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!!!!

Sorry, but an hour commute has been standard for decades. My DH has been doing it since he was 23, so over 30 years, and I did it for 12 years until starting a family, all my local friends do it. For centuries people travelled equally far for labouring jobs in the next town and county - even my kitchen installers, landscape gardeners, builders, have over the years travelled as far. People have been ‘going where the work is’ since medieval times.

The entitlement of modern employees who have been lucky enough to benefit from WFH/Hybrid since covid and technology advances is really off the scale.

@IneedtheeohIneedtheeeveryhourIneedthee

Plenty of people WFH pre-covid - covid didn't invent home working, I've WFH full time since early 2018 - and I work for a big organisation that has always had plenty of homeworkers and flexi workers.

Quite, we never went back to full time in-office after the 2012 Olympics in London.

Remember when they asked people to not travel if they didn't need to and companies did a tiny little spurt of wfh for the duration of the games? We never went back full time after that.

I'm in a job now that requires me in the office 3 days - that's my limit I think. Although a commute time of 1 hour each way might be standard, wfh has shown me what a waste of time that is. My commute isn't that long (around 40 minutes each way) but when I'm wfh I sit down at my laptop at the same time I would normally set off for work - so I can get more done. I also find sitting at a desk for 4 hour stretches (I don't have many meetings) is just too unproductive even with toilet or water breaks.

I was in the office yesterday. I timed the downtime (lunch with a college visiting from another office - obligation more than pleasure), people coming up to me desk or in the kitchen area to chit chat or complain the air con is too cold, not their too hot etc etc, 40 minute commute either way (outside of my working hours of course). I’m at home today and started working at the same time I started my commute yesterday. My employers are getting hours more out of me when I’m at home. I just made a cup of tea and whilst I waited for it to brew, I hung out 8 pieces of laundry, that I’d loaded up and ran at 6am today. Wfh where a role is suited to it is smarter for everyone.

And for centuries people washed laundry by hand, swept floors with a brush, had to take a ship to travel abroad, lit candles for light. We must modernise.

So? We're not pre-covid now.

Urgh, i had to go into the office yesterday.

I live 8km from the office - it took me 1.45 hours door to door.

Thats 2 hours lost work. Then I had a find a desk, spend an hour on to IT to get permissions and set up correct even though i just plugged my home laptop into the office docking station.

Stayed for 1 hour meeting and went straight home. What an absolute waste of a day

Yes, modernise. But sadly until they develop a star trek transporter city workers, hospital doctors and nurses, teachers etc will need to get into cars and trains and suck up the commute.

I am convinced people who whinge about homeworkers are just jealous.

Back in my day we didn't have home working and we used to commute 5 hours walking barefoot on broken glass to go down the mine for £4.50 a day.

Ok great Janet we also didn't used to have cars, or supermarkets or the internet. Things change, move with them or rot.

And yes I appreciate some roles can't be done remotely - but some can and that's just life. All jobs have pros and cons, perks and drawbacks.

The OP hasn't said, but I imagine her role isn't any of those....

Why take a job so far from where you live then? Just the other day my inlaws were bragging about being able to work at home, stay in their pyjamas and not even get out of bed. So lazy and discusting 🤢

Yes I agree. Too many people doing housework / school drop off etc during working hours. Spoils it for the rest of us

Your comment makes no sense. OP already said she has an hour+ commute each way. Assuming she also has an hour lunch break, that's an additional 3 hours a day to do housework outside of business hours

What difference does it make to the company if a person does housework between 8am and 9am, and between 5pm and 6pm instead of sitting on a motorway?

@BriefEncountersOfTheThirdKind

Hours saved on commute are hours that homeworkers put towards other things like housework - I am baffled that so many people are completely unable to grasp this concept it is very simple.

My job is not "so far from where I live" mileage-wise, it just takes me a long time to commute due to traffic. I also wouldn't consider myself "discusting" - or even disgusting - just because I would prefer to work from home if I can......

Of course they will, because those jobs aren’t suitable for wfh, so it’s moot point in this context.

But where jobs can be done remotely, it’s very beneficial all round. I’m not going to take a retrograde step and endure a commute and constant office interruptions just to make someone who’s chosen a job that can’t be done remotely, feel better. That’s not entitlement, it’s common sense.

Yep - we were slow off the mark getting our hybrid policy sorted out, post-COVID. And until that happened, our job adverts didn't mention hybrid, and if anyone asked, we had to say it was under consideration. So we couldn't recruit. Now we state clearly A MINIMUM OF 2 DAYS IN THE OFFICE and people want to apply again. More people ask about 'days in the office' than salary these days

Yes, well a lot of people struggle with traffic, it’s called life 😂

Yep I’ve WFH 2 days a week since 2009 as did many of our company. Im lucky that it’s on my contract so I can’t be forced into 5 days but it’s worked for our team for 16 years so why a takeover means we have to give up the flexibility I have no idea

But it's an avoidable part of life if you can spend some of your week WFH. I don't live that far from my office either, but (at peak times) it can be one hour in each direction, which is in insane for a 10 mile journey.

I think people need to get over this now

If your work need to you be in the office then that's that.

If you don't like it the find another job.

And if you live too far away again. Find another job or find another place to live.

I mean- How dare your work actually expect you to turn up to the office?!

Just to add. DH has been hybrid since covid but company now insisting on 80% presence in the office with a view to working up to 5 days as standard. It is now a performance appraisal point and those who fail to meet it, will have their annual bonuses adjusted accordingly as it will mean they do not meet appraisal performance standards. It will likely also inform bosses who will be on the next round of redundancies.

They want a return to the pre covid status quo because people abuse it - they come to the office, do a morning to get the credit and then head home after lunch to try and circumvent the rule… which given their original employment contracts state ‘office based’ is utter idiocy, especially given that the entrance and exiting of the building is monitored so management are fully aware. The same happened when my DH started and they operated a 9 day fortnight - if you did extra hours during the week, you could take off every other Friday ‘in lieu’ and, at the time, WFH on the alternate Friday was permitted. Only, people started taking every Friday off, lunching, getting their hair done on the WFH days making it impossible to get any work done on Fridays as you’d call people and they were in noisy restaurants or having their hair blowdried. The company withdrew it and brought back 5 days in the office. And this was before covid.

Yes, good employees will be lost, but, frankly, there are always other smart people around to replace them.

If your employer wants you at the office then that's that.

It's up to them. Regardless of how much work gets done.