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).

Was going to say the same!

If they've put in a flexible working request and been given contracted wfh days it doesn't have to be the same as everyone else.

I work in health care. Front line staff have to be in 100% of the time, admin staff in a service have to be in 100% of the time. Central services can go in as little or as often at they want to, other than for big face to face meetings (I do about 6 a year).

There's no more or less flexibility for parents.

The fact that central services can decide when they go in has caused some friction with front line staff. But they can't do their job from home.

@CornishGem1975 While I agree, I can also see that people have seen a different way of working that perhaps gives them a better work life balance, allows more choices about where they live if they no longer have to commute and helps them juggle work and childcare logistics. Part of the issue is that employers were not absolutely clear where necessary that WFH was temporary and that things were subject to change. Employees naively assumed that WFH was a given and they have arranged their lives accordingly. Now that the WFH experiment has ended everyone is in a flux.

Electricity and phones weren't invented in 2020 🙄

I don't generally disagree with you @SilverGlitterBaubles but that's not really the fault of the employers, and work absolutely do not have to accommodate people's childcare logistics. Special allowances shouldn't be made because someone chooses to have children. Unless you put in a flexible working request and adjust your hours and your pay accordingly, but the issue for most people is they want work to be flexible but they don't want to have to reduce their income.

Anyone with any common sense should have realised that WFH for many was only ever going to be temporary. It's like saying kids thought they'd never have to go back to school every day after a year of home-schooling.

Special allowances shouldn't be made because someone chooses to have children.

Our policy and procedures for flexible working are 'reason neutral' - basically if someone is requesting a flexible arrangement they don't have to say why. They do have to say what steps they will take ensure that management, colleagues, clients, etc. will not be in any way disadvantaged by their arrangement.

When I had our first DC I was in a more junior role, and somewhat naively asked for time working from home to accommodate childcare, and was refused. That is one of the biggest changes from lockdown times, as people now expect to be able to work from home and do childcare at the same time, whereas before either/or would have been the rule.

That is one of the biggest changes from lockdown times, as people now expect to be able to work from home and do childcare at the same time, whereas before either/or would have been the rule.

@GilChesterton It's in our hybrid working policy that we're not allowed to work and do childcare at the same time - except in cases of sickness etc but it's generally up to manager's discretion.

I work from home during school holidays and don't go to the office at all during that time unless urgently needed, but that was negotiated during my interview and contract process (post-pandemic).

I have worked from home in some capacity since 2005. Way way way before covid.

Mine (university) is very flexible. I got in 2-3 days a week. But assuming the office is your contractual place of work, they are perfectly entitled to make you go there. Unless you make and are granted a formal flexible working requests. But honestly it’s your choice to have kids so your flexible working request shouldn’t be prioritised above anyone else’s

Nah, did the office jig for a long time and hated commuting. I'd decided after Covid I wasn't going back to an office and switched jobs based on that and got flexi time on top. Currently working a lush 7 - 2. OP if you love what you do in that specific company maybe it's worth sticking out but if it's no longer working for you and family have a look at fintech companies or finance controllers at SaaS firms. They're more likely to be more flexible. And pop the remote tag on when searching for roles on LinkedIn.

Absolutely - my office is extremely flexible but those with children can't leave the heavy lifting to those without.

You could make the same argument about a lot of things such as overt racism. "Everyone managed before. If mass immigration 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."

Just because something was done a certain way in the past doesn't mean that it's the best way.

How can you compare choosing to have a child and racism @Dotjones that's bonkers.

Read it again. The point is that the world changes, viewpoints change.

50 years ago people thought Empire was a good thing. Now they don't.

10 years ago most people though remote working was weird. Now they don't.

The pp was not conflating racism and remote working. Please read posts properly before virtue signalling, it is very annoying, even when I am not the target of it.

We came back 2 days a week which is reasonable but not necessary but now have to do 3, it has completely thrown everything off and put a lot of negativity in the business. Leavers have increased so god knows what will happen if they move to 4!

I did and I still stand by it!

I'm not saying remote working is weird, I've done it since 2010, but you have no 'right' to expect it. It's not a human rights issue. Hardly comparable to the Empire and it's not 'virtue signalling', they are ridiculous comparisons.

If you choose to have children, it's up to you, not your employer, to make that work.

DP is supposed to do 2/5 days but it often doesn’t happen because his bosses are sensible and recognise train strikes, family life Vs long commutes, the infernal heat, the pointlessness of trekking in to spend the day on Teams.

I do 100% WFH but no clue what the rest of my company does. I think there’s pressure to go in but no mandate but I have a remote contract so ignore the periodic encouraging emails and shit bribes like “a free selection of herbal teas in the office kitchen!”

Usually if a job no longer fits in with your life - you find a new one.

I did 3 days in the office, 2 days at home before the pandemic.

I still do this pattern after the pandemic. Difference is now “at least 3 days WFO” is mandated for everyone.

Public sector employer, it took us a long time to get our hybrid working policy finalised after covid. From about Sept 2021 it was “2 days in the office, pending final policy” and even though it was well known that 2 days was going to be the way forward, people stopped applying for jobs in our organisation because of the uncertainty around hybrid. Once the policy was finalised and circulated with job adverts, recruitment picked up again. But there are still many people who only appear occasionally, and no one seems to mind