How is almost everybody physically able to WFH?

[someladdersandsnakes]

This is something I just don't really get. I work at a company which doesn't pay that well in a city where housing is very expensive but still basically everybody has somewhere at home that they can work every day. I currently have an office at home because it's a 3 bed and I'm now expecting our second child, when the baby arrives it won't be physically possible anymore to do regular WFH because the only place will be the dining table in the front room, only really suitable for occasional use because there isn't enough space around it for a proper office chair or anything. Nobody else at my company seems to have a similar problem though. I thought appropriately sized housing was a major societal problem yet somehow since the pandemic everyone has a suitable permanent workspace in their house? Including families, young renters, people still living with their parents, etc.

I work on the dining table . Not ideal but i have a small 2 bed house so all i can do. I am at home 2 days a week so fine for me.

I have a small desk and chair in my room, but I'm usually curled up on the sofa with my dogs.

I work in our bedroom, my husband works at the dining table

If you're too unwell to work from the office you're too unwell to wfh comment.

I've worked mostly from home for over 20 years. I had a lovely home office until very recently but I rarely used it as I didn't like working upstairs at the back of the house. I've always worked on the sofa with my laptop on my lap.

My boss would be as bemused as I am at the idea that some other unrelated people working in bed has the slightest thing to do with me and her (she's also remote).

If youre in the private sector and in an organisation that is fully signed up to WFH then you probably can be "bemused" but for the hundreds of thousands of people in the public sector getting paid from the public purse and under the unrelenting scrutiny of the media, politicians and wider public with their own agenda, ignorance and misunderstanding, we very much are affected by those who are not WFH responsibly in the spirit it is intended- as I've stated, just look at the recent civil service WFH mandate.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that comment. It's completely valid.

A sick day is still a sick day regardless of the location of work, unless it's a reasonable working adjustment requested by yourself or GP.

Neither of the above, as it happens.

But if you mean it's a public sector specific issue rather than something affecting remote workers as a cohort, that's a different thing again.

I am currently too unwell to go into the office. But I am working from home. Have been for 2 weeks and will be for probably the next 6 or so. So I should just not work?

Someone with a head cold or the shits, who doesn't feel particularly unwell, but doesn't fancy either spreading a bug or needing to keep running the loo. Should just not work?

I am so so glad I work for the company I do.

I am currently too unwell to go into the office. But I am working from home. Have been for 2 weeks and will be for probably the next 6 or so. So I should just not work?

This would fall under "reasonable working adjustment requested by yourself or GP". Therefore, exceptions will be made, so not a problem. Regular updates would be required so we know when you'll be returning to the office etc.

Someone with a head cold or the shits, who doesn't feel particularly unwell, but doesn't fancy either spreading a bug or needing to keep running the loo. Should just not work?

Correct, call in sick.

Both should be an option to wfh. And is at my place of work.

I think it's much more common among higher earning professions. I work in software development and it's quite common to be hybrid work from home. We have devs in their late 20s buying 2 bedroom flats. Many of the new graduates still live at home. (And move into their own purchased flat). Working from home enables more young people staying in their parents home or at least cheaper housing area. We have commuting distances of over an hour for some.

Like I said, a sick day is still a sick day regardless of the location of work.

Call in sick because you have the shits or a bit of a sniffle and don't want to spread it, but otherwise feel fine and able to work at full capacity? So cost the company money and impact your workload from losing a day's productivity? That makes no sense at all.

@evilharpy thankfully common sense prevails where I work, I'm sure it does in most other places too.

Sorry, that's not how my industry work. I'm nearly 50 and we have always had a WFH if ill consensus.

Exactly.

I know. I was saying I didn't agree with that comment.

Well it's not. Because I and my colleagues would wfh. Not call in sick.

If you're working from home because of a "bit of a sniffle" when you should be in the office - you can come to the office.

It's excuses like this which messes it up for everyone else hybrid working.

I'm at the dining table with a dining chair. One we have sorted out the bedroom there might be space for a very small desk but tbh I'd rather not have a reminder of work in my bedroom. I go in the office a lot more in school holidays if dh is home with the dc.

I don't. It's normally due to the fact I can't walk. I'd prefer not to catch a cold from someone who could do the job from home though when I'm in the office. With being immunocompromised

I presume reasonable adjustments are made for employees who are immunocompromised, or have other health issues that make either travelling or working in an office difficult or unwise.

@LoveLifeBeHappy is this your personal view, or the view of your employer?

Yes there is. One of those things being, being able to wfh when you're a bit under the weather. But it seems some people aren't in agreement with thar rule!