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

People without kids wouldn’t think or care about that though. At my company a lot of child free people were pushing going back to the office. 🙄

That should say some people without kids

exactly. If other people getting a perk you don't get upsets you that much then apply for a job that offers that perk rather than whining "it isn't faiiiiiiir."

And as for "They might soon find themselves without a job at all." hahaha
OP clearly has no idea how hard it is to sack people from the ps. particularly if their union is backing them. If everyone refuses to do it, are they really going to sack a 1000 strong workforce at the same time? And if they don't sack absolutely everyone who refuses to come in then they'll have constructive dismissal claims on their hands.

There'll probably be a protracted period of moaning on both sides, after months of meetings the union will negotiate 1 day a week in the office, which everyone will half-heartedly stick to for about 2 months, before gradually tailing off again.

Statistics, just a wild guess?🙄

@Mnk711 yes except that's not quite true is it? If your employer asks you to work 100 hour weeks or move overnight to Timbuktu you wouldn't just do it would you? Which proves reasonableness of the request matters. IMO it's not unreasonable to tell staff that you plan over time to move back to two days per week in the office with flexibility for those who can't do so for some time. It is unreasonable to expect people to suddenly do it when they logistically can't.

Of course I wouldn't if it wasn't in my contract. The point I'm making is that if your contract says office based then that's where you should be if that's what your employer wants, even if it's 5 days a week.

One of my friends who works for CS has been summoned back to the office 3 days a week but one has to be a Monday or Friday. Completely politically motivated. Her team is across the UK so none of them will ever be in the office at the same time. They sit in the office on their own with headphones on all day. Complete waste because of Daily Fail jealousy.

And what about if your employer, as in the case of the ONS, gave assurances that the flexible working arrangements would continue post-Covid, you trusted that that was true and rearranged your life on that basis, and then they moved the goalposts?

To be clear: almost all of my working life I've been based in London, which has meant either longish commutes (shortest was around 45 minutes, current one is an hour or just over) or being based at clients' offices outside London and staying in hotels. I now wfh most of the time, and I really appreciate it.

My employer pays me to provide a service, one I have over a decade of experience in and that they struggle to recruit for because private sector pays almost double. A service that can, and must, be done, remotely. The teams I work with are spread across the country so the option is thousands (of public money) in travel to meet face to face or a teams call.

This isn't unique, outside of jobs that need to be at a specific location it doesn't really matter.

The government were all in agreement immediately after Covid that WFH was successful and would now be the new normal. It’s only when businesses - cafes, public transport, shops complained they were losing a lot of money because workers were no longer spending money with them, that they did a u turn, and are now keen to get people to travel on over priced and dirty, unreliable public transport, buying expensive takeaway coffees/food etc, to boost the economy. There really is no need to commute to work for most office workers, other than the loss of revenue to local businesses.

Not to mention utterly tone deaf. How people have the audacity to open their mouths astounds me.

Sounds exactly like my DH! Also a civil service scientist. Works with people all over the world and is expected to be in the office 3-4 days a week. Loves WFH as can concentrate on his work without random interruptions which are not actually relevant to what he's doing.

My DH is ex-Civil Service. During his time in his last job there, they kept reducing the footprint of the offices to save money. If everyone had turned up to the office at once, they would have had nowhere to put them!

If I work from home I get to give my son breakfast and walk him to school. If I go in the office I spend £7 on breakfast club, £40 on train fare and £3 on parking. Given that we’re in a cost of living crisis, I’d rather not spend £50 to miss out on my child and do a job I can do perfectly well at home. I’m on calls all day with clients and colleagues in other offices ie me being in the office makes no difference to my job.

They want my DD to go in at least three days a week but they have very little office space and since they are hot desking there would probably not be space for her most of the time. What do they expect people to do without desks?

I give my GC breakfast and drop them at school so that DD can work from home starting at 7 and finishing at 3 to pick them up. If she went to work every day the travel and meals would be expensive, very time consuming, and she would end up working less hours in the end. As Mnk711 says, the people she works with are based all over the world, so it seems pointless to go in and be on video calls all day, especially if she doesn't have a desk there.

My husband works for the civil service and was employed during lockdown working full-time from home. He continued doing so for 2 years, very productively and he was able to be around if I needed him, I'm disabled.
Then the government decided that hybrid working was needed because their fancy new offices were empty. So he was required to travel 3 hours a day, work in an office with 2-3 others at most, and his productivity is lower when he's there because of constant non essential meetings. And I struggle to get my scooter in and out of the house on those days. We're also worse off by £70pm for bus travel. Working from home should be an option for everyone office based in my opinion.

It’s BS being pushed by gov. It’s anti-women. I have a great job thanks to the pandemic. Had to be self-employed WFH before. Now I can care for my ND tween/teens who are too old for childcare, pay into a pension and earn way more than before (which goes back into economy on my day off.) I go in when I absolutely have to. But if it was mandated, I’d have to quit. (His job comes first. Course it does).

By the way, many/most civil service staff are contractors. But they won’t tell you that in gov. Rishi and his IR35. Someone is getting rich.

People at ONS will be quite used to interpreting statistics. Including how much more productive some people are when WFH. There are positives and negatives but forcing people to do something that doesn't make them better at their job seems pointless. I'm hybrid and I go into work if I have a reason to. I went in last week because a team member had had some big news and I wanted to be there for her. But otherwise have barely been in this year. Just busy getting on with my job and speaking to my team who are across the country.

Don’t worry, it will soon be resolved when AI eliminates people.

Scenario:
Providing support for staff in the US and NI, working from Cambridge a 4hr a day commute. Have great home network and can use those 4 hours to provide additional support and development. BUT sharing expertise "over coffee" chatting about future scenarios, team building does require meeting occasionally. However, reduced desk/office/parking space does not facilitate this.
Statisticians however do tend to work alone, even IN the office but ditto the above and the same cross-fertilisation and sharing may well help with consistency.
Despite tech meaning formal contact is there, the informal value is missing.

I am therefore undecided on the issue being able to see both pros and cons.

An example I quote on this is a building in High Holborn, Central London. It had the canteen on the 4th floor and a sweeping wide, shallow Victorian staircase and a single old slow lift. On each landing was a large window with a long seat. It was amazing how many informal chats, decisions and follow-up actions, and simple introductions/ getting to know activities happened on those stairs. It meant that people who lived as far apart and Peterborough, Brighton and Southend knew each other on a first name basis.
Move to a brand new three pod 2 floor building each with a coffee station meant that few knew the people outside of their own team, seldom used the canteen at all (This also had small separate tables instead of the long refectory type that forced sharing).

A lot of silo working meant that duplications, overlaps and gaps were less able to be spotted.

I think in years to come we will see the negatives of working from hom. We are social creatures.

People have been working from home long before the pandemic. It may be more common now but it’s not a new thing.

I think there are benefits and disadvantages to working from home permanently. It depends on the type of role and what people were promised/signed contract agreement.

If someone took a role as 100% office, then I don't think they can complain about coming into the office on a hybrid basis when the team is based in that office now.

If a role was contracted as 100% WFH then that needs to be respected and being ordered to the office regularly isn't right/fair and the company should be paying any adhoc expenses incurred. Don't think many would extend to childcare though.

Oh I didn’t know 🙄. Yes but not to the extremes they do now. My Ex built our house whilst working from home.