To only go in for a meeting?

[EatingP]

If you can WFH anyway and have no other reason to be there for the rest of the day, is it reasonable to only drive into the office for a 3 hour meeting and then go home in your lunch hour?

I wondered what others thoughts on this because the expectations seem quite different between my workplace and my friend’s.

I am able to manage my calendar and workload to an extent that I don't go into the office for just one thing. Can you not, OP?

Yes, I do the same. I was more interested to see whether most workplaces are more like mine or my friend’s.

Mine would be fine about this. I would probably stay for longer if I'd made the journey there though. Make more of a day of it as I only go in like once every 6 months.

In my job this would be considered an "in office" day so would be expected to be working from the office all day that day

I can please myself, as long as it all gets done.

Mine would be fine with this. Partly because the new office space that they've leased for us has very few desks, so unless your meeting is scheduled a month in advance, and even then not always, you're likely to be out of luck booking a desk.

Funnily enough the senior management team have stopped urging "everyone back to the office".

I've done this the last couple of days but only because DS has been sick and there's been some logistics issues. The flexibility is a godsend and I'm very grateful for it but if it wasn't for that I would be in for the full day.

We have a mix depending on the teams. Some people definitely come in for meetings and head home. If the whole team is however, I think its less common.

In my own team, we have an office "day" each week, and one/two of us might head off after the last meeting rather than staying another hour or so. That said, I think if the last meeting was 11:00 and someone in the team decided to go home...it might be questioned as to why they need to go straight home. But we're not in the office "for the meeting" but more to have a day as the team.

If we came in on our own I don't think anyone in the team would even notice if you only came in for a meeting and left.

But for me work is 45 mins away, so if I've come in for a meeting, I'm staying for most of the day.

This would be fine in my office. In fact, Im doing this exact thing tomorrow. I manage my own schedule though.

We have mandatory in person monthly team meetings. Some people have to travel for 4 hours each way to get to them, but they still have attend in person. An hour is not a lot to ask.

That sounds a bizarre waste of time.

Same, I’m travelling two hours for a one hour meeting next week, but I’m trusted to manage my time and consider public transport where possible. My diary is my own and it’s one of the things I really love about my job - anyone can see it, they always know where I am, but it’s never questioned.

Going home at lunch time would be fine in my office, but if I’d made the effort to go in, I would probably make a day of it.

I could do this at my work. Sometimes I pop in for the morning but head home in the afternoon.

We are expected to be in the office two days a week. I usually tie my office days to either people I need to see or meetings I need to attend. I would only go home again at lunchtime if I had an appointment or delivery etc.

I can manage my diary to a degree but we are supposed to be in office 3 days a week (though I usually do 2).

However, if I was just going in for a meeting regardless of that I'd stay for the day.

If we went in for a morning meeting we would be expected to stay all day as an office day. Although some people would leave early to collect kids, walk dog etc etc and probably not get questioned.

I sometimes do this but mainly I stay - I like being in the office I just don't always enjoy getting there, so once I'm in I have no reason to leave early.

I’m fully remote so I could do whatever I liked. As long as the work gets done, no-one would even notice.

We are supposed to be in the office at least two days a week.

It's a fairly relaxed, trusting environment so if you did this as a one off, your colleagues would assume that you had a specific reason - needing to concentrate on something or a one off childcare issue.

But if I noticed someone routinely doing it in the team I lead, I would ask them about it - my concerns would be whether they have social difficulties with the team or whether they are trying to look after children while working (not allowed for us), i.e. leaving to do the school run

Of course some jobs are different and office attendance is more about specific meetings where it might be different

I do this at my local office, husband used to do the same at his work. I rarely go in now to be honest, all my team are across the UK so no point

In my job no one would notice or care. A number of my colleagues only come in for their meetings / sessions and then go home. I work in academia

No mine would expect that to be an in office say and would say that I am doing the commute on their time .