To ask why employers will bully, stomp and bribe with lunch vouchers to make staff go back to the office

[Everythingisnumbersnow]

But won't in any way make the office a nicer place to be?

Hotdesk serfdom is real.

Just give people a space and treat them like humans?

Yanbu. Lunch wouldn't entice me as I can never find food to cater for me. I've only ever taken my own food.

I'm lucky that we're still hybrid and we have our own desks.

This is why I'm glad my sons a cook

My company is happy with everyone WFH around the country (and the US) thankfully! I would have to be paid MUCH more to bother with an office again.

I agree with you that there's no point demanding everyone is in the office if it's hot desking. Basically some employees take the piss and some employers don't trust people. I get way more done at home than I would in the office as can't concentrate with chattering and hate getting caught up in 20-min discussions about random non-work topics when I'm just trying to grab a quick drink.

I don't mind hot-desking but our office is so unpleasantly cold all year round, not all the desks have a second screen and those that do, not all the second screens work.

If I have to spend the day hunched over my laptop because I don't have a second screen, I am significantly less productive (I need to look at lots of big spreadsheets at a time, so spreading across screens is really the only efficient way), and I end up with a headache.
A comfortable temp and sufficient equipment would go a lot further in bringing people back to the office and actually getting the work done.

At least your employer is bribing you! Ours have just mandated it.

I’m moving to hybrid in a few months

5 years of fully remote and it’s lost its appeal

if the choice was fully office or fully remote I’d go remote but I am looking forward to being hybrid

My sister works in the civil service and when the Tory government was in power their minister kept telling them to get back into the office despite there not being enough desks and chairs or meeting rooms or at parking spaces.

They wasted so much time traipsing around the building trying to find somewhere to work and often held fairly high level meetings sitting on the floor in corridors.

People's dismissal of reality in general worries me, facts are facts.

But people dismissing basic maths is the most bewildering.

If there are twice as many employees as there are chairs what TH did the Tory Minister think was going to happen when she decreed they must all go back to working in the office?

Some people absolutely do take the piss when WFH though and spoil it for everyone who works as hard or harder from home.
There was one on here this week who didn't have childcare most of the time she WFH and was miffed that her DH wouldn't do his share of the childcare when he was also WFH.
I am sure lots of that goes on
Plus it IS nice to see colleagues to network and build relationships once or twice a week

On a personal & not business level I like having the flexibility to work from home when I want to. From a business point of view though I can see that many (including occasionally me) take the piss with their productivity at home. For me it more than evens out with extra work I do at other times though.

For society in general, I don't think wide scale working from home is that healthy. I know not all jobs are the same but when I was younger the office was vital socially. Meeting people, forming friendships, or even just learning to put up with people you don't necessarily click with. I think it may become isolating for many people who begin their working lives working from home

No I work somewhere it's always been possible to flex a bit informally. Just feeling a bit stressed about the wider market and what it means for everyone's wellbeing.

So are they making you come in full time now?

I haven't had my own desk or office since the 90s. I've never had a problem with hot desking either (except occasionally at clients without proper desk management systems).

What is it about your hot desking/hot office set up that doesn't work?

Yeah I'm sure employers are just doing this because they want to torture you 🙄 and as if any investments in commercial property generally would outweigh the actual rent/mortgage on an office building.

I ran the data on completely virtual working for my company. It did awful things to collaboration, relationships, management.

Also for junior colleagues learning by osmosis off other senior staff is really important. Sad that people who have benefited from this are now happy to pull the ladder up behind them and not contribute to supporting junior staff in this way. Training, coaching and mentoring is a big part of my job and it’s hard remotely I’m looking forward to doing it face to face again

I don’t think it’s just that people don’t want to leave their houses. It’s that it feels pointless having to get up early and waste time on a commute, just to go and work in another building when we can do the same job from home. Most people where I work are happier working from home, we can connect online, and productivity is the same. To me it feels like covid actually gave us a better way of doing some things, and now employers are going backwards.

I'm old enough to remember when the 'perk' of luncheon vouchers meant something completely different 🤣.
(Refer to Cynthia Payne for anyone who doesn't know the reference)

It’s not just mental health, so many people don’t have a proper space/set up for WFH. Epidemic of MUSK problems in future.

I prefer hybrid and would change job if we went full time in office or full time at home.

My resistance to full time in the office is due mostly to travel costs. I live pretty close to work but taking the bus would still involve 40 minutes of walking up/down hill and £3.50 per day. If I drive it's £12 parking per day. I'm also more likely to buy some snacks etc.

My second reason for not wanting to be in the office full time is having to look presentable. I can't just put my hair up and slap on some moisturiser in the office. I've also got to do a packed lunch - so it's extra time in the morning used up rather than cracking on and working from home.

What does annoy me id that there is a higher expectation for lower paid staff take the expense of being in the office . I'm middle management and often the most senior person in the office. I saw my own manager twice in 2024. There is talk of the WFO days being enforced/extended because people aren't coming in. The problem is upper management but they won't be forcing themselves in and spending their own time and money to do so.

That doesn't make any sense. The people who assert "the office is good for collaboration" just means they like it.

Now we know so much more about neurodiversity and inclusion of disability it's so disappointing that the "jocks" still prevail.

Work from home is bliss for me (and my team).

I couldn't work at a place with lunch vouchers, it sounds horribly corporate. If you're going to go corporate at least pick a place that does completely free food for staff.

I think we are moving towards a two tier workforce where either we won't be able to get people to do jobs that can't be WFH like firefighters, warehouse workers, nurses, taxi drivers etc. or they will become the well paid roles to encourage people to do them.

Some people absolutely do take the piss when WFH though and spoil it for everyone who works as hard or harder from home.

That is exactly what managers are for.

Another nasty little secret that goes with the whopper about remote working is that a lot of management really isn't needed. Or rather really isn't that good.

If your productivity plans are based on an unproven feeling that people "in the office" are somehow not able to skive then you my friend have probably worked in several businesses that are no longer here.

Many many years ago, I was subbed onto an employee-employer forum with the CEO. A request for moving to flextime was proposed and discussed. Then the CEO said that he couldn't consider it as "it would mean that managers would have to monitor peoples work and productivity". I got the filthiest of looks when I asked "what are they supposed to be doing then ? You know, for that extra money ?"

(We didn't get flextime, and I got a promotion that meant I was no longer able to attend the forum.).

We complained about the temperature and they responded ‘it’s warm enough’.
I have a lot of Indian colleagues (Indian nationals) and they sit there in puffa jackets. We’ve blocked the floor air vents as they just blow cold air on us.
Conversely, in the summer, it’s like a fecking greenhouse.

Most of the stuff my fellow Civil Servants have claimed about lack of desks is exaggerated. People don’t want to go in on a Friday or Monday and don’t want to hot desk in some random desk where their team is t based.
It’s the blanket approach which is irritating. Some teams need to work together and some have no ‘base’ so travelling to hot desk for the sake of it is pointless.

Also, as a new member of the company, I actually feel better about asking for help working remotely. I can send a message on slack and someone will get to it once they have finished the task they are doing, so I'm not worried about disturbing them in the middle of something.