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

Speak to ACAS, as you may have a leg to stand on that you’ve been doing it long enough and they have to consider the request/can’t deny the request if you’ve been doing it successfully this far.

Great answer

this.

@Needtosoundoffandbreathe

"We are only wanted in the workplaces because there is less being spent on public transport, in coffee shops/food vans, on all the things we are blamed for eating. We also then spend less on grooming/clothes etc."

Well yeah. All of the things you mention (and much, much more) that actually contribute to the economy in a multitude of ways such as paying taxes, renting premises, paying for maintenance and basically keeping our cities alive. To say nothing of the fact that they are providing jobs for people - jobs that can't be done sitting on their arses at home. You seem quite happy (even sneery) about throwing them under the bus.

spending a working day dusting and clearing a room when you've been requested to come in is ridiculous. let alone eating into her actual work time

of they wanted her and had plans for her to come in, should there not be a plan to have somewhere for her to go?

why are they working backwards

You're supposed to take a five minute break from your screen every hour so I always assume that's what people are referring to. Instead of hanging about the office chatting or topping up water etc, just putting a washing on or whatever. I remember taking to my boss a couple of summers ago about how I took a regular five minutes in the garden and pulled up some weeds, no problems.

Not to mention sitting in an empty room for 8 hours with no interaction effects my mental wellbeing

Really??? What's WFH then? It sounds a bit snowflake-y.

And if there's a business need, there's a business need.

It’s not law so you don’t have to, it can be a break as in looking away from the screen/making notes by hand etc
We get the standard legal breaks so 20 mins over 6hrs I think it is but longer if it’s a 9hr day as we get 25 mins lunch and a tea break of 15 mins

All these odd half hours etc have to be worked back. I don't know why people think that these are free hours. I WFH. My boss if flexible. So long as I make the time back he's more than happy for me to have a doctors or dentist etc appointment in work time. Thankfully I have a decent boss & employer. As a result if I have work that needs finishing and my working day has ended I'll quite happily take another 10/15/20 ish minutes of my OWN time to finish it. If I was in the office with no flexibility there's not a chance in hell I'd be giving them my free time. I'd be out that door in a flash whether my work was finished or not.

I don't know of any who would either.

But there's this bizarre idea that flexible working and WFH means you just arse about doing what you want and don't put it down as hours worked and not worked if you have a GP appointment.

It's the exact same way that it works in offices. Except you're at home and not in the office

And if you were in the office you possibly would need more time out due to travel distance and take more time out just in case due to not having the convenience of being at home.

So, a poster upthread used the example of working in the office and the employer expecting everyone to schedule medical or dental appointments at the start or finish of the day so to not impact on the business.

Peak times for trying to get appointments.

Someone working from an office which is an hours commute from their home but their GP is 5 minutes from their home needs to take out at least 90mins/2 hrs for such an appointment.

Whereas someone WFH could be there and back to work in half an hour or less. Especially when they can arrange the appointment at non-peak times.

I think the OP means that her mental health would suffer by getting showered, dressed, travelling to work and leaving the cosy set up she's got with her and her DH keeping each other company at home.

The OP is going to the office once a week. So having the opportunity to meet colleagues, help keep Pret a Manger in business, add to road congestion or busy public transport.

I'd understand some of the comments if the OP never went into the office.

Looks like attitudes to WFH have changed on Mumsnet over the last few months.
So many people have been critical about others being able to get all the laundry, cleaning, childcare, eldercare, chatting to DH and TV watching done during their lunchbreaks and commute time and yet still be twice as productive as they were in the office.
I am sure if OP doesn't want to go into the office four days a week then I am sure she can easily get another job where she can WFH as she pleases and free up her post to those desperate to get a job.

I think you meant to respond to me as I asked what you meant when you said "don't pull the mental health card".

And what you're saying isn't "playing the MH card"

"Making a mockery" of people suffering from mental illness would be someone claiming to have a mental illness that they don't have to gain advantages like reasonable adjustments under the equality act.

Which OP hasn't done or said she is planning to do. What she said is it would affect her mental health.

Which it would. She'd be less happy and more stressed. Her employer is under no legal obligation to take that into consideration.

I think you thought you were doing some good in saying what you said but you are making it harder for disabled workers and contributing to discrimination because you and others seem to think that any mention of mental health is 'playing the mental health card' and results in people who just don't want to work in the office not having to because they mentioned mental health.

And it doesn't work like that.

I used to love working like that (alone but people milling around outside my space). I felt pissed off if I had to share. Some people would love it (me) some don’t (you), they can’t please us all.

Well that’s exactly what I do as a wfh Project Mgr. plus walk the dog a lunch time and do the school run.
As long as the work is done and overall I work my total hours then no problem. Ideal situation.

OP this has gotten into the usual bun fight about whether WFH is good or bad.

Thats not relevant to your question. You need to establish whether your employer can change from your original agreement of three days, which as reduced to one day and is now increased to four.

the office is a red herring - that can be easily and quickly resolved either by your manager or by you (directing others, not doing it yourself).

I would recommend a quick consultation with an employment lawyer once you have located your contract. No working to rule, refusing to go in or complaining until you know where you stand.

and think about what you want - are you prepared to compromise to say two or three days a week? Are you going to insist on the one day a week?

also decide what your next move is. If legally there is no push back on this, are you going to start looking for another job? What conditions do you want in that job? It sounds like fully remote is really what you want. Be clear about that - lost of companies changing their policies at the moment

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8ew0jrjxz9o.amp

Needs of the business I'm afraid and clearly while your WFH your slacking which is why he wants you in the office more

I don't understand what you mean by having no interaction is bad for your mental health when you'll be alone all day at home anyway what makes it bad for your mental health in an office but not at your house

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with saying the return to the office should have been done much sooner after the Covid measures ended. Of course people have got used to it as it’s gone on, rather than seeing it as an emergency measure at the time

I mean, RTFT might be challenging when it's hundreds of posts but at least reading the OPs posts other than the 1st one os not an unreasonable expectation for engaging in a thread is it?

How are you managing to work from home then with no interaction. Is that affecting your mental wellbeing?

You would have a long wait at our place for that we do our own online DSE assessments.

This is one of those threads where people are committed to not reading the OPs posts and also apparently just skimmed over the 1st or just lack actual comprehension skills so are making the same pointless posts.

OP started working there coming out of covid with the agreement she worked 3 days in the office and 2 at home.

That changed as she lost her office room so was working 1 day in the office.

Employer has suddenly said they want her in 4 days a week.

There is no business need. OP has a unique role where she doesn't supervise, train or be able to help others. She's simply been caught up in a new idea.

OP has never suggested playing a 'mental health card'. She has said working in an office on her own with no interaction other than saying hi in the kitchen because no-one else does her job and won't be in a room with her would be bad for her mental health.

As she WFH and so does her DP and they interact during the day on their breaks, that is very different to being alone in an office for 8 hrs a day.

The OP has a total of 5 posts.

Read them.

Yes, lots of advantages for employees WFH
I know people who have cancelled childcare, look after their GC,go swimming,attend hairdresser appointments, play golf etc etc
These are just some examples 🤗