AIBU to close our office?

[Bonden]

I can’t be the only business owner with this dilemma as offices across the UK that used to be full of people during office hours now have maybe 20% of staff in on any day, or are empty 3 days a week.

My company has sales people who WFH, and come to the office maybe 2 x a month. And we have 12 people whose place of work is our office.

To run the office costs about 40k a year.

AIBU to give up the lease, put everyone on a WFH contract, and simply rent meeting spaces as and when required?

Talk it over with staff - my personal. Circumstances mean I cannot work from home, some of your staff may appreciate forward notice

There's plenty of other options if you don't want to work from your actual home.

Agree with PP on exploring different options, but wanted to add that if you go for the hiring rooms as and when, that you publish the dates in advance, so people can plan cheap travel tickets, hotels, childcare etc in advance? I think that would be a good way to keep the team together, manage expectations and give people a way to plan their lives efficiently,

Yes. Think about how to maintain elements of company culture that you get when people pop in. Also consider things people will do when they're in the office eg printing. Its straightforward to give people printers and an HO ink subscription, for example ... but factor all these costs into the savings you think you'll make. Also if you move.folks to a fully remote contract the travel costs you'll incur to get people to your meetings etc. We found it was cheaper to move office to a smaller space.

Does any of your staff prefer or their families prefer them to be in the office?

Dh has been mostly wfh since covid, and he loves it.

However when he first was doing it, he was in the kitchen-diner as the only place we had spare. It was incredibly irritating, although has had the good result that the evening meal is now his job as he too frequently said I couldn't start cooking as he was about to go into a meeting.

It now works, mostly, as the dc are older. He's got a nice little nook downstairs, that we've developed and I work full time in the office.
But it would have been impossible if they'd been primary age:
There's no door, so both I can hear every word of meetings at times. There have been times when he's had something confidential (and some of the stuff is very confidential) so we've had to go upstairs so we can't hear.
Our main entrance to the house is walking past him. The other way would almost be walking past him.
The dc wouldn't have been able to have friends home, I wouldn't have been able to invite a friend round after the school run etc. If I need to hoover, I have to wait until he's not on a call, or even simple stuff like putting stuff in the bin, I have to think round what he's doing.

It may feel a nice easy option, but the reality is not necessarily good for all people.

And actually I like working in an office. I get to leave my work behind. I get a short time all to myself while I commute. Once I'm home, that's it. And I get to see a variety of people.
Dh, has weeks where if he didn't go to church, he would see no one outside his family in the flesh.
Dd1 can choose to wfh or office, and often chooses office, even though she isn't really sociable, for exactly that reason. People can get very isolated.

I work for the nhs and since Covid we’ve all
had wfh options
There is 12 in our team but we are only given 6 desks now as there is more clinical space than office space on site. 1 lady works in the office full time (this is her choice), some staff are full time and some part time and so it all works out.

We have a sort of standard rota on excel as people tend to have the same days each week at home but we book our annual leave down on so if someone is else wants a desk on a day we’d usually be in then they can book the desk that day.

everyone is required to come in twice a week as a minimum but in general it’s been ok

it just sort of happened with covid but I’d call a team meeting and ask people what they think.

my friend works for a company and they have a conference day once a month in a local
hotel function room and that works well.

I see where you’re coming from tho as thats
a huge saving.

I would do it, could you look at meeting spaces to hire once a month, get everyone together. Would this be less than the 40k?

Only watch out if their contracts are wfh then you may need to foot the bill for travel to any office / meetings.

I’m on the fence. My brother and partner defend their right to wfh with their last breath. BUT when they stayed when they were homeless for a month boy were my eyes opened as to how much life admin they did on work hours - no wonder they refused to go in the office!

DD is a new graduate (2023) and loves hybrid. She moved a long way from home so going into the office means she’s made good friends - they go out for lunch/after work. She admits she’s learnt the most on her days in the office. She’s never ever go fully wfh - she’d go mad. Her and dp live in a one bed flat. He’s fully remote and has made zero friends, zero. He’s lonely. She’s happy

her firm is very competitive to get a place in (less than 1% of applicants get a place) and a highly sort after employer so hybrid suits them well

DH goes into the office 4 days a week and only doesn’t go in on 5th as he’d be in the office on his own and h&s doesn’t allow sole working in the office. He HATES wfh, gets distracted with life admin, much prefers dealing with issues face to face (has a reactive job that involves groups of people) and finds he is way way more productive in the office. We have a dedicated wfh office at home so he’s not working from the kitchen office

my friend fully wfh but is happy not seeing anyone for weeks on end - even has shopping delivered and due to lack of commuting works longer hours and is exceptionally focussed. She’d never go back in the office and would never take a job that required it

So, take your pick! Personally I’d keep a very small office for those that want the office space but you certainly don’t need to keep space for everyone but accept with wfh some will take the piss. Lots won’t but some will. Some will not pay for childcare - most will but the odd one won’t. You need to think whether things like this are an issue and if so, how you’ll deal with it. You might not worry about this and that’s your decision. Most people respect wfh so going fully wfh would not be wrong. But as much as people argue how you’ll lose talent, so will fully wfh. For me that is an irrelevant argument as it can be argued both ways- you’ll never please everyone! If you have small offices you have flexibility to offer either option which seems to me to be the best compromise

i know the die hard wfh will come at me but I stand by offering flexibility

People with kids/other commitments do not want this. Even people without probably don't want this.

Businesses need to be careful using that type of set up - if they use a serviced office as a registered address they can inadvertently link themselves to less reputable firms.

It very much depends what sort of work you do and how you already work.

I am the only one of my team based in my office, the others are split across Plymouth, Swansea, Bristol, Newcastle, Hull and Nottingham. So even when I am in the office I spend most of my time on Teams!

However, if your staff aren’t used to that it can take some getting used to and you may need to consider some training.

I would discuss the possibility with affected staff rather than random strangers on the internet though.

The company i work for got rid of all its offices after wfh during covid. They rent a a co working space every couple of months so we can get together. I definitely prefer it and save a lot on commuting, coffees etc

It’s a nightmare decision tbh. For everyone who loves it, there is someone who loathes it. Our problem is that the office is based somewhere semi rural - not particularly easy to get to by public transport. So those who work in it are all v local and it’s an easy trip in by car. So it feels v strongly like the admin teams office, and when other staff come in they are so evidently “guests” or visitors. and because their trips are long, they want to arrive at 10 and leave at 4 -which annoys me-! For one remote worker she has to leave at 5am to be in the office by 9.30 for example.

but if we relocated the office to a bigger more central city, the rent would be way higher and we’d definitely lose many of the admin folks as their current flexibility working in the office allows for school pick up etc.