To find it annoying when people moan about being in the office?

[justfliptheswitch]

Pre covid I was in an office 5 days a week. Since returning it’s been 2 days.

I think this is a great balance. But I’ve had two colleagues moan about childcare and that they shouldn’t have to come etc and for the last year they’ve got away with doing one day but now have to do the same as everyone else … like how did they cope before when it was 5 days?!

That suits you and that's why it works for you. That's the idea of flexibility and WFH its what works for the specific person and agreed with the company .
Am a lucky one i only go into the office twice a month, however that means aprox 5 hour round trip, 50e on diesel. I have dogs so get up early to give them a good walk, have to make myself presentable ( Leggings and hood not acceptable 😜). Get laptop bag ready with everything i need. Drive and more than likely get caught in traffic so end up being stressed on arrival, site in meetings most of the day, catch up with a few people and then drive home, traffic or a crash so possibly 3 hours to get home ( as was last week). Get home at stupid o clock, rush to do dinner and walk dogs then as so tired fall asleep on sofa about 9. And yes on the days in office i get a neighbor to pop in to dogs to walk during day and check on them. If you looked at my laptop, its my least productive day, nothing done really. Office is either super quiet or super busy, you can hear everyone's conversations. Plus i can never get a nice desk with a nice chair. Yes its great to see everyone however it makes me feel so rushed and stressed to go in. I am exhausted from driving, takes me a few days to get over it, office is not accessible via public transport so have to drive. Then i spend the few days after catching up on my work. Where as i am at home, i get up at a nice time, can wear what i want, have breakfast shower no rushing, walk dogs then log in. Do everything walk dogs at lunch, log off at end of day and still have time to do stuff in eve like a proper dinner, tidy a bit or shock horror go out. Some people want to go into the office some don't, if there is no business need to be in office then don't see the point.

How is forcing workers to waste pretty much 2 days of their week benefiting anyone?

But that’s just your view! Perhaps other people don’t see it as a waste or as having no benefit, including the employers.

It’s staggering that some people refuse to see another point of view exists and, crucially, is just as valid as their own.

It’s fair because it allows some working from home and some working from the office.

Unfortunately there are people who seem to think they are doing their employers a favour by working. In reality from personal experience wfh caused nothing but problems, remote working was far less productive and caused many issues especially with younger employees who didn't get the chance to learn from more experienced colleagues. Add to that background noise, connectivity issues etc and dp brought all his staff back in full time in mid 2021, all but 2 staff members agreed readily - guess which two weren't keen, the two who were slacking at home, both have since left and turns out it was more than just slacking

Because some employers want to retain a functioning office? And probably some employees? So a bit of both seems a reasonable middle-ground.

That's an opinion, which you're allowed to have, but presenting it as a fact contradicts your post a couple of minutes ago criticising @Curlyhairedassasin for not accepting other viewpoints as equally valid. You only seem to want this balance when it's coming from people who agree with you and OP.

And you still have no idea whether it's a compromise or any effort has been made to balance interests.

Totally agree. I wfh 3 days a week as opposed to zero pre covid. I love the balance and the collaboration in the office but I love being at home whenever I get a spare minute or two, I can start a load of laundry or whatever.

Yanbu.

I suspect everyone is comfortable at home because everyone is on this website...

I'm part time, but you should see how much time I spent pissing about on the internet when I used to be full time and office based...

Spot on.

That’s fine, I accept it’s my opinion that it’s fair. Is your opinion that it’s unfair? What do you feel is unfair about it?

I understand why you and many others prefer to work from home, I get that. But I would argue that not wanting to do something doesn’t make it inherently unfair that you have to.

have your point of view, but no one here is saying YOU should not be going to the office? Why do you think you can tell others what they should be doing?
If you want to be in the office 5 days a week, we don't care.

If employers NEED a weekly face-to-face meeting, or have valid reason to need people on site, fine.

If employers find that some employees are unproductive at home, it's the same as the office, get rid.

The difference between you and me is that I don't deny others the right to be in the office if they want, but you expect others to do what you prefer.

actually, no, I am not home, that's why I am on here.
When I am working from home, I don't waste time like this 😂

Companies acted like the entire organisation would collapse if people didn’t come in. Now we know that’s not true. If you can do your job from home 3 days a week, why can’t you do it 4 days a week. I can see why commuting in, losing that time out of your day and paying the costs associated may be annoying if they don’t feel like there’s anything productive coming from it. For example if they come in, do their work and don’t really speak to anyone and leave again, I can see why they don’t feel they need to be there.

also it’s been years, peoples situations change, cost of living and childcare has gone up, cost of fuel has gone up, their childcare situation has likely changed over the last 3 years, I don’t think you can compare what they did before really.

I have no opinion as to fairness, because there's not enough information. Also, for me it's not really the point. OP would still BU to make the assumption she has about childcare, because of the fact that the sector has changed radically since Feb 2020. And I still don't think there's any sense in complaining that people have noticed they don't live in the pre covid world any more and assess their situation based on 2023 rather than 2019.

I’m not telling you what you should be doing, the employer is. And they do have the right to do that, unfortunately.

They want people in the office, for whatever reason. You may not understand or agree with their reasons and they might not understand or agree with yours for wanting to WFH. But they have recognised them by settling on 2 days, when they could say 5. But you are not doing the same for them.

I do two days per week, and like that. This week it's going to be four days, because I need to run some workshops, but that's ok too. As long as I know.
I sadly don't have kids, but I do have other caring responsibilities. As I live alone, I enjoy the social aspect of a couple of days in the office; but I do grudge the time and money spent on the commute!!

I wfh most of the time and only go to the office if I need to have face to face meetings.

Its better for work life balance
Its better for the environment
Its cheaper
I'm more productive
It reduces congestion on the roads
It means my employer pays less rent for office space

I would not work any where that required me to be in an office on specified number of days unless there was really good reason for it.

Even then I probably would change jobs - my days of working in a on office are over.

wfh doesn't suit everyone or every job but neither does being in an office.

We have a 'town hall' director Q+A once a month. The number of questions which are just moaning about coming to an office some of the time has become tedious.

In my own personal experience, our business has never done better.
The cost to set it up would have likely been refused without the pandemic, but as it was essential, it had to be done. It's the office where you can't isolate from background noise, home is perfect.

Not only people have proven to be more productive, but it has been accepted that business travel and face-to-face client meetings were for the most part non essential, and travel is now extremely rare.

Funnily enough, even the few who moaned about WFH and not having the right set up have stayed well away from the office and haven't expressed a word of complain since they are welcome to be in the office, full time if they want, but have realised that commuting is not worth it, even when there's no strike.

who are "they"?

SOME employers might want people back, but many don't.

Many businesses have downsized the offices and couldn't get everybody back full time even if they wanted to 😂

SOME have settled on 2 days, but workers have the right to point out that at least one of these days is a waste of time. If you see something that is the best for the company, it's your responsibility to open your mouth.

If something is not working in my company, I am not going to be quiet about it. It's the interest of my paycheck if we are as profitable as we can.

If bringing me back to the office means I can't actually work, because I am wasting working hours on commuting, my time is wasted by people interrupting, doing their bloody "tea round", nattering or loudly speaking on the phone, I am not being a martyr and being quiet about it.

I used to work in the office two days a week, now I'm fully remote. But DS is either in childcare or school while I work so I'm not trying to do two things at once. I love WFH and I really hope I don't have to go back.

I guess it depends on the type of job you have but I think in my job we work more effectively as a team when everyone is in the office, and yes it is kind of annoying how much people complain about it. On the other hand they're probably fed up of me complaining about WFH 😁
Going into office isn't just about socialising. When everyone is in the office you can more easily find out what's going on as you overhear what people are doing, you can resolve issues quickly, you can discuss ideas and talk things through without having to type out messages or schedule Teams calls. People you might not have considered talking to on a particular topic when WFH might actually know more than you thought and chip in with really good ideas. There's so much that you can miss if you're not all working in the same room.
Talking to people, helping them out, answering questions is part of the job. Yes, I might get more done WFH but I don't think the team as a whole functions as well when we're all working separately at home on our individual tasks.

Exactly what @LittleLegsKeepGoing said.

Pre-covid I had my own desk, with a lockable pedestal drawer that I could keep stuff in. I only had face to face meetings with colleagues in a meeting room. I worked from a PC that was permanently at my desk

Now I have to hot desk so inevitably turn up to a madly uncomfortable chair that I can’t seem to adjust to a vaguely comfortable point. I have a locker that’s miles away from where I have to sit so I just end up lugging loads of stuff to and from work every day, which is heavy- tea/coffee (my employer doesn’t provide it), mug, water bottle etc. I go to the office only to sit on video calls with colleagues who aren’t in the office.

I do go in the number of days that my employer requires of me but I certainly don’t love to do so. The office in environment is far less comfortable than it used to be.