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.

You know what was depressing for me before Covid times? Waiting in the cold for a bus that wasn’t turning up for over an hour whilst thinking I could be spending my time at the gym or with my son right now. Each person has got its story and because it hasn’t worked for your husband it doesn’t mean the rest of us should be the same as him and if it’s working for us it’s because we are lazy. I’ve no problem with you husband working from the office if that makes him happy. Stop name calling those that wfh is helping us with our mental health.

Either the old ways of working safely and successfully before society progressed are valid, or they're not. You choose.

We were working outside of the home perfectly well before Covid and it’s ridiculous lazy staff are still trying to cling on to it now several years later.

And before smartphones we managed perfectly well using the internet on PCs. And before broadband we did perfectly well with dial-up. And before the internet went mainstream, we were fine with looking things up in encyclopaedias or at the library.

There’s such a thing as progress. You also can’t miss what you’ve never had. No one is saying it would be impossible to go back to full-time in the office being the default, but the main reason it worked “perfectly well” before was because we hadn’t seen that there could be an alternative default. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

Bet those that are complaining about you putting your laundry on wouldn’t complain if you were having a coffee break in the office , fag break or a chat with your colleagues nothing related with work

Doesn’t necessarily work for the consumer though, you getting the work done when it suits you.

This may well be true, but are you willing to pay what it costs to get people back into the office? People wanting a particular service delivered in a particular way doesn't mean there are workers who'll do it. A lot of the posts on this issue come down to that point. I quite understand wanting 2019 back, but you can't have it.

I plan my day around them and if I want to put some washing on, do an exercise video, go to the corner shop, pick up my kids from school that’s my business as long as I get the job done. And I do get the job done. I won two awards last year

So you would be clearly working a lot harder if you were in the office. And the bragging is a bit...silly.

@Wexone

People skive at home and in the office, its up to management to deal with that.

And when management deals with the skiving at home by requiring everyone back to the office...

On MN there's always someone saying "it's management's problem!" followed by "management are being so unreasonable actually sorting the problem!"

Waiting for a bus is real life. We’re seriously up shit creek if perfectly healthy people can’t wait for buses now. I have to get up at 6 and do a 45 minute commute every day. I don’t leap out of bed full of joy but think about what I have to be grateful for and enjoy the less sucky parts of my day even more. If waiting for a bus impinges your mental health you have mental health issues aside from WFH and that is a separate issue.

Yes this!

management don't deal with it by requesting everyone back on the office
management deal with it by dealing with the individual who is skiving. hr get involved dispensary actions are taken
the PERSON WHO IS SKIVING is penalised not the whole team

https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/17/working-from-home-can-bring-big-health-benefits-study-finds

and this one finds the opposite. Which I think just goes to show it’s great for some and not for others. Just like being in the office.

Get up at 6. Go to the bus stop and wait for your bus. Doesn’t turn up. Next one ? Neither. Wait for 1 hour and then do your 45 mins commute. On the way back home? Repeat. Wait for 1hour and then 45 mins. So you’ve wasted 2h of your day on the street rather than doing something you like (unless you like waiting for the bus in the street).

yes I do have mental health if the bus doesn’t turn up. Life it’s too short for wasting life doing something you don’t love. I prefer getting my son to school rather than waiting for the bus. Each to their own

yes I do have mental health if the bus doesn’t turn up

Eh?

please explain? how is it good management by not dealing with th root causes if the issue instead if taking the lazy way out and force a rule on everyone because of one person

Mental health problems if my bus keeps being a trouble (making me late for work). Don’t think it’s that difficult to realise some of us hate commuting and we prefer spending that time doing something that benefits our mental health

Many different ways to procrastinate in the office...

Making drinks in the kitchen and gossiping with every Tom, Dick or Harriet that comes in.

Walking round the building looking purposful.

Spending 20 odd minutes in the loo browsing your phone

Surfing the net from your desk or generally chatting with your colleague.

Basically, WFH means if a person wants to skive, they can do it on domestic chores instead of workplace skiving.

I'm more inclined to be more productive at home due to a fear that someone will try and 'catch me out', whilst at work there's nowhere near the scrutiny.

So you have mental health issues outside of WFH. A person with normal mental health does not crumble if buses are late or we get stuck in traffic.If they did we’d have no services at all.

Waiting for buses and working remotely are both equally 'real life'. Some people will find one to be more of a struggle than the other, because humans are not a monolith. Some people will hate both, others fine with either.

EasterIsland I don't think anyone particularly loves commuting but most of us are grown up enough to realise that it is a part of life. Buses are late sometimes - so what? That's life!

perfrct if you’re happy with that. I’m not. So I work for a company that doesn’t have the “suck it it’s part of the life” mentality.

Very few people will not be able to cope with a commute and entire companies and services should not be held hostage or required to provide a lesser service because people don’t like it.

I am amazed that you cope with anything at all in life if you crumble when a bus is late and claim that it affects your mental health so much that you cannot get to the office.
But you do you I guess.

How does that square with supply and demand, if a company isn't able to secure enough suitable who are willing to commute?

Thanks. Unfortunately I’m not perfect. I do commute once a week and that’s enough for me.

I did 17 hours in one day alone last week WFH. You are just showing that you have zero knowledge of what a high level high responsibility role entails. My role requires flexibility. It’s not 9 to 5. Flexibility is a two way thing.

Oh, and of course, no one stands around the water cooler chatting, goes on a coffee run to Pret, Starbucks etc, takes a longer lunch on occasion, runs down to the nearest shops for a last minute birthday present etc when they are in the office.