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

I work for a huge organisation and we wfh. All offices were closed permanently.

About time this wfh nonsense was stopped.

WFH allows a lot more people to be productive in the labour market- mothers, disabled people etc. I live in the SE, cannot afford to live in London, cannot commute every day due to having a young family. Hybrid working freed me up to take a professional job in London, which I'm bloody good at. I am in a niche field so would be unlikely to land a similar job closer to home. I win. My company wins as they get someone with a specialised skill set who is committed to the company.

Please explain how that 'nonsense' @Viviennemary ?

I think it'll be increase the days in the office rather than full-time.

Is there even space for full-time?

DH got decreed back four days recently... then two weeks later they've closed the building due to RAAC !

Are you going to update us after op?

So many bitter people on this thread. It’s not all upsides WFH, especially in terms of costs. Heating and electric costs go up massively and the company don’t pay. Stationery and printing now comes of my own pocket.

When I do commute it’s more expensive per journey as I don’t have a travel card discount any more.

I don’t mind any of this as for me my priority is work life balance. Horses for courses though and I accept it doesn’t work for all which is equally fine.

our place has removed a lot of desks and hybrid working is the norm. It’s entirely obvious who shirks and who works even now.

More hybrid and terms of reference to clarify - the main reason for a full team meeting.

Careful, your jealousy is showing 🤭

Can I go with option 3 - they want to have a better system for flexible working and some collaborative working when in where possible.

I reckon it's going over/ formalising the ground rules, e.g., no childcare while working, and possibly setting up anchor days.

@JaiynDough 🤣

The trouble with WFH is the knock on effect of making jobs with no possibility of wfh far less attractive.
It is harder and harder to attract and retain teachers, nurses, retail staff. These are jobs that have traditionally been staffed by women. Teaching used to be regarded as family friendly. Now with the option of wfh, far fewer women are considering these careers. My local primary lost 50% of teachers at the end of the summer term. Few of these were going into other teaching roles but leaving teaching completely. Why use a job with so many demands on your time when you can opt for a flexible wfh job in the Civil Service. Again and again teacher unions raise the lack of flexibility as a reason for teacher dissatisfaction.

If it was stopped where I work, I'd have to do appts with clients face to face. That would involve spending hours travelling, up to 100 mile round trip. Having appointments over the phone is far more efficient.

We don't have enough meeting rooms in the office that are sufficiently soundproof to discuss clients' health and financial issues in the sort of detail we need to.

Our caseloads have almost doubled since the pandemic, and it wouldn't be sustainable if we had to see them in person.

I see no need for it in most roles, and if managers are incapable of dealing with skivers who WFH, they should consider whether they should actually be managers.

My company is not renewing building leases as leases come to an end.

Our call centre section is answering more calla than when we were office based. However due to the increase in calls, it is taking longer to get through.

we trying to get more funding for more staff but it has been declined

The teams productivity is much higher since working from home

I'm not sure if that's directed at me but if so, I'm not 6, I'm not jealous of people who WFH and you have no idea of my own work place/work patterns

Noticing a drop in service standards since COVID is nothing to do with jealously, that makes no sense

Most LEAs ( not sure about Academies) are drawing up guidelines for wfh for SLTs in schools. The trouble is that puts a far heavier workload at lunch times and break times on ordinary staff.

I vote more days in the office. My DH's workplace has recently mandated 3 days in the office each week.

once every two weeks? i’d vote for getting rid of the office

The mass exit of teachers has pretty much nothing to do with WFH. It’s because teachers are underpaid, schools are underfunded, and the idea that 10 weeks off a year should make amends for that has got tired.

I know a fair few teachers, of the ones who have left, none have gone from WFH positions. They’ve just gone for jobs that they feel well paid for, and not set up to fail.

I suspect that that is replicated in many workplaces, not just schools. The tasks that can’t be done at home fall onto those that go in.

I think they're wanting to talk about rules/conventions around working from home.

Crucially, what time is the meeting?!

@YouveGotAFastCar
But anecdotal examples of the kind you use as evidence, 'I know a fair few teachers', isn't the same as statistics.

The DfE says that flexible working can “help recruit and retain teachers, improve staff wellbeing and promote equality in the workforce”. Its new flexible working ambassadors have been appointed “to support school leaders in implementing and embedding flexible working in their schools” (see DfE, 2023).5 Jul 2023

Those jobs are simply going to have to pay more to compensate for the unattractive lack of flexibility, either that or we'll have to do without them.

We will eventually get our heads round this, as a society, but at the moment too many of us are still in the denial phase. Dipshit comments like @Viviennemary's about how it all needs to come to an end are evidence of that. But we were moving towards more remote working even pre covid, albeit much more slowly and steadily, and it has been years now since that particular cat was forced out of the bag. We just need to complete the acceptance process.

I don't think it will happen under the Tories though, they're still too attracted to whining about it whilst hoping the sort of idiot that laps it up won't know how much hybrid they implemented in the public sector in the 2010s so they could reduce costs.

So many people think if you WFH you skive. I e worked in jobs WFH especially over covid where I actually worked more hours than I was supposed to do and didn’t take breaks!

I’m at the age now where I’ve been there and done that re commuting, office socialising etc.

If some slackers abuse the WFH system then that ruins it for others.

I’ve got a few reasons for wanting to WFH but a straw poll out of friends reveal most want to and are wfh effectively.

At my work it was to confirm we would continue to wfh with the option of desk provision for those whom wfh doesn't suit.