To think this is a surefire way to insist that everyone comes back into the office?

[Pleasebeafleabite]

Latest BBC News link today. If I was an employer and I was forced into giving staff compulsory four day weeks based on compressed hours, I’m be making sure they were doing them in the office.

Yet more unintended consequences

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gl5w83z7do

I do a four week, with full time hours compressed. I have done since 2018, when I made the request to my company and they approved without issue.

They have since moved to fully remote and do not seem to have any concerns at all with me working my compressed week from home. I don't think there is really a link between a company "trusting" employees less and a compressed week.

Everyone wanting Friday was the issue I had at work but this was people wanting to reduce their hours. A couple of people did it and it did make things a bit tight on Fridays, particularly if others in the team were on holiday or off sick but it did work. Then another couple wanted to do it and were very upset when they were told they could reduce their hours but couldn't have Fridays. We offered Monday which also means a long weekend but it wasn't good enough. It caused lots of bad feeling and to be honest we ended up regretting that we'd let anyone do it as it really divided the team and eventually the disgruntled ones left.

What concerns me about mass wfh is that most people don't have the appropriate set up. When working I was trained to do workstation assessments, which are a legal requirement for employers. You need a desk of the appropriate height and an office chair. Perching on a kitchen bar stool with your laptop on the kitchen counter won't do. Sitting at the dining table in a dining chair won't do. Sitting on the sofa with your lap top on your lap or on the coffee table won't do.

I remember a time when most people with a computer at home had a desktop, on a computer workstation you could get from Argos at not much cost. Now everyone has laptops. But the latop,'s portability doesn't mean you don't need a proper desk. I predict an endemic of MUSK problems in future.

And I can also say I work over my hours more often now I am at home than I ever did in the office. Without worrying about getting home etc I find I am working later into the evening.

I should finish at 6:15 (staring at 7:30am) but regularly end up working till near 8, not on purpose as such, I am just not clock watching for a train so I tend to finish whatever I am working on before finishing.

When working I was trained to do workstation assessments, which are a legal requirement for employers.

We're still meant to do work place assessments for home. We're expected to have a proper screen and keyboard, and I believe there is limited funding available if you need to get a proper supportive office chair.

To be fair, when we were in the office, some people would slump terribly at their desks. I never quite dared walking round to tell people to sit up straight, but I did think it.

What concerns me about mass wfh is that most people don't have the appropriate set up.

I've just started a new job and a DSE assessment was part of my induction pack. Like @KimberleyClark I was trained in this in my first career and spent hours banging my head against a wall over proper office chairs etc in a previous post.

IME a laptop on its own isn't enough; it needs to be on a riser with a proper keyboard and mouse. Typing on a laptop keyboard at the rates required in my work would give me MUSC issues in less than a week!!

My current work laptop lives at the back of the desk, lid down, and via KVM switch it shares a keyboard and large screen with my home PC.

I have a proper desk, adjustable chair with arms etc and plenty of space.

Very lucky though in that our kids are grown/flown and, with two of us rattling around in 4 bed house, we've both got properly equipped study/office set ups.

I'm financially fortunate and so is my partner. I wouldn't return to the office I'd simply not work, my partner the same. A lot of skilled workers simply wouldn't do it. Or would take offers of jobs elsewhere that offered work from home. No company with any common sense wants to limit their pool of talent to who is within 20 miles of the office. No company would want to have their competitors take talent from them, andany people will happily jump ship for a WFH job.

Forcing workers into an office is also disastrous for the environment. Thousands and thousands of unnecessary journeys every day. Poluting the air, causing traffic congestion, costing commuters hours of their day and time.

Highly unethical as well as being out dated.

My manager has compressed hours 9 days one day off meaning his day should start 8am end 6pm except he uses 8am to 10am to commute to work pretending he is working train and leaves office at 3pm to commute home again pretending to work.

I have no idea what my manager does in terms of work I see zero output, I see him once a fortnight for a team meeting and all he is good for is approving my leave.

People like him who make it harder for others to believe in flexible working being more productive

Everyone wants Friday off… but I love my Mondays off and get loads done on Fridays and have a really peaceful day when there is nobody in 😀

Thousands and thousands of unnecessary journeys every day.

Yep. Even working locally it's 30+ minutes from closing my door at home to walking into the office. Same again going home unless the Saints are playing at home in which case it's nearly twice as long.

WFH it's a hop>skip>jump from front bedroom to back.

Ipsy - what circumstances? You are on a teams call with say 4 people which is often a feat in itself to organise. Your 2 year old has a tantrum. Do you honestly expect people to accept that no one is annoyed or fed up that the call is now highjacked by a 2 year old? Really???

Are you kidding me? The company I worked for did 3 major data migrations and projects while everyone worked from home. Everyone worked really hard and a lot more than their contracted hours

Everyone wanting Friday was the issue I had at work but this was people wanting to reduce their hours. A couple of people did it and it did make things a bit tight on Fridays, particularly if others in the team were on holiday or off sick but it did work. Then another couple wanted to do it and were very upset when they were told they could reduce their hours but couldn't have Fridays. We offered Monday which also means a long weekend but it wasn't good enough. It caused lots of bad feeling and to be honest we ended up regretting that we'd let anyone do it as it really divided the team and eventually the disgruntled ones left.

We had this. In a team of 5, one person dropped to Tues, Wed, Thurs and then a new person started who did Mon-Thurs. Then someone else started making noises about a 9 day fortnight, meaning they would have every other Friday off. The two us remaining realised we still had every right to take our holiday entitlement but it was beginning to get very awkward. I now work in a different team, thankfully!

And, as I have pointed out to you before, I am SPECIFICALLY not. Meanwhile, however sweeping a generalisation you want to make, you are not qualified to speak for the entire workforce.

Yep I'm supposed to work compressed hours. 4.5 days a week. I regularly end up working 5.5 days and going well above my total contacted hours. It does let your employer know you can work long hours in a stint. Compressed hours are hard.

Depends on the job and the person as to whether wfh works. A male friend is the only one of his clique who is site based. All of his colleagues work in finance and IT type jobs. He has to have their WhatsApp group chats muted as they are all seriously under employed and the chat pings all day long otherwise.

They all say they can get their work done for the week in 2 to 3 days. One has refused point blank to have a webcam on him because he knows it will give him away. He told his employer it made him anxious, so now hes allowed to switch it off.. They're all very open about taking the piss out of their employers including the one who works for the NHS.

One has just been told he has to go back into the office one day a week and has chosen to go back in on Fridays based solely on the reasoning that not many people work the Fridays so he can twiddle his thumbs.

Funnily enough the women i know who work from home never say stuff like this and seem to go well over their hours. Which is not really surprising when you think about it.

It's not a proposal for compulsory compressed hours, just a slow news day.

Yes we thought Monday was reasonable, you can't imagine the fuss, slammed doors, swearing at the boss. I don't know he stood for it. Like a toddler tantrum.

It is hard to please everyone, sometimes it feels impossible.

I suppose the other side of that is thousands of people heating their home all day rather than it being turned off when the house is empty. I guess I'll get told no one ever has heating on but I suspect they do.

So no one can really respond to refute you. Because you have already said you don’t believe them.

I have my heating on for an hour on a morning and an hour on an evening, when it’s cold. Whether at home or the office. I have blanket hoodies for when I am cold.

Do you think people who wfh want to see their household bills rise?

Ok, I've said it many times now. Unless she's unwell, I, personally, don't have her home while I work. I couldn't handle it every day, and she loves nursery, and we can afford it.

In several of my posts I've detailed circumstances where it may be beyond people's control that they have them home for an extended period. Or that in the six weeks holidays, older children being around is not that terrible, people understand.

But people just want to focus on the fact that I said my colleagues have just chatted to my 2 year old on the rare occasion she's been home while I work.

Read people's full comments. Don't just be appalled by one sentence.

Heating at home - assuming no one else lives there ( they often do ) - then you can estimate if it's lower carbon to stay at home or drive to the office ( EV or petrol engine matter ) - it's often better to work at home

I am an employer but I don't follow your logic. @Pleasebeafleabite

Why would I make people work in an office?

We are already considering a 4 day week. But we will do it as a reduction in hours on 100% pay.

We will do this to improve productivity, wellbeing and retention.

None of which needs to be done in an office.

I know people whose companies work 9 days in 10 as a rule for their employees.

They are split in the team to which of the Fridays they have off but they work hard because they feel respected.

At the moment they can request flexibe working but the company can refuse it for sound business reasons. The way they are present this is that employer cannot refuse it, so if all the staff want to take every friday off what does the employer do when customers ring up or order something, chaos

How will it work for businesses that run on a 24/7 basis and 3 shifts a day?