5 days in the office - rant!!!

[DonnyDoris]

My company mandated 5 days in the office a couple of months ago, which in principle I have no issues with. However, my commute is just over an hour on motorways that have long term roadworks, so massively tedious and today I have no meetings so absolutely no reason to be here other than presenteeism. Could have got so much more done and also all my housework if I could've worked from home 😖Just needed to get that off my chest!!!!

Your comment re housework has backfired on you OP . Think you may have had different responses had you not mentioned it just saying

Sorry - I read the original poster as the in office day made that day 80% less productive but because she more than made up for that with her work product on the other four days her company was happy.

IMO many meetings are unnecessary. The directors and senior management committees are not the people requesting them. The meetings are being run by middle management who need to show their role has a place. They sell them to their teams by saying they are making sure everyone has a voice which is nothing more than a box ticking exercise. In reality they are simply to justify team leaders/supervisor type roles in corporate offices. Very little add value to the attendees. I have a daily meeting that is useful. I have a long weekly meeting that is absolutely pointless. At least at home, I can put it on speaker and do things around my house, scroll on my phone etc.

But many people are not being paid for their time but their skills and expertise.

Lots of us don’t have set specific hours - just deliverables.

Also that’s the mark of a good manager when you have hired someone because they have a lot of skills and expertise and deliver a brilliant work product, if they can do it in less time than it would take someone else, you don’t make them do busy work to make sure they do their ‘hours’.

You give them breathing room and time to get excited and ready for the next challenge or project.

I agree completely. Millions of us managed to work full time in the office before the pandemic. I don’t think a journey of an hour each way is particularly long - I used to spend an hour and a half each way, and my daughter was commuting from south London to Birmingham when she was living here last year.

If it isn’t working for you apply elsewhere. I wouldn’t work in an office 5 days. I have been mainly home based for over 10 years.

This is true. However, you have to admit that once WFH became an option, a lot of people took to it like a duck to water. 1.5 hours commuting each way? That's 3 hours a day, 15 hours a week (assuming 5 days a week working) of commuting. That's a lot of time that could be much better spent elsewhere.

Of course you 'don't believe me' You are curiously over invested in the idea other people shouldn't WFH. And I presented a list of positives which you have nitpicked over for the best part of an afternoon. When I answered each of your comments clearly and fully, you have nowhere else to go to 'win' but to accuse me of lying. If you really did disbelieve me, I'm sure you'd have said so straight away rather that pecking away for hours trying to find a hole.

Ok

The issue is that many of the more recent studies are showing reduced productivity when wfh. At the start it was the other way around.

Do you not think they meant they could do the housework instead of the wasted 2 hour commute? Surely that’s obviously what they meant?

The thing with that is stats showing productivity tend to always sway in the favour of the outcome being sought.

Funny how people weren't saying that when the stats showed increased productivity when wfh.

they are all benefits we didn't used to have - they are now thankfully rights.

Still nothing to do with working from home.

All the top companies and employers have a huge proportion of WFH because they know it attracts the best staff.

The best staff don't take the piss, so their employers are happy for them to work from home, if it's in the best interests of the business. No problem with that.

Staff who think doing the housework and laundry "while the kettle boils" shouldn't be surprised if the boss wants to keep a close eye on them. The simple lesson is, don't take the piss if you want to work from home.

Perhaps if your employer isn't offering it you are just crap at your job?

Indeed, if I was crap at my job, I wouldn't expect to be allowed to work from home. In fact I would expect to be sacked.

However, I am not crap and usually work from home unless there is reason why I need to be in the office. My employer knows they can trust me.

If I was doing laundry and housework in company time I wouldn't be surprised, or think it unreasonable if my employer wanted to monitor me. I fact, I would count myself lucky if I didn't get sacked. Company hours are for company business.

Housework and laundry are not your employer's concern.

If you see no good reason for your boss to insist you go into the office, it's probably because they know you take the piss or you are shit at your job (or, most likely both).

I hybrid work and have (for 3 different companies) since I returned from Covid in 2022. I wouldn’t go into the office full time.

however. As I said, I don’t think it serves anyone to pretend there are advantages that don’t really exist. The “I don’t get any work done in the office because it’s too noisy” or “I more productive from home” or “I used to take a week off with a cold because I didn’t want to infect people” just don’t align with the reality of most workplaces. Talk about how much happier and healthier it makes you, that should be enough.

I worked 47 years, up at 5 every morning to get train and bus both ways all year long. Wfh is a coo out like you say you needn't have been there could be house cleaning but still getting paid. If only in my day we had the choice, it was an idea through covid not forever. Now shoot me down and.tell me where to go lol

Sharing my experience of hybrid working here does no one a disservice or a service. It's a completely neutral act, given no one is going to be seeking out the views of strangers on MN to inform their own policies.
You have no idea what aligns with the 'majority of workplaces' and neither do I. However I do know my own and described my experience.
Funny you should allow people to claim 'happier and healthier' though. Two states not unconnected to how much time people take off sick.

Not everyone is pretending. Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t true for other people. I work hybrid - I get more work done on the days when I am at home than when I am in the office - that is a fact.

In the office people regularly come over and interrupt what I am doing, start having conversations that are nothing to do with work or there is noise in the background making it much harder to concentrate and I have to keep muting Teams calls. I actually quite like the non-work related conversations, but I’m not going to pretend they are anything other than a distraction. If I do a few chores at home while I take a break away from the screen - as you are supposed to do - then it’s still adds up to less non work related time.

This is my reality, whether you believe me or not.

So many bitter and jealous people around who simply cannot be happy for other people who might have some things better than them. Crabs in a bucket.

Right exactly. DH spends all day on calls and the house is spotless when he’s WFH! Our lives work so much better with WFH 🤷‍♀️

I can't wfh in my job but don't begrudge those that do. However, office workers generally have short FT hours compared to other industries so it's hard at times not to roll your eyes at the commuting sob stories. I'm contracted to 50 hours a week onsite and it takes me an hour to get home in the rush hour (30 mins in the morn).

However, I have to stay until the engineers are done so it can sometimes drag on. Like last Friday was 4am-5pm onsite and it still took an hour to get home. It's the job I chose and I hate corporate nonsense so I suck it up.

There is the time saved from the commute and lunch time. So dont be so ridiculous and jealous. In my office I have to leave at 6, at home I often work weekends or til later
So yes I can also take dog for walk, sort some washing, etc. Definitely do my hours

Did you have a job that being onsite was necessary? Or did you have a job working on a computer at a desk that could be done anywhere easily?

If the latter, why wouldn't you want to save all those hours commuting? Why does that make it a cop out?

You do realise that many companies don’t give a monkeys if an employee does a bit of housework during the day, if work is getting done?