To think that Boots move to 5 days a week is a step back for workplace equality

[Vistada]

Boots HQ, a predominantly female workforce - has been told they are to be back in the office five days a week from September with no debate and no real solid reasoning (in my view)

https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/boots-to-end-hybrid-working-for-office-workers/

I think the move to hybrid working is amazing for everyone, not just women, in terms of helping to achieve the work/life/parenting balance that has eluded us for so long, but we can't deny women shoulder this juggling act more.

I think this move, and any move back to 5 days in the office (where its really not needed) is a huge step back for workplace equality - and for a male CEO to enforce this just shows how out of touch he is.

Boots is now owned by an American company.

They aggressively avoid paying UK tax and think that men are women if they say they are.

So this is hardly surprising.

Maybe they have found that WFH has reduced productivity.

Maybe, but that wasnt referenced in their CEOs (very wooly) statement. In fact I think boots have had about 8 quarters of consecutive growth.

Feels like a stealth way to reduce headcount - which sadly, will impact women more as per.

Having just read the article, the words “should” and “asking” imply this won’t be enforced.

(Awful article. Why no view from PT to make us HR professionals think more about it?)

Women did manage to work 5 days per week in an office, or indeed, other work places before Covid

We also managed a lot of things before something that made life that little bit easier to manage came along...your point?

I’d be very upset if my company did this. I think it’s just about presenteeism and not believing that your staff are working unless you can see them at their desks. Maybe it comes from the person making the decisions being a slacker themselves given the opportunity?
my company has sold most of our office space so we no longer have the room for anyone to go in more than 2 days a week, fortunately.

Plenty of female dominated jobs don’t lend themselves to working at home anyway, and those women manage. I don’t think it’s that big a deal.

It’s unfair on people who were hired to be remote workers, but those who were employed to work from the office don’t have a valid complaint.

I think we do need to move back to the office being the norm, mainly because it'll become difficult/impossible to recruit people to jobs which require FT face to face attendance. Why train as a teacher or doctor or dentist or pharmacist, when you could get a WFH office job that pays roughly the same and never have to commute etc? I wonder if Boots have had issues recruiting to store/pharmacy based positions as the WFH positions are more attractive.

I think while it is great to have a hybrid balance the current workforce is already very difficult to manage versus 20 years ago. Personal experience is that productivity and motivation fell off a cliff with home working and was then difficult to manage remotely.
Ultimately the business will have a balance as they may find it harder to recruit talent if they dont offer flexibility but they'll have to cross that bridge when they come to it.
Office working has many positives for the economy as a whole. Unfortunately as a society we cant have our cake and eat it too

Do you want a badge for that ? There is women still doing it post Covid. But for some roles it’s not needed to be in the office every day and I’d not be able to spend the time I do with my son if I had to be commuting every day into the office.

@Vistada I’ve read comments that it’s a way of reducing headcounts. People resign without the paying redundancies

They're fools
Plenty of other employers willing to be progressive and value hybrid working.
I wouldn't tolerate a forced return to work and would leave if introduced at my workplace.
Yes hybrid needs to be established properly to benefit both employee and business mandating a full return is just madness in the new world of work

Those jobs you listed have more challenges to fix in recruitment than my change in location from sitting at a computer all day from an office to my home two days a week.

Step backwards for sure, but equality? I don't see a big connection. WfH doesn't raise your income, provide the childcare many still need or create more opportunities to apply for. You can apply for more roles, but they have to actually be available.

WfH has always been contentious. The pandemic has just drawn more people into the conversation. The office is helpful, but it's been oversold with insufficient evidence to back it up. One of the "failings" about WfH isn't the location of work but the culture and working practices, which dragging people into an office doesn't resolve. I've seen plenty of idleness in offices 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Also, working a lot and hard isn't a measure of Working effectively 🤷‍♂️ Most of time intensive tasks in my work represent a failure to embrace technology & processes that would ensure the same tasks can be done quicker and easier

This! Working from home has its benefits but I really do not understand this constant 'its so hard for women'. WFH has its benefits to both men and women. A lot of women have a husband problem, not a work problem

My manager has just mandated that we're to go to the office one day a week where we had no enforcement before. It's nothing to do with presenteeism or checking up on the volume of work anyone is doing, it's because the collaboration of team members is dropping away and some people are really disengaged. People are making mistakes and not working in a consistent way because they won't reach out to colleagues when they wfh.

I honestly believe coming into the office regularly is a good thing and if some people refuse to engage with their team then more places will mandate it

But it is a large factor.

ETA - although the WFH/in person divide may no actively be affecting recruitment right now, that's because people who have trained in the roles started before 2020. If you were 17 now looking to apply to uni or enter the world of work, a FT face to face career with less flexibility is going to be less appealing when you see all these people WFH, flexible hours, 'popping out for the school run' etc

For the avoidance of doubt. I agree!!

I love my office days! I get so much out of them, however, we have proven five days is just not needed, and the benefits from the two or three days at home have been, for me, incredible in how much of my life they have given me back. I think hybrid is truly the way forward.

But if you are WFH you shouldn’t be spending time with your son.

The UK is, as usual, out of step with the rest of Europe and the world in general, where everyone is back to "normal" pre-Covid working patterns. Yes, to flexible working when it is sustainable, and reasonable, and on a case by case basis, but the blanket wfh has to cease.

I love my office days! I get so much out of them, however, we have proven five days is just not needed, and the benefits from the two or three days at home have been, for me, incredible in how much of my life they have given me back. I think hybrid is truly the way forward.

@Vistada you're spot on!

i think the point this person is making is that she can likely be there for drop offa and pick ups whereas before she'd be in a car or on transport - to her job

I’ve name changed, for obvious reasons, but long time user.

I work for Boots, at this office. I am absolutely affected by this and getting my ducks in a row to leave.

Its totally driven by one woman who is stuck in the dinosaur ages, and asks senior staff to fly to Europe from Nottingham for a one hour meeting in person because she refuses to see the benefit of working over teams.

As for us one comment I’ve seen so far about us perhaps not being ‘productive’, considering we’ve worked bloody well remotely and then in a hybrid set up for the last 4 years, and still delivered better-than-expected growth year after year, I’d say that’s not the case here.

And to add to this joke of a company, we’ve been receiving emails all week about IWD and how ‘inclusive’ the company is 😂

They have also removed remote working and compressed hours from the flexible working policy and will no longer allow them to even be requested, let allow given as an option.

The entire office is in uproar, to say the least.

Tbh on my work from home days I'm much lazier and my friends agree they are too. So it's probably fair enough really.

I don’t think citing childcare responsibilities as one of the benefits of WFH is helpful. It makes employers think you’re bunking off to do the school run.

We are going from 2 days in the office to 3. Overall productivity is lower they’ve said and they want more collaboration. I think the hybrid working era is losing momentum for sure. To be honest I blame the people who take the P, looking after babies and toddlers at home and doing anything but work. Not everyone of course but as ever the minority spoil it