To not have much sympathy?

[KimberleyClark]

Office of National Statistics staff refusing to go into the office for two days a week. Homeworking is a privilege not a right. They might soon find themselves without a job at all.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqqnz7g4451o

I just don’t think it can do much for organisational cohesion of team workers are never actually physically in the same place.

I think this is very much down to the individual. Some people work better "in person", others are happier communicating via Teams or e-mail. It seems you're the former but don't really understand that people can be the latter.

The contempt about someone working from home because a tradesman was needed was dripping of your post.

How sad and jealous you sound. You didn’t get to do it and used work to socialise, do you want others to be the same.

YABU. And it's Office for National Statistics, not of.

You are so wide of the mark it’s laughable. Do you enjoy making stuff up about people you don’t know?

I’m on the fence.

I think that if you’re forcing people back into the office then make sure there’s enough furniture and be welcoming.

on the other hand - my consultants medical secretary WFH while caravanning in Europe. She only works one day a week as it is and it’ll take her months to type up a letter. She’s quite happy to talk about it all.
she absolutely loves her job and her life but I do believe it’s causing problems when patients receive their MS MRI results months and months later….. I think that while she can WFH in the UK - she shouldn’t be allowed to work remotely from Europe.

*off not of
*so not do

I’m not. I’m spot on. I know your type.

Are they getting the job done at home? Are they being productive? When they come in will they actually be in in-person meetings with people they need to see, or will they just be online but less effectively?

I'm an academic so I've had the privilege of WFH and working from my office on campus for a long time before Covid. It's an absolute joy. Personally I like going in a day or two a week because otherwise I go stir crazy and I enjoy seeing colleagues and seeing students, but for some of the posts on here going in is clearly pointless and unproductive.

Realistically managers need to get to grips with the fact that there are ways of managing people other than sitting on the next desk. If someone isn't working when they are supposed to be, deal with it, that's your job. Don't penalise the decent 99% for the actions of the 1%.

You must have very little going on in your life to be bothered by other people working from home when you are retired and it therefore doesn't affect you in any way.

Right. So why does that mean you know whether hybrid teams are effective?

They certainly can be in my huge multinational.
I just did an annual team building trip (just one of the ways we address this) and I expect you’d be surprised at how many people made comments to each other like, “it really feels like we’ve met anyway”.

I’d like to thank the posters who have taken the trouble to engage thoughtfully with me instead of shouting abuse. Your posts are interesting and thought provoking.

Cohesion and people working together in the same location in the civil service depended on what civil service role you did even pre covid anyway. Maybe in operational roles but In 5 years in the civil service in a non ops role never did I ever work in the same location as my direct team - we were all over the country!

I sat in an office full of people who worked in the same function but all on different teams working on different parts- that's the civil service for you.

I don't disagree in principle that 2 days in the office is reasonable but the reality is in the CS it will mainly be a tick box exercise that serves no real purpose but to point score. Ffs my first manager worked 250 miles away from me - either I needed f2f support or I didn't. That was 2007. That same principle doesn't change now.

@KimberleyClark I am civil service and am in the office 100% after being promised some form of hybrid working.
My friend is in a different part of the organisation. She has to travel into a city three times per week. While she is there she is with not a single one of her team. They are based in Leeds, Blackpool, Liverpool and Newcastle I think.
she sits on her own all day and the only contact with her team is via Teams.
I believe that this is quite common.
What on earth is the point do you think?

slides down in chair as a council worker that goes in the office about twice a year

That does seem rather pointless.

My DH is in the same situation, except the people he is working with are all over the world!

I work with people all over the world - many I will never meet face to face

Being accepting of diversity , believing that diversity is a strength , means accepting that there are many roles and many people for whom WFH is perfect match

My BIL works for civil service. He has to go into the office twice a week but there is no guarantee they will have a desk to work at!

It makes so much more sense for people to work from home the majority of the time if they can. There must be loads less cars on the road during rush hours, I expect it's also far easier for people to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

What type would that be?

It's possible to disagree with someone without being unpleasant.

WRT the OP I think it depends on a variety of things : the office arrangements and facilities, what is in people's contracts, and whether there's some need for collaborative mentoring and working in person.

So much this!!!

They haven’t had to rush in after dropping the kids at breakfast club, aren’t fighting to get out before the traffic gets bad to get to the childminder on time to avoid a late charge. Work is a social event to them to talk about themselves. They want to go in the office because they’re lonely working from home. Well sorry, go and get a hobby because my life is busy and working from home saves me 2 hours a day.

I don't think people's childcare commitments are the responsibility of the employer. You make it sound as though you think all people without children have empty lives that they're relying on work to fill. There are some jobs where some kind of face to face connection at work can be helpful. It depends on the job and the team.

It isn't, but a happy and healthy employer will be more effective than a stressed and miserable one.

I've worked almost exclusively from home for the past 4 years and always had the pleasure of working in very cohesive teams - the orgs actively hired people who were the right fit for that type of work and we all made an effort to bond with one another via 20 min chats on Zoom, or through weekly team meetings, with a once-yearly team offsite where we could meet each other in person.

It can be an issue if you don't hire people who can work effectively from home (e.g. easily distracted/lazy/need to talk to people in person to communicate well etc.), however that's something for management to sort out on an individual basis. Not babysit entire teams just because the manager can't figure out how to manage effectively.

It's a different beast altogether if you hired people and made them aware that in-office work was a mandatory requirement and therefore didn't select on the basis of being able to work from home, but not if you promised them work from home and then changed the goalposts.

Oh I'd agree with that. However I wonder whether there's a black and white answer to it really. In some cases WFH doesn't contribute positively to people's mental health.