To kick up a huge fuss about this?

[mainsteeem]

For the last 3.5 years I have been working from home almost exclusively, except when there’s been an event in the office or a particular important meeting. In the last year I’ve been in 3 times.

Last week my new manager announced that he wants me in the office once a week. Everyone has flexibility but most want to go in one day a week so it was just me who was utilising working from home more. I have good reason, I am a lone parent with no support and to travel into the office now costs around 45 quid a time due to increase in rail fares and I have to be there to collect dd from nursery.

There is no reason for me to be in the office. I am fully able to do work remotely. There has been no specific reason given for this change other than a ‘general move to more office based.’ I feel like I am being made to struggle as a lone parent. I cannot keep my job if I have to do this journey and travel a 4.5 hour round trip once a week, I am already clinging on to coping as it is.

Surely this isn’t right to change the goalposts? I know you usually look to your contract but 3.5 years of working practice in this way must count for something?

What does your contact say?

i don’t think it one day a week in the office is an unreasonable ask unless you where told it would be fully remote.

It will count for something but if your employer is determined enough then they probably will eventually be able to enforce this
Rather than going in guns blazing ,try and explain it as you have here
Lots of places are calling staff back into the office

Ask them to give you some time to set up new childcare arrangements and see if they can help with the commute costs.

It isn’t unreasonable for them to want people in the office more. Lots of businesses are going this way because they are seeing a drop in productivity and an erosion to teamwork and “corporate knowledge”.

A colleague of mine works from home all the time and she is so out of the loop. So much information is shared in general office conversation and she misses it all.

Don't do a huge fuss, do a calmly explained position in line with whatever your JD and company policy allows.

What did you do 3.5 years ago? Did you have to go in then at all?

I wouldn't kick up a fuss, I'd explain calmly and concisely why I needed to continue to WFH and demonstrate how it makes no difference to the company in the first instance. If you haven't had a 1:1 about how this specifically impacts you then going in all guns blazing is not a good options.

Then I'd be possibly looking for a job closer to home, living 4.5hr round trip from work is daft or use a childminder / private nursery that does school drop offs and pick ups.

Could you try putting in a remote working flexible working request? Even if they turned it down they would have to go through the whole process and justify why they have turned it down, rather than a just because.

Are you collecting and then looking after you child on work time or do you finish work before they finish nursery?

speaks volumes about your style that your first reaction is to “kick up a big fuss”

Have you been doing this job remotely since day one? Or did you start off in the office pre covid. Personally unless it was sold to you as a fully remote job this should have always been on your radar as a possibility. 1 day a week in the office is perfectly reasonable and better for your networking opportunities. Your single parenthood is not a "get out of the office" card. Your commute is your choice, when you went for the job you knew where the office was, again unless it was contracted as fully remote when you joined. Your child care and commute costs are not your employers responsibility. Most people with children have child care costs. Most workers who don't work at home have a commute cost.

once a bloomin week

seriously op

once a week

3.5 years ago presumably you were in 5 days a week

£45 to get to work?! How far away are you from the office that it costs that much?

You accept a wage, what your boss is asking for is in no way unreasonable. You can't have the cake and the champagne. If you don't like the company find another one that is a better fit for you.

I don't think once a week is an unreasonable ask.

Did you live where you live now when you accepted the job? If yes, surely you knew the distance and therefore cost involved.

Have the offices moved away from where they used to be? If they have, maybe you can use this as justification for not attending the office.

Conversely, look for something closer to home that suits you better.

Were you in the office before Covid? Does your contract state an office base? It’s not unreasonable to ask you to come back in - and many organisations are insisting on more than one day a week. You need to suck this up, or change jobs op. ‘Kicking up a fuss’ won’t achieve anything constructive. If you want to calmly explore flexible options, you can try that first. If they wish to pursue the perfectly reasonable one day in the office approach, your best bet is to leave.

I second the 'don't go in all guns blazing' - in my previous company, the policy was 4 days in office but realistically it was down to how accommodating the manager is.

If you start at offensive, they may well enforce return to office which they are within their rights to do. However, if you explain and make it clear you're happy to go in any days that are needed, you may well get some leeway.

I don't think it'll be as easy to just find another job - more and more workplaces are enforcing return to office so fully remote jobs are highly in demand (I'm head of HR for a mostly remote company and the applications per role have SHOT up). So working with what you have is a good first plan.

this.
If you've been fully remote since you started it's a completely different scenario to originally being fully in office, then moving to wfh, now changing to hybrid.

The fact that you've mentioned your contract and then said but suggests that you were originally employed on the basis that you would work at least part time in the office. In which case, unless you've moved further away, presumably it was a 4.5hr journey then, and even if rail prices have increased I doubt it's been from £5-10 to £45. i.e. you took the job knowing how far away it is and that there would be commuting costs. If anything you're lucky to have 'saved' hours of time and thousands of pounds over the last few years rather than now being aggrieved you might have to spend it.

4.5 hour round trip by rail

If you've moved since being in the job then YABVU if you've not moved then have a reasoned discussion with your boss.

I have worked from home since Covid, end of March 2020. I love it, I don't like working in the office at all. However I do know I'm missing out on things. I'm planning on retiring next summer so that doesn't bother me, but if I was younger and had career building in front of me then I think I would bite the bullet and just go in as required.

The expectation to go in one day a week is not unreasonable, OP. It is not your employer's fault that you are single and childcare isn't their problem. The job doesn't exist to give you a job – you are doing the job they pay you to do, and if that involves going in once a week, then that's what it involves.

Why should your colleagues spend on commuting when you don't have to? I highly doubt you have explored your options to make this work, and you've just dug your heels in automatically.

Mine costs £36 and I live a 3.5hr round trip away.

Will they be desperate to keep you if you kick up a fuss or will they just say, "off you fuck"

Are you so good that they will pay for you to come into work, as some PP have suggested or will they just say, "off you fuck"

Unless you are a leading irreplaceable light, I imagine one way or another their response will be to wave you good bye. So, maybe think on before kicking up a fuss.

I think you can be strategic about this- explain lightly how it's difficult, make the effort for the first two weeks, then just drop off the frequency. Make sure you go in on a day your manager is in so you are seen to be in.

but op used to do the journey daily presumably.