That ship has sailed

[Grooveisintheheartbaby]

My company want us back to the office 5 days a week. As far as I and colleagues are concerned that ship has sailed and we will not be coming back we will leave. AIBU to think that businesses need to accept that things changed in covid forever and they can't reverse it without massive disrest and unhappiness?

They get the gossip online? That's a new one for me.
It's usually the smokers who know people in every department isn't it?

Nope, OP states that the role has always been hybrid and that's how she was hired.

She also says she's checked her contract and it says office. . .

Which would leave us with a question over a change in implied terms and conditions if she was staying, since this is something brand new.

Look all these people threatening to leave. What jobs are they all doing that they think they are so important that businesses care?

After hundreds of posts on yet another WFH thread, I conclude that some people think it’s great, and some people don’t.

And a lot of people don’t realise that there’s a middle ground called ‘hybrid’

Do you not get that some people are actually able to enforce remote or hybrid working as a condition of their employment then? It's not a very niche piece of information. But again, MN loves generalising when it comes to this issue.

Do you not get that an organisation can make any change it likes if it deems it necessary for the needs of the business?

That's wrong, so no.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that an organisation wants to make changes, gets it through any union involved and there are no successful challenges.

This still doesn't mean they can have the quality of staff they want at the rate they're able to pay. Put bluntly, stopping people working from home is not the same thing as getting a full, suitable workforce in the office.

Workers leaving is always a headache for employers, even low skilled ones because recruiting is work. Many workers leaving at the same time would be a big problem.

The one who writes your check deserves respect because they gave you a J O B. That means you get PAID as long as you follow employer rules; come to work you get paid. You are not the boss; you would see this differently if you were the boss. Not coming back means that next time we have a pandemic employers will refuse to pay full price for remote work.

I'm not sure if you are joking? You are not aware that young people gossip online?
I think when i entered the workplace it was the smokers but those days are long gone.

No, I wasn't joking.
At my work, we have informal conversations via Teams, but the gossip is usually transmitted/found out in person to begin with.

I think the new Employment law in Parliament should deal with this. At least require a notice period before changing requirements to travel and be in an office. Define implied terms to include place of work say since 2022 and a notice period of say three months. With defined exceptions.

Enjoy your bootlicker mindset. I prefer working somewhere where i’m respected and paid fairly for the work I am employed to do vs being treated like I ought to be grateful and accept any working conditions.

Heres how it works at my job - we’re offered an excellent home life balance, control over how we manage our time, trust to complete our tasks as best we see fit and space to get on with it. And a wage. In return I take the time to work in a way that’s best for me and am incredibly productive and bring lots of skills and energy to the company. That is the employment package and benefits agreed - a fair exchange of time and energy. It’s not just about money.

But if you want to look at it that way then enjoy your subservience or if you’re a a boss your misplaced superiority complex.

Did you work 5 days in the Office before Covid? If yes then I can't see how you can say you won't be going back & would rather leave. What would you have done if Covid never hit & you continued working from the Office 5 days as you were doing? It obviously worked for you then, why won't it work for you now?

OP has always been hybrid.

Why do we keep going back to this? Yes Pre covid was over 5 years ago - That is half a decade - things change a lot in that time. If you had a child that child will be starting school, teens have finished school, people finished college degrees as well as death illnesses, weddings, life changing events have happened. Even in 2019 remote and hybrid working was simmering, Covid just escalated it and it has been life changing for some people

This.

And in addition to everything you've said, so many people have changed job since then. Google suggests the average time spent in a job is 4-5 years. Expecting people to pretend it's still 2019 gets ever dafter with time.

yes so true - never thought of that -i am in my job 6 years now, i have only stayed because i worked remotely 4 days a a week and go to the office 1 day a week. I know i can get more money by moving but i wont as i wont get the working arrangements i have currently
If Covid hadn't have happened i more than likely would have moved jobs in that space of time

My company asked for everyone to come back into the office, but while people were allowed to WFH they downsized the office.So now, the last 3 people to arrive have to work in the lobby on laptops. In order to guarantee a desk you now have to arrive before 8 at the latest for a start at 9 (no flexitime). Management are congratulating themselves on increased productivity because they have got an hour of unpaid overtime out of staff.

Surely they can't be allowed to do that.
If you stick to your contracted hours you don't get an office space?
If you start early, why can't you leave early?

I had thought the same thing, as did my colleagues, but the owner is an utter arse. ACAS are involved.

since the dawn of time? Maybe early to late 20th century?

I don't know about since the dawn of time but certainly a very long time. I always commuted, sometimes the travelling was a pain in certain weather conditions, trains cancelled, etc, most of the time not but I was used to it. I also enjoyed being with colleagues and sometimes going out after work; if I had time there were interesting and pleasant places to go at lunch time. That's central London. I wouid not have liked working from home, I think I would not be motivated and organised; happy to bring home a little work when necessary but not all the time.

By the time Covid took over and we were 'locked down', I was well retired so WFH did not apply to me. However my son, who works all over the world as well as this country, said, and still says, working from home was so great he felt he had become the person he was always supposed to be! Now he's been back to normal for quite a while he isn't complaining, enjoys much of it though finds the travelling wearing, but remembers lockdown fondly from the work pov :-).

A friend of hsi, an accountant, was permanently stressed by his job and commuting to and from Canary Wharf every working day, decided to pack it in, go self employed and work from home. He definitely prefers that (though is still stressed out but I think that is his personality), can also do school runs for his little one.

It's swings and roundabouts, what suits one does not suit another.

I don't see anything about which to be jealous whatever way a person works.