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

OH don't do DSE assessments unless as part of a reasonable adjustment request. The OP doesn't appear to have that.

Sorry forgot to mention. Previously when I had an office, it was shared with someone else

What’s your contractual place of work? It’s the only relevant factor to whether or not you have to go back in as requested.

Not exact quote but It sayssomething along the lines flexible working at discretion of business

Well you need to know exactly what it says and then how discuss how that correlates to the recent request. This request would align to what you’ve put there though.

The advantages are for the employee only! You don't even suggest making up the time. Not a great explanation.

What I do think is that flexibility generally makes for happier employees which has benefits for the employer too.

Presumably the OP is not 12 so she probably won't stoop to this level of childish pettiness.

I don’t think its about jealousy😊.

OP’s contract seems to say she has to go into the office. Lots of employers are changing their approach to WFH and requiring more days in the office. This was bound to happen; particularly as some people abused the arrangement.

OP can consider whether she will find a different job with a company that allows more days at home than her current employer. Those jobs are still out there, but it is industry specific and she will need to check her contract to ensure the employer can’t increase the office days.

She is also working for a small company so there isn’t the army of HR and others to look into her objections and get her office set up. She might have to do some of that herself.

But this is a reality of employment today for many - big and small companies all over the world are increasing mandated days in the office:

You can tell who works from home and who doesn't on these threads. Yanbu op. Many people have been working from home for years and it's a pain in the arse when managers suddenly try to change it. We'd be stuffed if dp had to go back full time, him and at least two other members of his team would almost certainly leave.

Also I can totally understand why working in an office / store room alone is more depressing than working at home alone. Unfortunately as people have pointed out, your contract is what you are obliged to follow and they are usually vague enough that the company can basically do what they like.

What do you mean by working practice? I have a situation where this could be relevant. WFH since starting 10 years ago as did rest of team, pre-COVID went in once monthly for face to face meeting. Now business is requiring everyone back 20% of the time which is still much less for most people who all worked from the office before but is actually more for me - from once a month to once a week. Contract says office based, which I challenged at the time I received it because all discussions were based on WFH. HR wouldn’t change it but they/my manager said not to worry as it I would be working from home. And that’s how it’s been until now. So wondering about the working practice V contract issue.

You clearly don’t want to do into the office. I get that. But you’re clutching at straws here.

I’d start looking for a new job.

Or remind the manager of who to put top of the list if there's a round of redundancies, what a stupidly childish attitude.

Id be embarrassed to admit to that, not that I'd do it and I'd hope no one I work with was so pathetic

"But this is a reality of employment today for many - big and small companies all over the world are increasing mandated days in the office"

Not according to our government and the threads on here about disabled people working. Apparently it's really easy to get a job WFH, to accommodate health conditions.

Do you just sign off or do you get permission?

You have to find your contract or request a copy of it. It might say ‘by agreement’.

If your contract says it’s at the discretion of your employer then you have to go to the office. And that’s it. Leave if you don’t like it.

My husband has to go in once a week - spends the day sat on Teams meetings, just wasting 2 1/2 hours commuting that if he was home he would be working. Ridiculous.

This cultural shift to demanding staff return to the office for no real benefit to the organisation is born out of the current vibe of people trying to be as ' tough' as possible.

In this thread you have posters barely containing their glee that the OP has to go back in to her office without a business reason..it's just to show ' who's the boss' . Literally people who hate hybrid working just because they can't do it.
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If I could describe the feeling of this country at the moment, it's a race to be as unkind and inconsiderate as possible - hence the rise of ' Reform'.

I'm seeing it on my commute as well..buses are busier, roads are busier. Good news for sandwich shops and coffee places in city centres I suppose.

It is horribly hard to find a WFH home, I can confirm that. Due to health conditions working from home makes a massive difference to my life and wellbeing.

You’d have to get HR advice tbh. I just say that because where I work my team is the only one who predominantly wfh in the whole org (over 250 office staff, our team of 4 mostly wfh). Due to distance it would be impossible to work in office more than once per week. I kept hearing our ceo moaning our team wasn’t in so asked a friend in HR and she said it would be difficult due to contracts stating work from office, however I’ve only ever worked from home. (Husband is in the same boat, but peg is heavily unionised so unlikely to force that change).

the reality is it’s a hard to recruit for role, and all similar roles are work from home, so they have no choice but to allow it as we would all have to quit if they enforced office working (one colleague lives 300 miles away!) so I know they are unlike to enforce any kind of change.

the only other thing you could do is make a flexible working application to your line manager for a permanent change but he seems unlikely to agree.

do you have any protected characteristics which would be impacted due to you being in the office?

I’d be worried that he has concerns about my performance. I’d also be considering the risk of redundancy. WFH staff are less visible and unless they’re ’mission critical’ they’re easier to let go than those who are visibly present and actively engaging in business life - that goes beyond just completing the tasks assigned to you.

Given you’re expecting your manager to set up your desk and clear the dust away since there’s nobody else to do it I can kind of see where he’s coming from. And don’t make appointments during your working day if you can avoid it. That’s just a ridiculous idea.

I run the medical room in a large comprehensive. I clean my own room. I pay for things to vamp up the room. It has no windows and the only time I speak to another adult is during my 30 minute lunch. I think WFH people are clueless to what a lot of us do to keep things going. I love being with the kids, but what if I decided to have a strop and insist on a nicer room? There isn’t any other option.

Unless WFH in your contract you can't refuse. Crack on, ask to sit with or near another team for the interaction side. Make the best of it. If made to work in this room, tidy your area etc, clean it up, lol at the not your job brigade. DSE assessments are largely down to the individual since WFH became common. Else look for another job.

@luckylavender you get permission. I did say it can mean only an hour off, instead of a half/day needing to be booked off. Some people's holidays are counted in hours and extra hours awarded for overtime. It's a waste of an employee needing to take a full day, for a 11.30 blood appointment, when an hour would only be needed, in their own doctors, if WFH. Which is why people who gave health conditions etc rally benefit from WFH. Because of my medication, I need my liver and kidney functions monitoring. My DD has had terrible issues with her teeth/jaw, luckily even in her workplace, you can take an hour and she works in the hospital that she's been referred to. Likewise my youngest needed scans in the hospital she works in. My other DD could return to work because of WFH, after surgery and her employer allowed her to take an hour off when the dressings nurse came. It's interesting that in all three workplaces it's the older colleagues who have a issue with the ability to take hours off, rather than a day, because when they started work it wasn't possible. But that was in the days of walk in bloods and a choice of appointments. Life has changed.