Meeting: 'Working from home' - your vote needed!

[coxesorangepippin]

Got a meeting invite late tonight titled simply: Working from home'. Scheduled for half an hour. No additional info.

What are they gonna say?

Return to the office full time? Full time WFH???

Your guess is as good as mine. We're currently in once every two weeks.

Results posted in here tomorrow once the meeting has been held.

Yanbu = back to office
Yabu = WFH

@Throwncrumbs Could you elaborate on how me doing the paperwork bits of my job from home where I can concentrate properly has caused historic equal pay claims, central government funding cuts and massive inflation pushing up day to day operational costs please?

Also, and perhaps more importantly, could you ensure my massive salary is forwarded ASAP? I took a pay cut to move to the public sector several years ago and have yet to see any sign of anything remotely resembling a massive salary. Very keen to get this rectified if you wouldn't mind.

Cause it will cost them money

Because it will cost them four times as much in petrol and no doubt some will now need wraparound care. Plus the time factor of course.

I agree it could have been much worse though.

@M4J4 It's due to issues such as inadequate parking meaning driving around a city trying to find a (likely expensive) space, or relying on very unreliable public transport. One wants all its employees in on the same day and friend can't concentrate with the noise, plus people tend to just use that day to socialise, chat and lunch together, then start serious work again on the WFH days.
I only work from home if I have an appointment or am too unwell to come in but can do some work, at least, in the house. For me it means half an hour to nursery instead of a little over 5, a considerable amount on fuel and sometimes a hassle to find parking (there is literally no public transport to my workplace from my village). It is a job the could be done with 2 or 3 days only in the office, so I am also starting to look at WFH vacancies, or hybrid in favour of more home working, at least.

I work from the office almost every day. I would miss it if I didn't and I struggle with the amount some colleagues WFH.
I would rather everyone was in the office, but I also appreciate that the world has changed and coming in more often is my choice. But I wouldn't be happy if any of my colleagues were moved to 100% WFH either.

I'm working in the office today. Can't hear any of my callers as it's so noisy with everyone talking
Rather WFH in peace. Every single thing I do is monitored, I can't be 3 mins late back from my lunch without someone knowing

Interesting about HMRC, for whom I worked until last year. They have a newish telephony system, bargain basement. I think they’re happy to let “WFH” take the blame for poor connectivity rather than admit they’ve bought a lemon.

That, and front line staff are leaving in droves. Morale is low and pay is ok but better in the private sector. The person you’re talking to about your tax underpayment, pension contributions and K code is paid less than the person who scanned your potatoes and cheese in Aldi.

Voted YANBU but expect will be a hybrid that involves office at least twice a week.

I have read some ignorant shite on here over the years but that takes the

What is wrong with people?

'The team's not happy'. Dear God.

Firstly, you are paid to do a job, and it's the employer's prerogative to decide on the conditions of that employment.

Secondly, while the world has changed since Covid, the idea that means no or barely any time on-site is ridiculous. While many aspects of some roles can be done effectively from home, for many more roles, some time in person is needed. This is often for the less-obvious but integral type of work, like getting to know people, collaboration, building trust, troubleshooting, creative working.

Thirdly, 2 days a week is certainly not an imposition. You still have 3 days a week WFH, and colleagues can continue to benefit from savings to a significant extent, compared to pre-Covid times.

In my workplace we WFH 2 days a week. I'm a manager & I can move my own days around if I need but I do my best to stick to a schedule - it's easier for my team, and me. However, it's always subject to business need. If we need staff on-site they must come in, and if I need to attend in person meetings for example, I'll always come on site.

The level of entitlement from some is crazy.

And these are the sorts of companies I would weed out! How backward can you be! If the job can be done as well or better at home, why would you force people to commute in? My commute costs £50 a day and is 2 hours each way. There’s not a chance in hell I’m going back to that !

Instead, I no longer look for other jobs or push for big pay rises. I do my job far, far better at home. I would leave before going back in.

I really consider working in the office per se to be a really old fashioned concept. Times move on.

If the job can be done as well or better at home,

Aspects of my job can be done well, perhaps better at home. No distractions, control over meetings / interactions and so on.

But even where it seems to be the case, a lack of staff cohesion & personal connection, can be detrimental at a top level. So individual employees might feel they work better at home; as an overall entity the company might be losing out.

Having no choice at all is probably old-fashioned.

Having some element of in-person connection is certainly not.

People think Teams calls etc can work as effectively - they often can't. The small personal interaction, being able to open up or even just the interpersonal connection - often these are important & needed.

I am public sector, we also have a new telephone system - it is dreadful, irrespective of whether you're in the office or at home. A call comes in, and you just can't answer it!!!

I'm not even public sector but this is beyond ignorant.

Council staff all working from home

I mean, that's a lie for a start.

not actually doing a lot but raking in massive salaries

Again, not true. I mean I'm sure it's the case for a few at the top but many of us choose the private sector because it pays better.

The moneys gone into peoples pockets but not in services.

Do....do you not think council workers should be paid a salary?

Big issues in lots of places with the same problems.

Well that's the consequence depletion of budgets, not staff who are apparently, according to you, "all" WFH.

There's a lot wrong with this post.

The employer's prerogative doesn't outweigh the views of the team. The employer can certainly decide that they're not willing to allow employees to work more than a particular amount from home. The response to that, however, isn't up to them. That will depend on whether they're an attractive enough package in general to be able to enforce their preferred office hours, whether with the current employees or replacements. There's also the possibility that any staff they do manage to unwillingly force in are going to be resentful and that's going to be damaging to team culture. These are not things that can be opted out of, they're part of the workplace and recruitment environment now.

It's not ridiculous to think that the changes since covid mean no or barely any time on site. It completely depends. Some roles need to be fully in person, some not at all, some inbetween. The fact that the OP says her manager thinks it'll go down to 1 day a week and they agree there's no value to them being present in person suggests OPs is at the 'not at all/barely any' end of the spectrum.

You're allowed not to think 2 days in the office is an imposition, but for some it will be, and there's no more wrong with those people than there is with you. Those people will either be able to find a different job with terms more to their liking, or they won't- it's simply part of the workings of the market now. Neither employees nor employer are being entitled.

It's not that old. The wfh shift is pretty recent.

There aren't many places with no office base at all.

But I agree a lot of people are still hung up on presenteeism.

You don't need to be in the office to see who's responsive and productive and who isn't.

I used to work primarily a a supplier to government. They spend months and months discussing what they wanted often with different people attending meetings. At one point myself and my colleague attended a meeting and there were 19 of them! They were showing off to each other and trying to all justify why they were there. Months went by and eventually they chose a cheap and cheerful product which was not a great choice.

Dont get me started on the government dept that refused to get off old technology even though it was so old maintenance wasn’t going to be available. Company was on the hook for the upgrade and even then they dug their heels in.

I spent many hours at their sites and it was truly shocking how they were running their ‘business’. Lots of cottage industry type behaviour and any excuse was used to down tools. Technology was blamed a lot by them when it was their inability to change their ways that was slowing everything down.

Hilarious. The ‘entitlement’ of the managers wanting the team to come back into the office. Shocking. We’re back full time and see way, way better productivity. The team were keen to come back and have some routine.

For a moment, how to you think public facing employees manage it? They can’t WFH. Honestly, if you don’t like it leave but you really have nothing to complain about.

What reasons did they give?

Tried to do that in our place suppose to be 2 days a week in office, got pushed right back. The argument was that we have all worked from home past two years with an increase in productivity so why stop it. Plus it turned out not enough space anyway as staff increased over covid, Had to fork out rent for portacabins. Most work from home now 4 days a week or more depending on job and where live. I get nothing done in the office now when i do go in, have face to face meetings ( some a waste of time could be an email job) talking to people haven't seen in ages, going to canteen, searching for a chair as mine gone missing or late for work as there was a bloody crash on the motorway ( a common occurrence) plus need to leave early to save me an hour extra drive. The noise in the office in unbearable now too. You can tell on the teams calls who are in the office as the noise is unreal from them when they speak. We also have three similar factories within in 10 ins from us that allow working from home so struggling to keep staff. Am now at home catching up from a lost day yesterday as was in the office. not worth it.

I think probably more time in the office as I think most people are back in alot more now. Ive never worked from home (due to nature of the job) and would really miss seeing my colleagues every day. I would hate my home to become my work space (luckily DH doesn’t work from home either so its a work free home).

I know some people say they work better at home (and im sure thats true in some cases), but ive heard other Mums with Primary School children describe how they worked from home all week in the holidays with the kids at home. You cant possibly concentrate or work to the same level in that situation. That shouldn’t be allowed- its not fair on the employer or the children.

I see a fair amount of the usual anti-public sector BS on this thread. I'm public sector, whenever I've worked with bought-in/contingent labour to cover vacant roles, many of them were saying in the mid-late 2010s that they were doing 80% of their work at home (before working with my area) and the public sector was archaic.

Truth is there's a lot of rubbish talked about public sector WFH - primarily by the Daily Mail & Telegraph (fuelled by idiots like Mogg) - but it doesn't reflect reality. I get into the office usually twice a week (we're not mandated, I chose to) and to be honest I find it's increasingly difficult to get work done the more the office is filling up. More unecessary chats (work and small talk), more lenghty queues to get a cup of tea, go to the toilet etc.

In favour of office work though, I do think teams need to spend a bit of time together from time to time.

In short, the type of work you're doing should dictate whether home or in office, not some stupid dictat from a boss living in the dark ages.

When I was getting planning permission for our house, the excuse for it being delayed (much longer than expected) was ‘we’re all working from home’.