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.

Don't tarnish everyone with your lazy brush. I'm much more productive at home and certainly not lazy.

I suspect they are trying to reduce their headcount without paying redundancy, by getting employees to leave.

WFH or hybrid opens up work for people with childcare responsbilities - due to shorter childcare hours without having to commute, people with disabilities or health issues, people who don't live near cities with more expensive housing where all the jobs are. I've had jobs that aren't possible for WFH like retail and childcare before, it doesn't make me think that no one should WFH because some roles can't. Every role is different.

I'm hybrid, I like coming in sometimes, I'm able to work more hours as I don't have the commute and I have health issues and it makes it easier, I'm doing an extra day a week since Covid. I work longer days on my WFH days and I still have more time as I don't have the 2 hours commuting time. Also, my OH is hybrid and he shares the family/house responsiblities - WFH isn't worse for me as it isn't all left to me.

I can focus more at home as there is less noise and distraction so I get more work done.

About spending more in the office, I don't as now they have upped our office days by a day a week, I'm spending more on commuting again. I don't buy any food or coffees out on office days like I did before and bring in lunch/instant coffee. Less money on commuting has helped fill the gap left by inflation, stagnating wages and the CoL.

I'm also in a junior position, although I have many years work experience and I'm not finding it a disadvantage. I work very closely with my team who are based in other offices around the UK and we still have good working relationships. It's not the same as being in an office together, but since we are all in different locations, we are never in the office together anyway!

edited due to spelling

Some of you really do sound so desperate 😅 It's not rocket science, if your employer is bringing you back in and you don't like it then leave, but trying to engineer stats or complain employers will find it difficult to replace you is delusional

When I go into the office the people that I am speaking to on calls complain about the background noise they can hear around me. It’s much, much quieter at home.

Because there are too many ‘shirking’ from home rather than working.

As a customer/client, there's a difference between hearing general hubbub from a workplace, and Nickelodeon...

There’s no noise at my home but there is lots in an open plan office. When I started out in my profession, everyone had their own office or shared with two or three other people max. Open plan offices are very noisy.

When I was in the office FT, I developed the ability to 'zone out' of everything going on around me so that I could concentrate, whether it was writing reports or providing advice and support.

After 4 years of working in the relative tranquility of my home, I'm not sure if I could do that again.

I honestly don't know how employers can now argue that WFH doesn't work when we've literally done it for 4 years! Why now?!

You do realise a lot of people have really specialist/ niche experience? Possibly you don’t.m, but Labour is not homogeneous.

So you're obviously not the type of person PP was talking about? One time I called a company and could hear Bargain Hunt in the background. It's infuriating to a client in a way that office noise isn't.

I just wanted to add this link, as it clearly demonstrates the gender pay gap:

WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE SERVICES LIMITED gender pay gap data for 2021-22 reporting year - GOV.UK - GOV.UK (gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk)

And do please take a look at how the American Alliance that owns Boots treats it workers here:

Request for a living wage policy at Walgreens Boots Alliance | PRI (unpri.org)

Yes, it's borderline lunacy how many posters still think the pre pandemic world is going to come back one of these days, just you wait and see, in 2024.

It's been years since restrictions ended. The 2019 labour market has been, gone, sailed away into the sunset and sent multiple postcards. There have been massive structural changes in the last half decade. Whatever next, people thinking they can pay pre-covid prices for their groceries?

I’m more distracted in the office by the chats of my colleagues and have to wear headphones. I don’t do that at home

To add to your wonderful response to PP us SEN mum's with children in mainstream under limited provision, fighting our cases, some kids on reduced schedules, who schools won't take in wraparound even if you're willing to throw top dollar at it.

I'm lucky I have a WFH job, no hybrid working, because without it, I couldn't work at all.

My child's mental health is better for it.

And as women are the primary carers in an overwhelming number of cases, this is absolutely a women's issue, and accepting that women just did it all and got on with it before COVID when businesses are able to make life easier is absolutely regressive.

Those who say it's a "parent" issue have got their heads in the clouds about the proportion of care men so, even for their own children.

I have a 100% remote contract. I go into the office every couple of months to catch up with colleagues in person. But I always get complaints from those that I speak to on calls whilst I am there. I speak to people all over the World who often speak English as a second language. Background noise makes it very difficult for them to understand me.

A lot of the racket in the background is because people don't use a separate room for office space which they should do really, they shouldn't be working in a shared space with with the TV on.

sweeping assertion - like so much on this thread; 'my personal experience /preference = the immutable reality & truth'

I completely agree with this. My organisation has offices all around the country. People in London are paid significantly more than outside London, for more expensive housing and travel.

Housing prices in many nice suburban areas of major cities across the UK are now comparable with many places where these people live and commute from. Except they don’t commute much now. But get paid much more than people in the regions.

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?

Any doctor or dentist I know earns mega bucks. There aren't as many high paying WFH jobs.
Fair enough point re teachers though as their earnings are more on a par with office workers.

Of course they shouldn't and even if they had it on in the background, they should turn it off or mute it while on a call. It's rude and disrespectful. I've literally never had my TV on during the day since I have been wfh and I don't listen to the radio either.

Quite

it's the "I am more productive WFH and it suits me@ - never mind everyone else

I know a lot of nurses. They don't want to work from home. The reason they enjoy their jobs is because it is varied, they meet a lot of people and spend a lot of time talking and walking to people. There is no way they all want to sit at home doing data entry instead just because they can work from home.

Doctors and dentist do not want to sit at a desk job. They aren't being forced to do their roles. They wanted to be dentists and doctors and studied incredibly hard to achieve that.

Teachers presumably chose their careers too although so many are seemingly unhappy in it, the role is not what they thought it would be and they don't like teaching. . I can't understand why they chose to be teachers and presume that its because they didn't get high enough results to do their first, second or third choices. If they can get a job working from home, as private tutors, then they should absolutely go for it. Or get a customer service based role from home if they want something entirely different.

The posts about how wfh is terrible for young people and graduates are invariably based on that poster's own or perhaps their adult child's experience. They never, ever take into account that young people also include those who are disadvantaged by a requirement to work in person, or even completely excluded by it. They won't even have realised that when they were starting out in their working lives in offices, there were cohorts of people who fucked over by it, and certainly they won't acknowledge that they themselves might actually have been beneficiaries of that.

With that in mind, the never mind anyone else line whilst agreeing with that post is rather darkly funny.

Yes - I sometimes wonder if WFH is a self imposed continuation of lockdown

It's not. Well, it may be for some people, but lots of us remote workers instead use the freed up commuting hours to have social contact with people who don't do their wage labour for the same organisation.