New manager want me in the office. I wfh-help!

[Stressedgiraffe]

We've changed management structure so my new manager wants me in the office. Ideally once a week but might settle for every month.
I've been there over 2 years. I wfh permanently but my contract says HQ.
I live 5 hours away always have done. They knew where I lived when I started. I go into the office about every 3/4 months for a few days .
Could I push for a change in location in my contract or do you think I'm screwed?

Can you relocate closer to work?

Why should she? She applied for a job that was advertised as remote, confirmed with HR and the manager at the time that it was definitely remote, confirmed by new manager that she knows the role is also remote.

@WombatChocolate the OP’s boss has said she’d prefer once a week!

Can you apply to be a permanent homeworker under a flexible working request? I did this recently for various reasons including my health and it was successful

Yes, and this is the problem really. If it were only going to be once a month and that were set in stone, it might not be so bad.

But what we have here is a manager who's said this is about her liking people in the office, who initially said once a week, who wants OP to start doing a different type of work and who wants this despite believing it's a change of OPs contract (it may not actually be, but the salient point is the boss thinks it is). That's why it's so important OP pushes back against this, because she's looking at it becoming a totally different job.

this was in the news today - behind paywall but can read first part https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/will-case-spark-end-remote-work/indepth/article/1859297?bulletin=mtbulletinam&utm_medium=EMAIL&utm_campaign=eNews%20Bulletin&utm_source=20240131&utm_content=Daily%20News%20Bulletin%20(97)::www_managementtoday_co_uk_1&email_hash=

My husbands contract states WFH. If he suddenly had to go into the office everyday he’s be exhausted for sure!! He’s also in a sort of niche industry, but he’s one of the best so he gets called all over the world. It happens

Why do some people on here hate WFH so much? If it doesn’t work for you and you are less productive at home, then don’t do it. It works for some of us very well

Well exactly - if you want to go into the office, go into the office.

What's stopping you?

Look for a new job but speak to a lawyer regarding constructive dismissal and push for a settlement. This behaviour isn’t acceptable or legal

I don't know how much custom and practice can be interpreted as an implied contract term. Hope OP can get the advice needed.

As for those who hate wfh, the option of an office should always be there in my opinion.

It's not that we 'hate WFH' at all- but about the OP saying her contract is not WFH, so employer can insist some or all work needs to be done in office.

So she’s basically being underhand then and has decided for whatever reason that she doesn’t want you in her team and is doing everything she can to make you want to leave. I’ve been through the same thing and when I did leave it was a huge relief. She was blatantly being a dick by wanting you to do a 10 hour round trip in the space of a day just because “she likes people being in the office”. Definitely call ACAS tomorrow.

Probably because they can’t wfh themselves so they begrudge anyone who does.

I would personally take the once per month. Your contract is for office, not WFH.

I have a colleague who lives a similar distance away, and he has to come up every Thursday.

Why on earth are people suggesting employers should pay expenses for people to work from their contracted base of work as required? I can understand if you are contracted to WFH but if not then that’s an entirely reasonable thing for you to expect your employer to ask of you.

Possibly because that's what's been happening since OP started the job.

If it's a good company I suspect HR will give her a serious warning. A company can change its working practices and its priorities, but it is not normally for an individual manager to make these decisions if it goes against the basis upon which you were hired.

Good luck!

There are tax implications if an employee is claiming expenses for travel to their contractual workplace as it is considered personal travel. Depending on if the OP pays and claims back or the employer pays any suppliers directly, it either has to be declared on a P11D or treated as income and PAYE tax applied, as well as NI deductions.

Given the OP has a contracted location of the HQ office (which HMRC would consider their work location for such purposes), I’m surprised the company has been okaying the expense payments for her travel costs for these trips. If there was an audit into expenses payments, there could be issues for the company and for the OP.

Agreed, and I suspect this is part of the motivation of some managers to put unreasonable pressure on employees like this. They don't like the fact they can't work remotely, so they'll make damn sure no one else gets to do this easily either.

5 hrs??? Unless she works in a very well paid job, in a specialist field, it's not worth it.

Why does your contract state the office location rather than remote/home?

Ive been fully WFH since 2017 and my contact has my location as remote/home, it it had an office address I would have queried it.

I do feel for you, I would hate to be forced into the office. Although it wouldn’t happen in my work, they’ve allowed wfh for all levels for 20+ years

good luck!

Written terms of employment are not the same thing as a contract. A contract does change over time and it’s difficult to assert the op is contracted to the office when she’s never worked from there. Therefore she should and could be offered money to allow her to travel and obviously once a month is best.

If your contract is WFH then why capitulate to their presentism? I’ve worked WFH since before Covid, and when asked to come in have always refused unless for good reason such as one off meetings etc, contracts work both ways. There’s absolutely no way I’d commute to London from Manchester every other week when I’d negotiated a WFH contract.

I'm not overly happy about it but it's a senior manager, 2nd in command for EMEA and contracts can be changed with notice anyway. The contracts say home is our base but office when required. I'm only an hour from the office. We're a team that travels constantly both in the UK and internationally so it doesn't particularly affect the amount of time I'm at home. I claim mileage and parking if the onsite space are gone.

@CantHaveTooMuchChocolate There might be perfectly valid reasons why people are asked to go into the office. I can think of many business reasons why this would be sound practice. It depends very much on the business. There are teams that work collaboratively. There’s training and mentoring new staff. It’s good to have a harmonious team who actually have met each other.

I suspect the die hard won’t leave home workers will be eased out unless they are critical for an organisation and cannot be replaced. Certainly promotion for some wfh folk doesn’t look likely.