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).

3 days seems to be the standard tbh.

Agreed, some of the most important aspects of job roles are picked up by learning from those around you. Hearing how more experienced colleagues speak to colleagues, clients and manage difficult situations, being able to just turn around and quickly check something with a colleague rather than via Teams is really important. Employers can also see and hear if someone is perhaps not happy or struggling with their work and provide support rather than them muddling through at home.

Indeed. I appreciate the flexibilty of hybrid working bit I have a nagging feeling we are letting young people down. It takes a lot of experience and maturity to be able to manage your workload and meet deadlines at home.

Yes we were thinking this was how they knew what was going on in DH's office.

Or they know where you've logged in - ie on the office system or via the VPN from outside.

However neither take into account working at client offices/attending meetings elsewhere etc.

I don't disagree with this, but I think it then depends on your role. If you are training younger staff, you need to be in the office more. If your job doesn't involve that, you don't.

I was thinking more that younger, inexperienced ataff are not coping well with navigating the flexibility of hybrid working.

For example WFh requires more, not less, communication and a bit of managing up.

Employees want to do what works best for them. Employers want employees to do what works best for the company. The two aren’t necessarily compatible. I listened to a radio 4 programme a couple of weeks ago and it seems to be thought that wfh is not as productive as it was thought to be. Obviously, the people that like it, do so partly because it gives them the flexibility to do household chores or the school run. I imagine it will take much longer term studies to determine whether office, hybrid or wfh is the most productive.

If I were an employer, providing a company car for an employee to use to commute, I wouldn’t be very happy about that perk not being used for commuting primarily.

Everyone managed before. If covid hadn't happened we would not even be having this conversation.

Why can't people just get on with it.

Everyone is so fragile now.

Legally anyone can ask for flexible working and an employer has to be seen to be fair to all.

Thanks everyone! It does seem like 2 or 3 days a week is becoming the norm. Looks like we’ll have to work around it. I think Covid and the short period after spoilt us in thinking our quite cushty life of working from home would be the norm going forward.

With regards to the me having children and flexibility comment, I wrote that as I wrongly thought it was only people with children and caters who could put in a flexible working request, but I see that’s now changed and everyone can (which is great!). Although no one else in my team has young children, everyone has long commutes and some have dogs at home to think about.

my manager is insisting on attendance in the office at least once a week. I feel the whole mandating attendance is taking a backward step. Wfh allows people from all of the country to work for an organisation. It also gives consideration to peoples circumstances like carers, those with children or say military families.

Everyone managed before. If covid hadn't happened we would not even be having this conversation.

Why can't people just get on with it.

Everyone managed to do their jobs before electricity
Everyone managed to do their jobs before telephones
Everyone managed to do their jobs before computers
Everyone managed to do their jobs before the internet

What a daft argument.
Workplaces evolve. If there is a new way to do things, then the pros and cons of embracing that should be looked into and considered rationally. Where there are benefit to the workforce, to the employers, and to the environment generally, why on earth wouldn't you embrace change ?

Oh, and some of us wfh long before covid, as, in some roles and for some employers and some employees it works very well.

Can you do a short day in the office and pick up the rest of the work in the evening? That's what I've always done.

@UsingChangeofName yes and offices are evolving again and need people back in 2 to 3 days a week.

Everyone managed to do their jobs before electricity
Everyone managed to do their jobs before telephones
Everyone managed to do their jobs before computers
Everyone managed to do their jobs before the internet

Well, yeah, but they normally did it outside their home. And those WFH got paid chicken shit for wages. Are you advocating for that?

I agree. And for most jobs it's much more effective to work in the office unless you have a job where you work in a complete silo

And those WFH got paid chicken shit for wages. Are you advocating for that?

eh? Where do you get that from ?
We seem to be back to people taking one job, or one example and assuming that applies to all jobs.
I wfh long before covid, and am / always have been paid the same as those who chose to drive to the office.

And for most jobs it's much more effective to work in the office unless you have a job where you work in a complete silo

Again, presumably you are thinking about the particular job you do ?

There are plenty of jobs where people work independently, on their own caseloads, or own projects etc. and don't need to 'chat' about things. When we need to collaborate, we set up a Teams meeting. When one of us has a query or wants a bit of advice, or someone to take a second look at something, we e-mail, phone or video call them. It's not difficult.

Ultimately, as has already been said on this thread, wfh suits some jobs. It suits some people, it doesn't suit others. There is no 'one size fits all'.

Unfortunately at my work the ones resisting coming back to the office are all the people we have performance concerns about. Those who work hard with decent output have all quite happily come back in a couple of days a week.

In my experience those who like wfh don't have performance issues, but like concentration.
Quite the opposite, those who like in the office.....like decision by committee, less individual accountability to 'learn from others' etc

You were working before there was electricity and phones? 🤔

You were working before there was electricity and phones? 🤔

No. That's not what has been said if you have a re-read..

A random question not sure if you know of the show the good wife, but how realistic is the show in the way it portrays the office politics of a law firm?

I manage a small team and have just put in place guidelines stipulating a maximum wfh 'allowance' of two days per week, the rest of the week to be spent in the office or out meeting clients. Although our team members work independently, we are a much more effective, and a much better place to work, when people can have face-to-face contact, casual conversations, quick meetings, which is all much more difficult remotely.

I try to be in the office every day (and I have a much longer commute and younger children than any of our team!).

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.

This. But we’re only asked to go in 2 days per week. I work in a very small team, 2 of them are recent maternity-returners. If they were allowed special arrangements we wouldn’t be able to function properly