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?

All this they can keep an eye on you, no one watches my screen in the office or notices multiple fag breaks, fake meetings, extended lunches, leaving early for school run and no this is not me, people standing around chatting for ages etc, slackers slack at home or in the office full stop.

i think the big co ‘s are all heading back to the office 5 days a week from 2025 (my husbands’ employer gave them notice to rtw 5 days/wk from Jan25 a few months ago) and the smaller ones will follow eventually.
See if you can find another job. I think, in the current climate, not as easy as you think.

Off you go then.
Don't expect a glowing reference though - throwing your toys out the pram because you don't get what you want doesn't always work in the workplace.

Most people only think about it from their individual perspective too. "I don't have the travel time", or "I don't have the expense of travel" etc.

From my perspective running a team, it was way better for me to be able to walk out into the office and speak to someone about something than to have to schedule a call with them while they are between laundry runs to get the information I need. I was aware that this can disrupt their thought flow, but it was often necessary.

The genie's out of the bottle on that one.

My organisation tried this a year ago… but we have 11 desks for 15 people. We kept having to book desks in other teams’ areas and then they got grumpy so now I wfh 3 days a week. Even in covid I only wfh 2 days 😂

If people ‘vote with their feet’ that’s up to them, others that are happy to work in the office will replace them. Our staff returned to the office in 2021 and if they weren’t happy then they were welcome to find a post that suited them better.

Go OP, someone has already submitted their C.V.

A lot of "I'm more productive at home" is BS!
They wouldn't be calling people back if that were the case.

Almost everyone I know has experienced calls where there are kids in the background, taking in a parcel, making a meal, shut themselves in a cupboard to get away from the noise etc.

I've experienced it several times, last time it was a bloke clearly on a walk and headed back to log on. Could hear him unlock the door whilst panting.

Weeks waiting for an email reply and some still have covid signatures.

It's the few who spoil it for the rest but as time has gone on, quite a lot are taking the proverbial.

You also see it a lot on here, people being advised to call in sick at the tiniest thing.
So instead of paying redundancies, they're letting those who want to leave to do just that.

If you're not wanting to work for the company, then don't.

Yes I think they do. In my sector its an employees market and there is no way we could attract staff without offering hybrid working even if we wanted to. As it happens, we don't. Staff are happier with better work life balance, less tired, fewer sick days and generally more productive. Performance is managed by output and whether work is completed to standard by deadlines, not by whether staff are occasionally hanging out their washing or not. If targets are not achieved staff are managed accordingly. No need to force then to sit in the office to do that.

Everyone won't leave, some will. Those people won't all leave at once because most need an income until they find another job, so it won't be that dramatic, just a gradual movement out. They will hand their notice in and the company will replace them. There are plenty of workers who don't mind working in the office 5 days each week.

Well I left. Now almost completely remote with occasional office visits. Better wage.

Very much depends on sector. We're currently 3 days in but most of our peers are 4 or 5 days.

If they insist on 4, there's not much we can do about it, but I'll definitely be looking for something else on the same basis because my pay is below industry standard! At the moment, I'm overlooking that because the two days WFH mean my child is in childcare for fewer hours after school on those days.

Either WFH isn't working for the business cos too many people are not productive - so back to the office.
Or the business is a bit rubbish and they think having everyone back in the office will improve things - so not a great company to work for.

Either way, if staff are unhappy then they should indeed find something else.

Funny how most don't seem to think, oh well, I've had a good run....
Instead, it's always, how dare they ask us back!
Ungrateful lot.

They won’t leave.

It’s easier than a redundancy process where a company wants to downsize

shitty tho - my company tried to get everyone to come in two days a week and face a bit of a backlash.They’ve quietly dropped the requirement since there were some surprising departures.

I’m definitely more productive from home. Nobody to chat to in the kitchen, nobody distracting me at my desk with a ‘quick question’. Nobody leaving at 5, prompting me to think ah I should go now too - instead, regularly working later at home. Working through lunch because people put meetings in last minute when it’s the only slot free, when they couldn’t do that if you’d nipped out for lunch. The people constantly on orange should be managed properly…IT can generally produce Teams activity reports, managers choosing not to manage those who take the piss isn’t a good reason to stop sensible people working from home IMO

I hate that this is happening - some people say "What if Covid didn't happen? We'd all be in the office anyway..." Yeah, but it DID happen, didn't it? You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And everyone still has to WFH now, if they're ill. So it's fine for that bit to stay.

Just another shit thing, making life more difficult, needlessly.

I'm never eating another fucking Pret a Manger ever again, on principle.

Sick leave is very low for wfh…you can carry on working in your pjs (with a smart blouse over the top) when you feel a bit rough. For in-person roles you have to get ups early to commute, no private bathroom to
run too, no control over room temperature etc ) you have to call in sick.

Oh, and it will be worse for everyone (and the planet), with roads getting congested again, with so many commuting.

Not worse for Shell though 🤔

I’m not sure this is actually a good thing for employee wellbeing though. If you have a really bad cold for example you’d not go into the office because people don’t want you coughing on them. Last year I carried on working through a particularly bad cold/cough situ in the way you’ve described here and ended up really rundown and unwell so had to take time off in the end anyway. If you’re ill you’re ill. If I see my team coughing and sneezing etc I remind them even though they’re WFH it’s still okay to go off sick

I WFH five days a week working for a local authority. I think the distractions are different between WFH and office based. At home it's easy to answer the door, but in the office a quick work chat goes off on a non work tangent. I make cups of tea both at home and work.

I do do my laundry during the working day but equally, I log back on for an hour after the school run (I work 9-2.30) at least once a week. The one thing I do struggle with WFH is I'm sat in front of a screen 5.5 hours a day. In an office that would br broken up. I really struggle with headaches by 1pm!

We aren't expecting to be mandated back into the office, it's extremely unlikely for my team. I long for some form of hybrid arrangement!

Is it throwing toys out of your pram to look for another job when your current one no longer works for you? Or is it the kind of thing that happens fairly frequently, over a variety of issues.
She's not suggesting screaming "I QUIT" in the middle of the office while hurling paper clips around.

Companies will do what they believe is in the best interests of productivity. If that causes unrest amongst the employees, there a a number of options.

They can reverse their decision.
They can use it as a way to reduce staff.
They can recruit staff who are happy to go to the office.
They can compromise and use hybrid working.

I’m not sure that digging your heels in and refusing to return to office based will be in your best interests. It depends how much you and your colleagues want/need jobs.