Working away

[marioooocart]

DH works full time remote on approx 26k salary. Contract is fully remote although there is a head office, he never has to visit.

Manager has delegated some more responsibilities to him (for no extra pay!) and has now asked him to go and do some team bonding in the head office. This invokes a four hour train journey the day before, two days team bonding and then 4 hours back the day after training. So I would lose him for four days. We have a two year old and zero family support. No extra pay involved for this but will pay expenses.

Company are acting as if they are doing him a massive favour and as if it will be very fun. Around 20 of them are going (not his whole company, there’s thousands, and not from his team either as he’s never heard of these people) as it will be team bonding and they are talking about a fun night out although no talk of company paying for this.

Manager is now saying this could be every 3 months or so. I will need to take time off work to deal with childcare etc if he does. AIBU to think this is not the great deal and fun his manager seems to think it is? It’s not a free holiday and massively inconveniences us and DH is on barely more than minimum wage. I would expect trips away for someone on a much higher salary. It just seems a bit of a piss take.

DH can say no as it isn’t in his contract but I’m unsure if I’m being unreasonable here and I think he’s a bit worried about not seeming like a team player.

It’s a private company in a customer service call centre type role.

I’m not sure why he can’t drop DC as normal on the day he leaves to travel, and you collect like normal. Then can you speak to the nursery to ask about full days for the next 2? Ours were always flexible with requirements like this.

Full days aren’t an option for DD, she has suspected ASD and would not cope at all. This is why DH works the hours he does.

I also don’t collect her, I’d have to leave work early to make the pick up.

DH is talking to work now.

I don't have any direct experience of a call centre environment I'm sorry.

He could cite family reasons as someone suggested above but if it's going to be a regular occurrence I don't think he'll be able to escape it permanently.

I think he'll also need to check what the money expectations are eg expenses and if there's pay for being away for home over X no of hours.

Every 3 months isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things, however, being away for 4 days each time feels excessive. I’m fully remote too, and I do have to travel 3 times a year. But, I'm only away for a maximum of 2 days, so I do think 4 days is a bit much.

They’re being tight making him get 2 buses as well as 3 trains though! Yes, you chose to live in that area, but they shouldn’t have offered him a job if location was a problem. I hope you find a solution, but I understand why you’re annoyed.

Go to the first one and see what it's all about. After that if there's no clear advantage, no obvious route to promotion and no extra money, then he should politely decline apart from perhaps once a year. £26k is derisory these days

He spoke to his manager who confirmed he was fully remote so had no obligation to go if he didn’t want to. Although manager did frame it as if he put DH forward for it because he would have so much fun and he’s missing out on a lot of freebies if he doesn’t go. DH is very much an introvert so team building is his worst nightmare, even if he is getting a free meal out of it.

DH said it sounds great but he has childcare commitments. Manager is single and childfree so initially asked why his wife can’t do it. When DH said logistics and my job he said can I not take time off or can we not send DD to a grandparents house for 4 days! I will not be giving up my holiday days nor will I be stressing DD out for there to be no benefit to our family.

Manager has now put a message in their group chat asking if anyone fancies some nights in an a free hotel and some money to buy a Nando’s (they would give them £30 a day to feed themselves) so it seems he’s been tasked with asking one member of his team to go to a team building exercise. I doubt anyone will accept if I’m being honest so maybe the manager himself will have to go.

Even if we didn’t have childcare issues DH wouldn’t want to go, he took the job as fully remote because that’s what it was advertised as. If he wanted a job that required working away, he would have applied for one at a better salary than he’s on.

He did an odd weekend working away here and there pre DD in an entirely different line of work but it was expected, he enjoyed it and he was compensated well for it.

He also told DH that 20 people have been selected to take on “more responsibilities”. No additional pay will be offered. This would also mean DH meeting with the night team once a month.

The customer service is 24 hours at DH work. This means he would have to go on during the night teams shift and have a meeting with them. Their shifts are 11pm-6am.The meeting would be an hour long and he would be paid for an additional hours wage. No higher rate of pay even though it’s night time.

This was not explained to DH when he accepted more responsibility so he has kindly declined.

What does he want to do?

In his position I would discuss with the manager and explain the situation and ask if this will go against him. Maybe agree to go this time but state that he can’t commit to every three months at this time but that if circumstances were to change that he would attend.

26K is just about or around NMW right? I think it’s a big ask to expect him to be away and not pay any extra. You’re basically asking him to have 3 nights away from home unpaid. I think it’s a big ask.

Fed up of these companies taking the mick, does DH want to do it?

How nice of them to pile on extra responsibilities for zero extra pay

I’m glad he’s declined xx

Frankly you are being a bit wet. It’s 4 days every 3 months.

Me too! Yes it’s just above minimum wage. It’s the underhandedness of it all that’s annoyed me.

Framing as if they are treating him to free stuff and nice experiences, when they are just trying to get him to agree to do extra work and take on more responsibilities for no extra pay!

So his job is more important than mine? I must take 16 days holiday a year to facilitate this? Sorry, how is that a bit wet or does this just come with being a woman?

So that’s 12 nights a year that OP’s DH would be away for a year that he is NOT getting paid for.

I think you’d be “wet” to let yourself be taken for a fool like this but, fair enough

Frankly I’m struggling to see how you read the full thread and came to this conclusion.

Not only would he not be getting paid they would be at a massive disadvantage!

OP would be either taking unpaid time off or using half of her holiday days for this fuckery to take place. For 26k a year! That’s a pittance these days.

I’ve just made a post about the expectations put on me to answer messages and calls on my evening and non working days… for minimum wage. Then I came across your post! It makes me so mad what they expect.

I think perhaps there’s people out there who don’t have families or don’t mind doing these sort of things for minimum wage and may have no home life so think cool, 3 free hotel nights and some extra dinner.

I am glad DH has spoken up for himself and said no. And to also be asked to be team leader whilst there and take on extra responsibilities? Joke

I can’t think of a single job that’s ’unskilled’ - but a remote WFH job must involve some tech stuff - hasn’t it?

Unskilled labour is a real term that means the job requires no prior experience, specialised training, formal education and often means doing basic on the job training. These jobs quite often don’t have progress and are not career type jobs. Cleaners, warehouse workers, customer service etc fall under this title. Electricians, plumbers etc someone that has had to train specifically for that role would be a skilled worker. OP isn’t being rude, that’s what they’re called.

Presumably a call centre type role applies to this because they answer calls and then transfer them to the relevant department. It’s unskilled.

He can just say no that’s a shit salary for that level of commitment

I hope your DH is looking for a new job. The company and his manager sound awful.

This is pretty normal. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m an academic and work mostly remotely and we would certainly be expected to travel with no extra pay.

Except we wouldn’t even get expenses. 😂 I would have to pay for my own train travel and the university would not cover a hotel. I could do it at my own expense, but if we finished at, say, 5pm, I’d be expected to get the train home. As long as we’re able to get home by 11pm or whatever the last train would be if earlier, there would be no overnight stay funded. I would have to get the 6am train back the next morning.

At best, we might get sad catering sandwiches for lunch. Or in the case of the last few meetings, my line manager (who is vegan and eats like an anorexic rabbit) goes to Lidl and gets packet of salad leaves, 8 falafel, some wraps and some almonds. And we have to split that between the 4 of us for lunch. The other 2 are very food anxious and always on a diet and ‘no, no, I couldn’t possibly eat more than one falafel for lunch!’ Meanwhile, I am f**king starving all day.

Genuinely, the fact that you’ve said that this is normal and then wrote out that appalling post is the reason why employers get away with this behaviour.

Absolutely not normal IMO and I’ve never ever heard of anyone being treated as you describe. Unless there’s a massive drip feed in your post and your contract says you’re expected to travel and aren’t 100% remote.

It’s really sad people just accept this treatment instead of pushing back against it.