of a U-turn on this as it caused quite some consternation and pushback from employees, especially those who are not co-located with their team and were often travelling a fair way to sit by themselves (as the exact day of the week you had to be in was not mandated) It's now 2 days a week is the ideal but only go in if it will be meaningful i.e. if you're going to be sitting around without any relevant colleagues around you, or on teams all day then don't feel under pressure to be there.

I can’t work from home at all, but DH’s sector is still really flexible-I think he’s been in twice this year.

I changed job just before the first lockdown and overnight everyone went fully remote as per guidance. 2021 there has been a push to get people back a day a week and people made such a fuss it was pretty pathetic really. I left a few months ago but the WhatsApp is full of moaning about an increase in expected office time, I expect it will go up to full time soon and people can just wfh if needed for various things. I have no doubt many people are more productive from home, but the line of work absolutely not the case, took ages to get anything done.

It's been interesting to watch though, I despised wfh but never vocalised this at work I just looked for a different job as I knew lots liked it; but seeing others in the sector head back has been like dominos falling as others follow suit. Certainly the 'ill leave and find a fully remote job if you make us come back' isn't as much of a threat in my role as the number of remote jobs are disappearing fast.

Min 40% in the office but all wfh is at manager's ongoing discretion, not contractual, so there have been periods where it's been 'everybody needs to come in FT next week' for a specific project and if sombody wants an in person meeting we're expected to make ourselves available etc.

We have a suggested team day in the office but it’s optional. I’d say 50% of the team actually go in as they want some social interaction but we tend to get a lot less work done. I usually go in once a month and there’s no push for us to do anymore.

We are in 3 days every 4 week period. They are set days where everyone will be in to get the most benefit from it. There will be times people can't make those office days, and that's generally fine too.

For those that want to go in more often, they can do as the office is open 4 days a week now.