Employers hell bent on working in the office full time

[NewDayNewLife25]

Anyone else currently job searching and noticed the same thing?

I'm utterly miserable in my current role which is unfortunate as I've been there for 4 years and use to love it, but a new manager has changed things. I've always worked from home.

Anyway, I've been applying for jobs, mainly remote/hybrid working but also a few office based roles. I always state in my cover letter what I'm looking for, and my address is on my CV too.

A few employers have contacted me, saying that I'm perfect for the role, have all the experience/skills that's required and that they think I would make a great addition to the team. But as soon as I've asked about the working set up, that's it, done. They won't entertain it and decline my application.

I just think it's a shame. I know that they probably have plenty of applications, but surely it's more important to hire the right person, with the right skills and experience. Not just because that person happens to live near the office. Half the time they can't even explain why they need the person in the office. Is it control?

I'm fed up already!

I WFH full-time and was recently offered a great job that was 2 days in the office, which I wouldn't mind at all because it would be nice to have colleagues again, but it would have to have paid an extra £6K just to make up for the commuting costs, plus a raise on top of that.

Agree with this. I mostly WFH and wouldn't move into an office based role, even for money. It's just not worth it. All that commuting is just wasting hours of your life.

It’s not though and OP’s post is a perfect illustration of this in that she can’t get a hybrid role

I'd do a hybrid role for the right amount of extra money on top of what I get now. But it would need to be a decent amount or it's just not worth the hassle. It wouldn't mean I do a better job either - if I am honest, probably not as good as I do working from home, as I struggle with noise and distraction in an office and need peace and quiet to get my work done.

To offer a counter to the wfh debate. There has been an issue this week and last week, that would not have occurred had all parties been in the office.

I'm a fan of wfh, I work hybrid, so does my team but the fully remote has definitely caused issues, in one case quite a serious problem.

Yes, people could have talked to each other, phoned, use teams etc to avoid a problem but they didn't and I know it wouldn't have happened had they all been sitting in one area.

The issue with remote working is that communication has to be deliberate, rather than more causal. It doesn't work well for my workplace so employees have to be open minded and understand not every workplace is similar.

@Munnygirl god you're relentless

that's because the peope with remote and hybrid are not leaving as quick and when they do the jobs are snapped up straight away in what ever field their area is. they are out there but they are like gold dust you have to keep trying.
@NewDayNewLife25 you have remote can you not stick it out a bit longer till you find another one ?

Yeah, it is. As someone said upthread, most corporations have recognised that hybrid work is here to stay. Amazon etc may be trying to mandate staff come back into the office, but that's not exactly working out for them. There's been a lot of pushback and a lot are allowing flexible working anyway despite the loud flexing about it to the media.

The job market is generally crap at the moment, which is just as likely the reason she can't get a job. Lots of ghost jobs etc.

Not surprised employers are getting fed up with people insisting they work from home, so they can walk the dog, pick up the kids watch TV. It's a skivers charter,

amazon don't even have the space to bring everyone back either 🤷‍♀️

In response to @smooththecat (meant to quote but forgot, sorry!)

Well, that's the point, isn't it?

If the employer is concerned that they will struggle to recruit/retain good people if they don't offer flexibility, they will offer that flexibility wherever they can.

If they're not offering that flexibility, there will be a reason for that. Either because they can attract plenty of strong candidates without offering remote working or because they genuinely have a reason for wanting the role to be office based.

Ultimately, it comes down to supply and demand. There is no obligation on workers to accept office based roles if they would rather work from home. Equally, there is no obligation on employers to let staff work remotely if they would prefer for them to be office based. If employers find that they can't attract or recruit good staff, they will be forced into being more flexible. If candidates find that they can't find suitable employment or progress their careers as hoped, then they might need to look at a broader range of options.

My role(s) are judged on output.

So if I want to spend an hour watching TV in the middle of the day as I don't have a meeting or deadline I can. However if I have a realistic deadline then I'm expected to meet it which means I may end up working to midnight on other days due to system/'network issues.

Edited to add: I worked with one person who used to walk their dog about 4pm. That 4pm was their thinking time. I learnt to give them a problem before they went away and when they came back at 5pm they had solved it and would carry on working to 7pm.

I guess you don't like workers managing their own time and delivering to deadline.

@Viviennemary why are you taring everyone with the same brush? Sure, there are people who take the piss at home and in the office. It doesn't mean everyone takes the piss, does it?

Amazon etc may be trying to mandate staff come back into the office

Whilst simultaneously benefitting enormously from people are are ... WFH.

They haven’t though. More and more companies are mandating for staff to go back into the workplace and those that continue to offer hybird working there will be stiff competition for those roles. So what happens to those who like the OP can’t secure hybrid? They either go back to the office or become unemployed. It may not be palatable but that is the truth.

The way to get rid of people without having to announce redundancies is mandate that people come back in to the office.

I actually work with about 10 people who were made redundant by Amazon. They have had rounds of redundancies.

I get those emails from locum agencies and I don’t even want a new job. It’s a bit like those estate agent letters which say a family is looking for a house just like mine in the area! I see it as scattergun marketing. Esp if there are exclamation marks…

Same. I'm in a completely output based role. That works for WFH roles as there's nowhere to hide. Obviously some jobs do have to be done in an office or other workplace (manual jobs for example) but it is actually a waste of money (both the employer's and employees) to force people in a lot of roles into an office.

Personally I think the OP is having problems due to how they approach it.

I've never put I want a hybrid role on my CV or covering letter when I've applied for roles. I also only ask ONCE in an interview about the ways of working. However I worked in hybrid and remote roles since 2016 with some having more WFH amounts than others.

Yeah, they have. We can argue about this forever, but I interview CEOs of major corporations and they all say that hybrid working is here to stay.

I think we are overhyping how ‘talented’ these people are, who want to wfh!

100% agree

Not for every company I’m afraid

Hybrid is. Fully WFH not so much.

Some employers just aren't that bright.

One of the absolute key benefits for an employer with remote/WFH staff is the ability to leverage the fact that someone who may struggle to do 9-5 is more than capable of doing 10-3 and 4-7. Suddenly gaining an extra 2 hours at the end of the day which could (for example) extend customer support. At zero extra cost.

Many years ago (1996) I worked for a software house whose 2 star programmers (a wife and husband team) worked from home. Not only were they fucking brilliant, but they had 2 young children. I worked in office in support then, and it was the routine to parcel up a problem for 5pm fuck-off home, and come in at 9 the next day to a fresh release with bugs fixed and new features. It halved the turnaround time for support which was a huge selling point in the business.

Having studied in IT at Uni, and pretty through the "paperless office" scam, it seemed as natural as breathing. We also did everything by email (none of this new fangled phone nonsense).

The only other way to achieve the overnight fix without overtime and UK office based staff is to outsource to India or Pakistan where the time difference can help. (just for laughs, the last Indian outsourcing firm I worked with had their staff work from home to shadow UK in office times).

I never said that at all so please do not put words in my mouth. I think the problem you are facing is your attitude