To be annoyed that I’m the only one in the office?

[Nolarbear]

Woke up this morning at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep because I had a banging headache. Thought to myself I really cba going into the office today but got to just get on with it. We are only in the office 2 days a week.

Got to the office and everyone else is working from home. I got in at 8 and by 9am I’m wondering where everyone is and I get a teams message from my manager saying himself and the others are WFH because they don’t feel great. I feel really annoyed that I made the effort to come in when I also don’t feel great, when the rest of them haven’t. How is it that every single member of the team can’t come in??

I know that my colleagues take the piss. They work from home over the slightest inconvenience. The slightest flurry of snow and they don’t come in even though the rest of us can get in and we live in the same place. Maybe it’s just me, I have only been here 6 months and I’m not used to such a relaxed team. In my old office you’re either well enough to work or you’re not. And if you WFH too many times or your reasons aren’t acceptable, manager would just simply say no. I do enjoy being part of a more relaxed team but I feel like I always make the effort to come in (it’s TWO days a week ffs) and the others can’t even get through one whole month without an excuse to wfh.

I feel like I should be more like them and be like well if this is the way it is then maybe i’ll do the same. But I frankly find it embarrassing calling in asking to work from home because I’ve got a bit of a cold or “sinus pressure” as one person said today. I get it if you’ve got a really bad cold and you can’t get out of bed. But my colleagues aren’t getting bed bounding illnesses at least once a month surely?! My colleague messaged me saying “why don’t you ask manager if you can leave as you’re the only one in the office? I would do” but again, I just find it wet and pathetic at my adult age asking if I can go home because I’m on my own. So what? It’s not like I can’t work on my own. I’d be on my own at home too. I just find it baffling.

The reason why it annoys me is because I always make the effort to come in and I just wonder why I bother if I don’t need to. Maybe I need to just relax and do what the rest of them do but I don’t actually want to take the piss!

We can work perfectly well from home but it's recognised that face to face collaboration is really valuable. We were asked to come in once a month but some people (generally the same ones!) flaked each month with really flimsy excuses so now we're mandated to come in once a week.

It doesn't bother me I go in once or twice a week anyway but those that don't come in also don't engage much over Teams and as a team we're losing shared knowledge. I think genuine hybrid is the best option for teams that need to share knowledge or best practice

Am doing this now ☺️

In your next 1:1 just clarify with your line manager what the culture and Ways of Working are as you are getting accustomed to a new workplace. Express that the flexibility is a great bonus but you want to find out the boundaries as you want to enjoy the perks offered by the employer but not be seen to take the mick and give some examples ie if you wake up with a headache on an office day is it ok to WFH or should you be in unless at deaths door? Etc.

Yes I agree with you. I only got an Uber in because I thought that’s what I was expected to do. In my last place, the only public transport I could get to work was trains. And during all of the strikes my trains were cancelled and I couldn’t get in. My manager said “you can wfh today but please find other arrangements for tomorrow” there weren’t any other arrangements! So I had to get an Uber. It caused a lot of drama because there were so many train cancellations and I refused to pay Ubers each time. He eventually said fine WFH but wasn’t exactly happy about it and neither were my colleagues because they had to spend money getting into the office and being in 3 days a week while I was sat at home for a few weeks. Nothing I could do about it but no one was happy about it. So this time at my new job I just assumed they would expect me to get in another way if I’m able to. I’ve learnt that this place is more lenient though so I will be WFH if the snow situation happens again

I know you’re not used to it in previous roles but if you have been there for a while now, you should know the culture by now so be like the others. Your managers seem relaxed so take your cue from them.

if you didnt sleep well or have headaches then why force yourself to go in? just wfh. You wont get a prize for going in when you’re unwell.

this is one of the many benefits people like about the flexibility of wfh that has helped with the life/work balance. Enjoy it

Yes I think this is what I will do. I am on my way home now, I called him and explained that I’d come in with a headache because I thought I’d be ok but seeing as the rest of the team isn’t in could I wfh where it’s more comfortable

Op no need to explain yourself to us.
I’ve been working for 45 years and in every job I have had there have been colleagues who take the piss with ‘illness’
Must be so much easier now all this wfh, I’m a bit jealous.

My office has a policy about working alone in the office (eg what if you fell/had a heart attack) and so on that basis I'd just bugger off home

Things are so different since COVID it takes a while to get used to workplace norms, I left teaching for a hybrid role and now work in a completely dispersed team so although we are encouraged to go to the local office for our well being and to be social no one I work with will be there as my nearest colleague lives 4 hours away .
For those that do work more regularly from an office and have a local team my employer expects you to WFH if under the weather at all or in any weather that could endanger you so pretty much any orange weather warnings.

I totally know how you feel OP as my workplace is quite similar. I think WFH has really blurred the lines between being unwell and being well enough to work because a lot of the time although you’d be too unwell to travel into an office, you can sit at your dining table perfectly fine and do the job, so I think it’s made it difficult to actually know how poorly is too poorly to work. Lots of people also in my office who seem to have some excuse at least once a week to need an extra work from home day, we have to do 3 days a week, and the company have realised this over the last few months so are now really clamping down on office days and identifying non attenders, so you may be glad you have been doing what you were asked to do as I know there’s quite a few in my place now in hot waters with the big bosses because they’ve not been hitting the quota.

You're new so you're keen to make a good impression. That's great, but you've been shown that this place is pretty relaxed, so you can take your cue from them. Stay home next time.

The 90s called

they want their workplace attitudes back

Please don’t do this

Unless you’re a 17 year old in their first job this is a ridiculous suggestion.

Most adults can adapt to the norms without needing to be told

WFH shouldn't be seen as a privilege because it's easy and a sort of skive, should it? People need to do the work they're paid to do. Sometimes that needs to be done in the office, sometimes at home, dependent on the task, but both are equally valid forms of work. Arguably at least your colleagues are working while below par. If they were forced to the office they'd probably have had sick days.
Rather than see this as other people getting away with something you're not, I'd look at it objectively in terms of where you personally need to be. There is no point at all for example in you sitting in an empty office rather than in your house, so this should be why you ask to go home.

You just need to adjust. I've started work in a much more relaxed environment and it's taken me a little while to get used to it. It's great though!

I wonder if this might be one of those setups where the organisation has a requirement imposed from the top, but the managers who are the ones actually having to deal with staff understand that they're better off not enforcing it. Hear of that quite often. Remote working by stealth, essentially. Managers end up having to subvert it on the quiet to get good staff, which is understandable but does mean a policy that doesn't work ends up not being formally challenged.

And you all wonder why the country is such a mess - because the work ethic is missing and skive from home has become entrenched - often to the detriment of standards for the end customer.

Of course you want to WFH - think of the money saved and, in your words, just be lazy and not care about doing a good weeks work.

Think of all the people who truly do keep the country running and feel a bit ashamed that you think any feeble admin work you do is of any value.

Some people can and do work from home and do a proper days work - above and beyond because they still have the work ethic.
Others skive and pull a 'can't get into work because of x' excuse.

I admire you OP for making the effort and I hope your employer (and end customers) appreciate it.

Lmao

1957 says it all

Hold on, why are you saying WFH is taking the piss? That they have no excuses to validate WFH.?

if your business can function with the team WFH why are you throwing bollocks about to imply that WFH is skiving?

it’s people like you who cause pressure for those who are legitimately wfh or fully remote yet still getting twatty messages and hoops to jump through about when you’re going to work from the office even though you can’t do your job from the office anyway and it costs £££ to do so - clearly just to be seen to come in.

If u can't beat them join them! I find this is quite common at my work too.

I'm supposed to be in the office today. I got up early and started to get ready but i started having stomach cramps. I cld have went in but I know that probably most of my team won't even have bothered so why shld I make the effort when I'm feeling rotten.

We have a compulsory day and then a floating day but we all try to be in on the same day on the floating day. There's been many times I've been in sitting myself thinking what's the point!

I'm in exactly the same boat, this happened to me on Monday after I drove over an hour to get to work. I was so pissed. I've mentioned that noone else sticks to the 2 days a week in the office to my manager (who is not contracted in my location so doesn't come in ever) and they just say to do our best etc. I'm so fed up coming to work just to 'swipe my pass' and everyone else just doing what they want.
I told my boss out of courtesy that I won't be going in the mandatory 2 days a week anymore and the reasons why. I'll wait to be 'told off' when the others are told off too!

As long as the work is getting done, it doesn't really matter where its being done from.

I’m not saying working from home is taking the piss. We work hybrid so we work from home 3 days a week. We are contracted to come in the other two days. What I’m saying is taking the piss is the fact that there’s an excuse to why they can’t come in to the allocated office days every single month.

I spend my time and money getting to and from the office, I go in if I feel “meh” I don’t go in if I’m properly ill. And I don’t think anyone else should come in if they’re ill either. But it does seem a bit of a micky take when every two or three weeks there’s another reason why they can’t come in. “Can’t come in today my tyres flag” the week after “can’t come in today, got a dentist appointment so easier to wfh” two weeks later “can’t come in today, my throat is scratchy” one of the excuses a few weeks ago was that he didn’t have any running water so he couldn’t brush his teeth and didn’t want us to smell his breath (why not bring your tooth brush and toothpaste to work?)

the boss is starting to notice. Our manager is very relaxed but on a few occasions now where it’s only been me, the manager and one other person in, the boss has said “no team today?” Then a few weeks later “no team again today?” Someone already complained about our team being on their phones and the boss sent out an email now forbidding phones in the office. So I fear that the people who can’t show up to the office two days a week when I’m constantly making the effort are going to get it taken away from us and they’re going to start making us come in more, which I do not want!

You're acting like they're pulling sickies? But they're doing their job at home. So why does it matter? If WFH is a valid option the other 3 days, why should they struggle to get in through snow/illness/other reasons on the other 2 days? Does wfh suddenly not work on those days!? It's perfect for those days

Wfh has helped so many people work who would have been limited by illness, disability, anxiety, day to day life issues.. just embrace it. They aren't taking days off!