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

Poor customer service isn't because of WFH, it's because of a lack of staff and companies (and government bodies) deliberately moving towards using chatbots and the like to try to stop anyone getting through to them.

I am a big fan of WFH but as long as your employer actually has an office, you can use it if you prefer working in an office. I don't really see what the issue is for those who prefer working in offices - if you don't want to work from home, don't. And if your employer has got rid of the office, move to one that hasn't.

I also wonder whether those who go on about productivity actually know what high levels of productivity for their employer and sector actually look like?

They are having performance issues with some WTF and confirming expectations and increasing days. Potentially also putting a stop on another with pre school age kids caring for them while WTF

CharlotteBog

FYI you can 'watch' a thread if you want to follow it, rather than add to the thread.
oh I know, but if it gets shut down you don't find out. (Plus wanted to wish op best of luck!!)

Sure, in her case it's likely that the role pays a fair bit more than typical customer service standard call centre. So it's probably not that she genuinely can't afford the commute, childcare etc.

It's likely that the 'pool' for those roles is being affected by the general customer service job market though, which in turn is impacted by us not having enough workers for all the roles we want. There can be quite significant structural barriers to getting customer service staff into office settings. People don't want to do it any more.

Yes, these type of 'working from home' individuals will gradually mean less and less working from home for some occupations. To many take the p and do very little at certain times (after school ends), Friday afternoons, long lunches etc etc.

I've said this before on other WFH threads - until my employer finalised and published our hybrid policy, we couldn't recruit new staff. Requesting 5 days per week in the office, in my sector, makes you extremely unattractive to potential applicants

Your guess is as good as mine.

I think that's supposed to be our line, OP 😀

I had to google 'lead swingers'. I thought briefly it was some form of bellringing hobby, or possibly sex related.

Butts in seats. Maybe not full week but defo a few days a week.

My guess is meeting will be to lay down law about minimum number of days in office, but not a wholesale RtO.

In my job I work on content about commercial office space, so I see a lot about this - a lot of businesses now and starting to rattle their sabres about coming in and there being consequences for those who don't often enough.

FWIW, I think there's no reason a lot of knowledge work can't be done remotely, but it's still good to go in a few times a week if you can and see people. I started a new role just over a year ago and I'm terrible with names, so it helps me to come in twice a week. If they were to insist on a third, that's OK, but I'd be annoyed if they asked for more than that.

I hate the way the newspapers have politicised it and decided it's 'woke' somehow, and to go on and on about the civil service, as if it's WFH's fault that everything's gone to hell rather than our godawful government!

I hate the way the newspapers have politicised it and decided it's 'woke' somehow, and to go on and on about the civil service, as if it's WFH's fault that everything's gone to hell rather than our godawful government!

Totally agree.

I expect it's about hybrid working. That's the way most companies seem to be going with 1 or 2 days in the office.

Can I ask why you say this? Genuinely interested as I love WFH!! Love to get an opposing view

I suppose that's one way to try and get people back into the office...

Loving your version of WFH.

We work 3O and 2H. Have done for 1.5y now, after WFH during lockdown.

For many many years we were just office based. I enjoy my 2 at home, would have liked 3 at home. But not going to happen and I'm fine with that.

I get to walk my youngest to breakfast club 2 days a week, which I never got to do with my oldest.
Soon we'll have to pay for parking, which eats up any fuel saving.
For many years it's been an easy 10-15min walk, from where I park free, but it's too far when we move building. I'm not happy about this.

If the meeting was about returning to the office surely it would have been described as "Return to Office" or "Hybrid Working".

Calling in WFH would imply it is about how you WFH. But who knows could be either 🤷‍♀️

if currently only one day every two weeks, I suspect it will be increasing office working, rather that requiring 100% office based.

I bet its about something completely random and it says wfh because the person who put the entry on the calendar is wfh that day.

Based on threads here I'll say it will be about 1. You must have childcare in place when WFH and 2. You are expected to answer calls and emails promptly when WFH

It works for some people, sometimes. Others don't have the right set up, enough space, or just miss office interaction. Depends on lots of variables.

Oh, hi Vivienne.

Most organisations are getting some media pressure to increase time in the office. I am suspicious that this is driven by commercial interests notably in city centre office space. That being said many firms have reduced office space so in my organisation if we all turn up en-masse then we have real space issues. Challenge is to get people to come in on Mondays and Fridays when more staff want to be at home. WFH though is here to stay. All we are debating is the number of days.

@Cyclebabble Commercial interests may be a factor but that isn't just to the benefit of the wealthy don't forget that many regular peoples pensions are also linked to these kinds of investments.

Apologies, I might have used a colloquialism that's not widely used. Having googled, because I suspected it might have come from an 'industrial Yorkshire' background (I can imagine it being something DF would have said 'stop swingin t'lead and gerron w'it) but I now see that the term is thought to be of maritime origin to describe a shirker 'Sailors used to use lines weighted with lead in order to check how deep the water was beneath their ships. The lazier mariners skimped on the task and just swung the lead in the air, calling out a fictitious depth'.

Although, one would imagine that those who partake in swinging of the sexual variety would prefer to do it in the comfort of their own homes and that would indeed be inappropriate while WFH.