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?

Humans have usually worked in or close to home for most of our history, because mass ability to travel longer distances is quite recent.

Same. The work my team and I do has very measurable output and KPIs. All are better with at least some of the week being WFH, are miles better than before the pandemic, and it would immediately be obvious if someone wasn't pulling their weight from the data. We do 1 day pw in the office which I think is a good balance in terms of team support and getting a bit of team focus.

My partner's employer has recently gone from 1 to 3 days pw at the office and he basically drives an hour each way to the office, pays for parking, and then still sits in teams meetings for most of the day. Bloody ridiculous.

At home I find people tend to work until they are done, rather than rushing off to nursery/after school club/the train.

I am someone who finds background noise whilst I'm working really wearing, and I feel much less frazzled after a WFH day whilst usually being more productive.

If my contract states hybrid (which it does and is what I was employed on) then for them to insist I go to the office full time would be a change in contract and would mean a consultation period. They couldn't just tell me to go in to the office 5 days a week because that isn't in my contract. I do have an office stated but it's for my office days.

Also many people who have been employed since covid live further away from the office because hybrid means they don't have to commute every day. It opens up a vast wealth of knowledge to companies as they no longer just rely on local talent. So they really would be shooting themselves in the foot.

I couldn't do my job if it was 5 days in the office the resulting 20 hours of commuting a week would kill me(and not forgetting the price of petrol). My full time office job pre covid was a 30 minute drive at the worst of times (and I had several routes I could use if one was blocked) and petrol was cheaper.