To wonder if boss was being unreasonable here?

[ArethaQ]

Yesterday I felt really unwell with a pounding head, just felt dreadful. It was meant to be my office day and I have a very long commute. I asked my boss with plenty of notice if I'd be able to work from home. The job doesn't require me to be in the office, I can do it on my laptop and I'm easily contactable throughout the day.
She is normally quite reasonable but she replied almost implying that I was taking advantage and that everybody would be doing the same if they could. I don't necessarily think that's true, some people prefer going into the office and feel isolated at home. She said that it should be classed as a sick day.
I ended up going in. I sort of see what she's saying but it's the first time I ever requested to work from home on an office day and I was still going to get the work done, there was no purpose for me to be in the office that day, I'm in a very junior role.

The reason her boss wants here there is because she said so. I know some people on here may be in similar managerial roles but stop trying to make excuses for workplaces that treat junior employees like children.

Your boss sounds like a twat.

There isn't a "one size fits all" for WFH to those naysayers on this thread.
Some people are more productive WFH because they avoid travel problems and lateness, they aren't distracted by other people around, it gives a higher degree of job satisfaction etc.
For other people WFH is a total nightmare eg if there is a baby or toddler in the house, or they are the sort to crave human interaction.

In this case I presume your boss needs you to go into the office at certain times so they can do their job of monitoring and comparing your productivity on days in to days wfh.

They'll be checking your typing speed, email reply speed, click speed, time spent offline etc etc then comparing results for in office or wfh. Your boss will be frustrated if you chop and change your days. She'll need to make reports to send higher up the chain.

My employer would’ve just let me wfh. In fact they much prefer that to people coming in and spreading germs about. Sounds short sighted and ridiculous but different employees do things differently.

Why shouldn’t people want a job to fit around their lives?

My team is far more productive when given the autonomy, flexibility and trust to decide what works best for them.

She sounds like a jobs worth who’s let power get to her head. Unfortunately there are people like this, you just have to nod and smile to. It’s not worth your energy to argue with her. I hope you’re feeling better x

I don't think its unreasonable if it's the first time you've asked, if you can do the job at home anyway and only have to come in to meet a certain number of days then it's pointless waste of time anyway.

Give and take works both ways though, and I'm sure there will be a time when a favour is asked of you and you can happily say "No sorry" with no guilt.

I think anyone should be able to work from home it it's reasonable and possible...so I think the company is unreasonable if they don't allow it when they could....but I think you were very unreasonable if you were saying you were too sick to commute as a reason to work from home. That simply makes it look like you weren't actually going to work, you wanted to be sick at home and be paid for it, and asking under those circumstances will likely make your boss paranoid about people working from home. If you are sick you are sick, you should of had the day off, or if you thought you were well enough to work you should have just called and asked to work from home - saying it would be a more efficient and effective day for you as it would cut out the travel time and you would be fresher to focus on your work.

I would generally agree where employees live locally. You sound quite black and white though. Do you have the same stance irrelevant of distance to the office? If someone for example had a 4 hour round trip commute would you still feel the same?

I'm an employer and we set the same rule for our company. If you're not well, it's a sick day. You're either well enough to work or you're not, and that applies in the office or at home. We don't want people to be "pushing through" when they're sick, they're sick and they need to rest.

If you had a headache and wanted to see how you felt in the second half of the day and you worked from home because you felt better in the afternoon, that makes sense. Your boss would be unreasonable if they didn't let that happen.

But generally, not enough people actually take time to rest when they're sick.

I would say sick days are days off, unless it's really something that doesn't how you feel, but does affect your being or getting to the office. "I've broken my ankle and am fine sitting on my bum on a chair, but can't drive and don't feel safe wiggling about on a bus." WFH is fair enough. Also should be a bit different for people managing a chronic condition - the lines of "well" and "ill" become different and adaptations should be taken in much the same way as making the office ok for a wheelchair user.