To wonder why companies are mandating RTO during cost of living crisis

[Roxinabox]

I don't understand the timing?

It's mor expensive than ever to live in cities. Rent and mortgage costs are way up, public transport prices are ridiculous, local places to eat lunch are more expensive, and salaries are down in real terms.

And now more companies are asking workers to spend more money returning to the office.

Why now? I half suspect it's a conspiracy to keep cities going as people are increasingly getting priced out of them!

I regularly work way more than my contracted hours and don’t get paid for it because my organisation is too tight to pay for enough staff to do the work. I am not paid for the extra hours I work. Most weekends I end up doing extra hours and sometimes work until 11pm or into the early hours. If they started telling me to return to the office I would flat out refuse to do any additional work outside of the office because adding in the extra time commuting and having the faff of wearing stuffy office attire and making packed lunches would mean I am even more exhausted.

Good! I hate wfh and am dying to move to a job with mandatory office attendance.

Working from home has made it possible for my family to go from having 2 cars to one which is a massive saving. Add to that the cost of fuel and not having to pay for work attire and expensive lunches which I often ended up getting because I didn’t always have time to make a packed lunch. I am paid below the going rate for my profession so I think this is a fair trade off.

I wonder if some will be priced out of London especially entirely and look to work where the commute and housing isn't so expensive.

The commercial property market is in big, big trouble and this is an attempt to stop it from crashing. Many companies, investments, pensions, etc are heavily tied up in commercial property, so when it does crash (as I suspect it will one way or the other) the knock on effects will be huge. Pushing people back into the office will shore it up for a while as Covid and remote working deflated the commercial market faster than it would have otherwise. It's not just the offices themselves but the shops and cafe's in areas that rely on office workers to stay afloat.

That’s exactly it - commercial real estate.

Within two weeks mine and two friends’ companies (all different industries) got official summons back to the office.

I’m going to do one day a week and ignore requests for more.

We do it because there's a noticeable difference in the quality of work and team working between those who come in more often and those who do so rarely. I'm sure all industries are different, but that's the case for our work.

It's already happening... which is why rents and house prices in Manchester have gone up massively, with all the Londoners moving in.
Post-Brexit I have no idea how service staff, cleaners etc survive in London unless they've been there in social housing for at least a decade. It's become a playground for the rich.

I went to uni in London but having done the numbers realised I'd have nothing left over for life... of course more opportunity for promotion+higher salary etc but you can't rely on that.

I left, with respective salaries around the national median DH and I had decent lives, managed to save for a deposit and buy a house before having kids. I'd have been miserable if I had to spend my twenties eating beans on toast and 'hustling' every hour of the day solely to buy a grotty flat.

So you've never had a non work chat with a colleague whilst making a hot drink/getting some water? You've never sat at your desk having a non work related conversation with anyone, beit a phone call to book a dentist appointment, talk to a workman about a job they need to do in your home or a conversation with a colleague about last night's telly?

No one who works in an office every day spends every minute productively working. No one who works from home spends every minute taking in parcels and doing the washing.

But it is disingenuous to say being in the office per se increases productively. In my case it doesn't because my team (recruited both pre and post Covid) work in other parts of the UK.

maybe the WFH has contributed to inflation/COL crisis as everyone had more money through reduced commuting fares, home made lunches etc

i'm pretty sure research found money spent on lunches in town were spent locally instead hence why Pret has opened up more local branches

I wonder if some will be priced out of London especially entirely and look to work where the commute and housing isn't so expensive.

I think more FTBs then ever before left London to buy.

I do think more people will now look for a house a bit further out as opposed to a more central located flat.

Although I’m for the RTO, I don’t mind people answering the door for a parcel. It’s not different from pre pandemic sometimes people would ask to WFH on one specific day as they were expecting a delivery. It’s a much shorter interruption than Pamela coming over to show your her new nails/holiday photos/moan about her stakeholders.

My immediate team is also scattered - not just around the UK, but across the globe. We sit with a wider UK team in the office though.
Conversations with colleagues about unrelated things builds relationship and usually we end up talking about work anyway. My (and my boss') ability to keep our fingers on the pulse and get a general sense of things happening across the org is a major contributor to keeping our team employed... and identifying new opportunities. For example, we heard rumours that a new technology was going to be brought in, offered to help test and are now known as the SME's.. which means more visibility for our team and more high profile projects.

That aside taking a parcel etc is fine it's just rude to do it during a call! Using your examples would be calling the dentist, workman etc in the middle of a F2F conversation?

I doubt there are that many mangers who would have the influence to make that decision. Most will be told and are just pushing it down the way.

And it's part of the reason why I shot up the career ladder. I wasnt being a martyr

It’s a real shame that doing 10 - 20 hours a week unpaid overtime is the way to make career progression.

There must be so many talented people with interests or responsibilities outside of work who are overlooked for promotion on this basis.

I Work in a "team" but because of WFH training is dire and as more experienced colleague more work falls on me and our service is declining as a result. And if I hear one more person say "oh I don't know if I can get doggy daycare" I will scream!

There must be so many talented people with interests or responsibilities outside of work who are overlooked for promotion on this basis.

That's their choice!

People are productive WFH. The same people arsing about in the office, will arse about at home too.

Public transport is not up to the task. My pre-covid commute was 90 mins each way. It took me 2.5 hours to get into work one day last week. Two buses didn't arrive and there were delays on the train. My wah day is usually at least 9 hours. I did 7 in the office and was out of the house for 13.5 hours.

I used to buy sandwiches and drinks from nearby shops. I take everything with me now.

I have heaps of interests and responsibilities outside of work. And a complex health condition.

I do outsource housework though and have a husband who does half the childcare

What can I say WrongSwanson? You’re obviously a super woman managing 12 hour work days 5 days a week and fitting child care, self care and ‘heaps of other responsibilities & interests’ on top of managing a complex health condition.

What can I say. I don't like watching TV and I do a lot of my hours when the children are in bed. So yeah, I cram in a lot.

The key is outsourcing the housework and having a husband that does 50%.

I think plenty of people manage the same juggle as me, I don't think it's that exceptional

My employer wants more work from home.

Sounds more like a staff issue than company shit staff wasting time and taking the piss means offices want staff in.

I agree about the point re graduates. WFH is fine for people who are settled, experienced, etc., but new starters, trainees, etc really struggle without having people around them to train/support them. Having to email/team call constantly is not alternative to real face to face support.

*Because people take the piss and aren't productive at work when at home.
They still have to heat the buildings whether it's 3 or 35 people in.

Its not the company's problem you applied for a job miles and miles away from home and choose to eat lunch out...*

The evidence does not bear this out. People are able to be perfectly productive at home and you dont waste as much time over coffee etc like in offices.

I'm with the same employer since pre pandemic but in a different role and hybrid is in my contract now.
Hybrid has really worked for me tbh. Its allowed me to move to a head office based role which is further away and wouldn't have worked with wrap around care and has allowed me to advance my career which previously wouldn't have worked as a lone parent. It allows me to do the school run a couple of days a week (my manager and her manager are totally fine with this) and walk my dog at lunchtime.
My employer has had a big shift towards a better work life balance since covid and lots of people are feeling the benefit. I'm actually less productive on my office days as we all tend to enjoy a blether too much.