Working From Home

[LucyOCS]

I work in a relatively senior role in the Financial Services sector in London. I’ve not worked in the office much for the last 4 years due to maternity leaves and Covid, and for me (and I think my company) it has worked brilliantly. My company has gotten a lot more hours out of me as I’ve been working in the time I would have been commuting, and of course I’m less tired and have been able to put a wash load on each day.

I’m now back from maternity leave and am commuting to the office a couple of days per week. To me it feels like a complete waste of time as most of the people I work with are abroad (large multinational company) so I’m commuting a round trip of 3 hours to sit on Teams calls. Plus I’m still breastfeeding and it’s very stressful worrying if the trains are going to let me make it home for bedtime.

It’s also putting pressure on my DH who has to do both school and nursery drop off and pick up on the days I’m in. In return I do both when I’m at home which means I no longer ever get the chance to put in a long day.

Pressure is now being put on everyone to be in the office 3 days per week, but I think it’s going to be unmanageable.

AIBU to ask what flexibility you have with your office job, and whether you are afforded more flexibility than your colleagues because you have kids? (None of my peers in my team have kids but none of them want to be in the office either, so my boss and his boss I think are reluctant to formally let me wfh more than the others).

We're asked to aim for 2 days a week, with one being a set day that all the team are in. It feels more useful when colleagues are around! There's flexibility for appointments etc though.

I work in professional services firm and they made a global rule of 3 days in office late last year…hardly anyone does this. Most people do 2 days and some people still don’t come in. Maybe they’ll get stricter about this eventually but point is it’s possible that you’ll have more flexibility than the 3 days anyway. I think it would be fine to negotiate 2 days and make those 2 days the days when most people are in. Or instead of a flexible 3 days, ask them to make it an assigned 2 days - so people get maximum collaboration and face time but less commuting required.

I think perhaps due to BF and commuting time you could ask for some flexibility for a period until your baby is fully weaned. However I think more and more companies are requiring staff to return to the office 2/3 days per week. If your contract says your workplace location is the office then your employer can request you to be there 5 days. Your school and nursery drop offs are not your employers problem. People making lifestyle and childcare plans based on a temporary work situation have to expect that this can happen.

Our company said we need to do 3 days WFO after lockdowns ended, but most people actually do 2. Folks who hated working from home during the pandemic do 5. Horses for courses. I think that’s what will likely happen at your place.

If they enforced 3 days WFO here, I think that several staff members might leave because other similar employers are more flexible. Senior leadership here is worried about staff retention because there are plenty of job vacancies out there, so they don’t plan to come down hard vis-à-vis the 3 day rule.

Agree with PP that sometimes what is the reality (e.g 1 or 2 days), is different to the theoretical statement (e.g. 3 days).

But in response to the other part of your question - no I have never come across someone who gets a different arrangement with more flexibility to WFH purely because they have kids. That wouldn't be fair on other colleagues who will have all sorts of other reasons why they'd also like to be WFH more.

Can you negotiate a temporary change to your hours while breastfeeding, e.g can you always leave by 4pm on days in the office, then less train problems to worry about ?

I go in when I want to, if I want to, unless there is a full team meeting in the office, which is every three months.

I last went in a month ago and will probably not go in for another 8 weeks. Prior to that, I hadn't been in the office for six months.

I keep my head down about the company car sat outside, that's just been replaced. 🤫

Sounds the same as my company. There’s been a global directive for a while that it’s 3/4 days in the office, but they’re just not being able to enforce it. Every time they try the comms get more and more forceful about it.

In theory we’re supposed to do two days in, three at home. In practice this isn’t monitored or enforced and I suspect the majority don’t do it. I probably average three days in a fortnight, and I’m regarded as a frequent flyer. I think that a line manager would have a quiet chat if someone was NEVER going in, but I also suspect that magic words about mental health or work life balance would end the conversation pretty quickly. But my company has always been split between sites at opposite ends of the country, so we were already doing a lot remote first before covid, and there’s rarely a genuine business reason people have to be in for a specific thing.

My organisation got rid of 50% of their office space during the pandemic so we don’t all fit in any more. Requirement is 1 day a fortnight, but in practice almost everyone comes in at least once a week.
I think in taking the opposite approach, I.e. making the requirement low, we have actually had more buy-in from staff.
Incidentally, you could make a formal flexible working request to work from home for a fixed amount of time (100%, or maybe a bit less). Being worried that your colleagues will think it unfair isn’t a legitimate business reason to refuse. Nevertheless you would need to explain how you would mitigate any effect on the business.

I work in corporate law and in my dept we're encouraged to be in the office at least 3 x per week, but the reality is, people don't come in this often.

My firm has a pretty laid back attitude tho and as long as work is done, we're pretty much left to our own devices

May I ask why you can't just employ someone to do pick up / drop off for the extra day?
In the pre wfh era when I had three small children this is what we did. I'm all for WFH but it is as if people have forgotten the possible options available to meet the demands of a business they work for.

My boss to be fair is accommodating to the breastfeeding. Trouble is by the time I’ve fed in the morning I’m not in that early so it feels a bit cheeky to leave any contingency with regards to the time I leave in the evening.

I actually work public sector so completely different I suppose but just in case it's of interest. I joined this team/workplace from the private sector. My old private sector job the rule was everyone in a team had to be in the office one particular day a week. You can WFH the rest of the time. However there was office space for people who wanted to go in more often but you'd have to book a desk out in advance and make sure there is space. That wasn't an issue that as so few people wanted to go in more often and often if they did it was for a one off for a couple of us to be together doing something. My new public sector job was the same but now they're saying they want us in more often for no reason - well thehre saying its for our own wellbeing which is obviously absolute shit, because there's nothing stopping anyone coming in more often now and only one other staff member chooses to. It's definitely better for my wellbeing to get more of my housework and laundry done so I don't have to do it on the weekends (or not do it at all) than to waste it commuting and everyone in my team feels the same. They haven't confirmed what the 'more' will look like yet but they're floating informally full time staff members will have to be on site twice a week and part timers only once.

I think I would approach it on the style of work your doing. If you have a day in diary of dealing with International calls on teams then I would make the point that is it really productive commuting to work?

We are 40% in the office - finance, London. Seems about the norm. I had a 9 month old in nursery when I was commuting full time so I'm very grateful for the change tbh!

I think in taking the opposite approach, I.e. making the requirement low, we have actually had more buy-in from staff.

I agree with this. When we have the occasional mandatory in-person team meeting, most people respond by staying at home for the rest of the week, when they might otherwise have not.

The one thing that made a massive difference was free lunches. They stopped recently, and I think the number of people in has dropped by a good 80%.

I'm a supporter of working from home if that works for the business and employees are as productive (contrary to folklore here, that isn't always the case). I am not in favour of anyone getting preferential treatment becuse they have given birth or are a parent. Nobody should have more flexibility because they have kids, whether that's working from home or holiday dates. People who haven't got children don't owe them, and should get the same entitlements.

We’ve been told two days a week from 1/9 but everyone has kicked off and is fuming so I’m not sure people will actually do it. I think last September they also said 2 days a week and it didn’t stick. Currently do one day a week and it works well.

I’m in one office (15 minute commute) 2 days a week and another (an hour away) one day a week. Last week I was due in the hour commute location on Wednesday but I just told my boss that as we have 5 meetings on teams it was pointless me coming in to sit in a side room on teams so I’ll work from home. I didn’t ask just politely informed her. I’m not doing it for the sake of it.

Can your school-aged child go to a child minder or afterschool club?

My employer, everyone can ask for flexibility and it is given. Once competent in role, if hybrid contract, 2 days in office. Many have remote contracts. We have been able to recruit staff across uk for our niche roles.
I am senior manager. I can choose my mix of home/office work. All senior managers do a mix.
It works for us!

Yes she does, but we both work quite senior roles so if we were both at home one could work 7-5 and do pick up and one work 9-7 and do drop off. When one of us does both drop off on pick up on the same day realistically all they can work is 9-5:30. There aren’t enough hours in the day to get our jobs done 9-5.

What does your contract say OP?

Make a statutory application

https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working

My firm don’t care how often/when you go in. I prefer to be in the office but hate it because I then just end up sitting on my own on teams all day - could have stayed at home! I’d rather be told everyone in on x day.