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.

Yep!

Additionally, March 2020 was 4 years ago. Even the daftest of managers is going to have noticed whether a job can be offshored or not. Yet still here we are, millions of us, working fully or mostly remotely.

Same - sounds an awful place to work. Micromanaging at its worst.

Not really - there are jobs with equivalent pay wfh such as call centres and customer service.
If they wanted to wfh they could!

There are indeed. Equally, there are some jobs that are paid much more than most that have to be done face to face. Hopefully nobody is going to try and pretend that call centre staff are more privileged than, say, private dentists.

It’s worth considering the impact that insisting on full time office positions has on disabled people. People who are fully capable of doing the job but may be limited in terms of mobility do struggle to commute, or need additional adaptations that are easily dealt with in a home environment, but are more difficult in an office.

I appreciate that many find the hybrid or total wfh beneficial to their every day life.

I did not have that option and that was/is fine for me.

Our support staff did and those on the ground noticed a major difference. It made our working life difficult and in some instances dreadful.

It is being moved back to office based only because so very many people took their feet off the pedal.

There is anger due to having to pay for transport, fuel, childcare again and of course that is an unfortunate consequence.

But we had those costs throughout and they were unconcerned about that.

Very much so. The increase in remote working has revolutionised the options available for many disabled people.

And this is one of the reasons why the frequently trotted out claim about why wfh is bad for particular age or sex cohorts is so insidious. If we're going to talk about eg young workers, that includes a percentage who are disabled and who are no more or less young workers than anyone else of their age group.

Well to take today as an example: I used to be able to WFH on Mondays. I can't any more. So I left work at 5.30, which is a bit early for my job, to make sure I would be home by 7, when my husband has to leave to run Scouts. My train was, as is often the case, cancelled. So I won't be back before 7.30. Given the stupid train situation, it's unlikely my husband will be able to carry on leading Scouts long term - despite the fact he's not currently working. We don't have the money to pay for a babysitter just for him to volunteer.

It's not that work is more or less important if I WFH or not, it's that all the other things that enrich our lives are impossible.

This. 100 times over. I've been promoted twice since lockdown. Purely due to the fact I have has the flexibility of wfh. I'm disabled. Don't drive and struggle daily with my mobility.

Yes it is. It was the same during the pandemic. I remember certain family members congratulating themselves how well they were doing during covid and how it was actually a rather nice time - they were reliant on Amazon deliveries, supermarket deliveries and any number of other minimum wage workers propping up their lovely lifestyle. A definite case of the haves and the have nots and they refused to see it.

Plenty of lower paid workers wfh as well. Call centre workers, admin staff.

My team does 2 days a week in the office which works great for everyone. In person meetings are arranged on those days, and we get to collaborate/catch up. I really enjoy my office days.
Recently we have been told we need to start doing 3 days. I don’t even mind that in principle but there’s not enough office space as it is, and we only have 2 meeting rooms that are always fully booked.
The idea of going back to 5 days a week fills me with dread. I hated it pre-covid and found it exhausting and draining. Now I have a toddler and can’t even imagine (yes, I am aware plenty of people manage to do this, I just don’t want to be one of them).
Hybrid working has done wonders for my life. I’d be really gutted if it started to be rolled back.