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

This makes sense at face value, but there are so many studies now showing that productivity is worse when wfh. And let's be honest, lots of people take the piss and do stuff like trying to work at the same time as childminding. And that's not even factoring in those that go to the gym and have extra long lunch breaks etc.

Trust isn’t always enough. Managing remote and hybrid workers takes a different skill set that a lot of managers simply don’t have.

we need to catch up - hybrid working is here to stay. We have to explore different ways to engage teams - make sure everyone knows what is happening, and get the best out of both office and home days.

Without doubt it is easier for remote works to disengage, to fly under the radar. But those folks are in the minority. Managers need to see the early signs and move to pull people back. That isnt necessarily making them come into the office more (assuming they are complying with whatever the relevant arrangements are).

The way a lot of people work and interact has changed dramatically in the last five years - we all need to catch up.

Agreed. But people do seem to forget that the main objective for the employer is to turn a profit, not to find ways to facilitate wfh.

It'll only ever become widely accepted if a way can be found to reduce the disparity in productivity between home workers and office workers, or if it reaches the stage where companies can't find enough workers prepared to work onsite.

However, I doubt the latter will happen anytime soon because there will always be somebody happy to step up and take the job. In some ways it could even work as an equaliser. Those with truly sought after skills may be better placed to pick and choose, but others who are younger, hungrier, and less experienced may be more than happy to step up and agree to work fully onsite if it gives them a leg up.

I think the key here is managing people well.

My team has targets to hit and daily tasks that if they weren't done, it would become obvious very quickly.

I am flexible around school drop offs and picks ups - we all have lives and families. But I then expect them to work when they get back. I've not had an instance of anyone disappearing off to the gym or taking long breaks - if they did they'd be out.

I've told them that to keep wfh we all need to keep achieving, me included.

Exactly! OP is a typical wfh whinger, wanting to have it both ways! 🙄

'Shirking from home' seems to be the norm for many. 😂

Rubbish

Perhaps you could explain the drop in productivity with home workers?

Which ones? Not my team

Of course not your team.

I've barely met a single person that doesn't claim they're more productive at home. But then somehow all the studies find otherwise.

Funny that!

Yes, hilarious that our company KPIs show that in the last 3 years, we've delivered record results. And wfh too!

My team are productive when they’re in the office, and WFH. We really don’t mind about school runs (we don’t want to lose our staff) providing people get their work done. And they do.