My manager is making me come in the office 4days a week

[Lavendar01]

Since beginning of my role (which was coming out of covid), I've been hybrid working 3days in the office and 2days wfh. I had my own office but had to give it up for other staff that were in full time. Manger agreed for me to wfh and come in once a week - worked perfect!

In my recent supervision manager said he wants me in 4days a week "business need" and that there will be a room available to share with a couple of other staff. I've gone in and that room isn't set up, currently its dusty with extra office furniture/ equipment, basically being used storage room for now. I made a point to my manager and said could I continue wfh until the room is sorted, he refused and said to set up in that room somewhere in the corner for now.

AIBU here thinking I am within my right to refuse to be there until I have a proper work station set up, as required for my role? Not to mention sitting in an empty room for 8 hours with no interaction effects my mental wellbeing

Surely you are on your own with no interaction with others when you are working from home.

Well you are presumably sitting in an empty room at home so I don’t think you can use that.

A lot will boil down to your location in your contract, although you might be able to argue working practice

So who do you work with at home?

You need to have a DSE compliant desk set up, but the fact that you’ll be in the room on your own for the time being is neither here nor there.

I would say that I will come in once occupational health arrive to do my DSE and have signed the workstation off and not before.

Can’t you get the room sorted out

That’s annoying. I think you could say there’s no suitable place at the moment but I also think if you’ve got to go in (I can’t advise on that) then you should block out some diary time to go in and get the room sorted. Speak to facilities and organise your equipment/get it cleaned etc.
The being on your own thing is weird, presumably you’ll stand up and walk around? People do work in individual offices and you yourself had your own office.

It depends on your contract. Where I work all the staff with hybrid contracts have to be in 4 days a week now. I just go into one day a week because I have a WFH contract.

I can see that this must be happening everywhere because the traffic on my commute is getting much heavier.

Personally I’d buy a couple of plants, take in a duster and just get on with it. Job hunt if you like.

I would also make sure all my dental appointments, medical appointments etc land on the extra day I’m in the office. And say to boss “I will need to leave at x because I have a dental checkup/smear test/contraceptive review at 2pm sorry only appointment I could get.”

That will help remind manager there’s a big advantage of wfh for employee flexibility and employee productivity.

Yes OP its not acceptable for them to expect you to work without a proper workstation, they should be able to sort this out very quickly, your manager is being very crap here.

Both husband and I wfh and have interactions throughout the day, whereas being in the office room is isolating. My role is unique in the service and so I dont have a team. With other staff its judt really a hi and bye on the kitchen.

What does your contract say?

a lot of these hybrid jobs were created due to covid and we are well passed that phase in our lives.

What does your contract state about working from home/hybrid working?

I get you're pissed off about having to come into the office more frequently, but there's probably more to it than you realise. What are your relationships with other staff like? How visible is your role? Get what help you can to make the work station in the allocated room set up properly. You sound as though you're making excuses not to come in.

why are people suggesting OP cleans and sorts this room, thats not her job! She needs a DSE compliant workstation which her company should have no issue providing. This is a case of a bad manager asking her to come in with nothing ready.

Or make the OP look like a total arse.

And what is this big advantage of wfh re: flexibility and productivity?

In the Supervision, did you ask which business needs weren’t being met when you were WfH that would if you were in? I don’t think the mental well-being argument has any legs in this situation. However, you could ask that whoever is responsible for workstation assessments for health & safety to make sure the workstation is suitable.

I probably wouldn’t say ‘interactions with my husband’ op as your reason for why you want to work at home…

Well as long as they're on official breaks?....

Agree.

I'd be telling the employee to make appointments in their own time or take annual leave for them if they started playing silly games like that.

If there's a spare desk in the new office maybe someone will come and join you

I don’t think you can refuse. Many companies want staff in more now. I go in most days, much prefer it to sitting in my flat all day.

You had your own office but are now complaining about being in an office on your own.
I don't understand the reluctance to go back to office working, it's what the business has felt it needs so that is what it has required.
Don't like it, get a new job but good luck getting another WFH job!

surely that depends on the size of the organisation?

I would sort the office out myself and get on with it. Much better to have a positive attitude than to be whinging and looking at the negatives. Then if you really hate it, look for another job.

The point of OP saying she will be in an empty office with no one else is because she may as well be at home - if she was going to be interacting with colleagues it may be worth going in but not to be alone just as she would be at home!