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!!!!

These threads always bring out the people who insist office workers are productive every minute of their working day. They never take tea breaks, a lunch break or have a chat with a co worker apparently…

Have you considered putting a flex working request in?

I have such mixed feelings on this. I'm 100% office based, and fine with that. I've got colleagues who work remotely and I have no doubts regarding their productivity and work ethic.

But, there are people who work from home and absolutely take the piss. I had someone return my teams call after 2 hours (not an issue if you're busy) and proudly announce that they had been walking the dog and making lunch. We get a 30 minute lunch break..... So not sure why it took 2 hours to come back to me.
This is the same person who was logging runs during the working day on strava.

The issue is not home working or office working - it's complete miss management of the people who are just not working!

People who argue against other people being able to wfh seem to live in a fantasy world where workers in the office sit at their desks (or whatever the equivalent is, depending on the job) and never waste time chatting with colleagues, refilling their mug or bottle, staring into space, etc. Yes, people wfh may 'waste' a few minutes here and there, but no-one is capable of being completely focused on anything (including their job) every moment of the day except for a brief lunch break. Even people whose work is a matter of life or death can't do that. The only difference is what you're doing during those little breaks.

I do mine in the time I would be commuting

Which is reasonable but not what the OP said

I didn't actually say when exactly I would be doing my housework - you just assumed

How long is the journey without roadworks? Can you arrange to start an hour later to
miss the worst of the rush hour traffic?

You don't work from home so you can do housework surely!! When I worked from home recovering from a major operation for 6 months in bed on my laptop I was expected to be available and on my laptop the whole day and could be contacted at any time by management if I wanted to be paid.
No wonder people are being asked to come back in if they are spending work time cleaning their homes.

Can be done in 45 - 50 mins barring any holdups

You're only considered (but not a given) for flex if you have caring responsibilities which I'm fortunate enough not to have

I just loaded a couple of bits into the dishwasher and turned it on while I waited for the kettle to boil and the tea to brew.

I can't do that 70 miles away obviously. In the office making that tea I'd probably have scrolled SM or stared into space.

Someone says they're going to be late for our meeting, then no problem. If in office I'll stretch my legs with a walk around the block or maybe buy a coffee , if at home I'll load the laundry.

Can you not see cutting out a 2 hour commute (an hour each way) could be the housework time?

Bitter because you can't WFH?

You said “multitasking” OP. That’s doing more than one thing at the same time.

When I WFH, I am "on" between 8am/9am - 12/1pm, then from 1/2pm - 5/6pm.

I can do quite a lot of housework in the hours lunch break and two hours I'd usually be commuting.

On days when I'm in the office, none of those three hours are available to me as I'm on a train / sat at my desk.

Those talking about cleaning when you're supposed to be working are being deliberately obtuse.

Just jealous because they can't WFH.

To be fair, I WFH and do zero housework but then, I'm a slattern.

It just benefits them to ignore this comment.

your choice to live an hour from the office....
I totally disagree about presenteeism being the only reason to be in the office, there's so much more to be gained by being around people and not having to use teams or email every time you want to communicate with them! Do you never just turn to someone nearby to ask for help, or overhear conversations where you can assist people with their issues, or find out what's happening elsewhere in the business, or of work opportunities??

Customer service has noticeably declined in the last five years (not that it was ever brilliant in this country), I am not surprised companies are trying to get staff back into offices.

Majority of London is doing hybrid 2 or 3 days in the office. Less and less places do full wfh or sporadic work in the office, you are in the minority.

Ooh that's naughty of them. Under the flex working regs everyone has the right to request and you no longer have to state why, and the employer has to consider how they can make it work rather than you suggesting how it can work.

Pre covid this would have been the norm. Nobody would have questioned it.

And if you work for a global company in a global role then you're :

on/checking in/responding: 6-7.30ish for APAC

at desk: 9-12
[second dog walk 12-1.30pm]
at desk: 1.30pm (8.30am for east coast) until about 6pm

on/checking-in/responding: 8pm (3pm east coast) - bed time

My office days I am "on" 9-5 then on trains with crappy signal. and busy when i get in doing all the tiny little things i couldn't do during the day.

For work that doesn't require facing customers or being on site, I believe one to three days in the office is ideal.

I don't know anyone who has a "office" job who does more than one or two days in the office - and this probably is a shock to some people but you are allowed breaks when you WFH and you can get household things done in those breaks.

Plus zero commute = more hours to do whatever you want/need to not more hours to work.