To be so glad WFH became a thing (and to absolutely hate anyone who tries to curtail its availability)

[Designless]

It's just life changingly good

Absolutely.

I've had staff recalled to the office before because they don't have a suitable WFH set up - it's all set out in their contract. You can't effectively WFH from your only reception room when your kids are at home, regardless of whether another adult is providing the care of the children.

I genuinely had one colleague who was set up on the dining table which was in the open plan lounge/kitchen/diner. His wife was on mat leave and all 3 of their preschool age kids were at home all day. It was untenable. We weren't doing any work of a sensitive nature (nothing GDPR cared about etc) but he just couldn't properly do his job with Bluey on in the back ground and a toddler running around.

If someone WFH is discussing confidential information verbally WFH within earshot then that could be a breach, as would working on a laptop on a train for lengthy time could result in a breach.

But someone popping in to say bye WFH being a potential GDPR breach because they might catch a glimpse of a screen would be the same as anyone working for the same organisation in the office catching a glimpse of a screen when they approach the worker for any reason but shouldn't be privy to that information.

So..not really a problem.

So the choice is visiting my doctor at home with her spouse and a child in the house, or in the average open plan office with 50+ people from multiple different departments all sitting in the room? I pick the first option.

We have office cleaners who come in and wipe the desks/dust during working hours. We’ve also currently got workmen in fixing the overheard lights. People are asked to sit and wait in the corner of our office whilst waiting to be called in for a job interviews. Also, when you call a call centre and get the “Your call is monitored for training purposes” - this isn’t just the company arse-covering. There is a very real chance that there is a training group of 40 people who could be live-listening to their peer dealing with your call and taking reflection notes.

They can all easily see/hear client information.

I get that people are concerned that those WFH could be up to anything - but I’ve never heard of anyone WFH being involved in this sort of incident. We did have a girl get sacked because she was caught taking down a customer’s credit card number on her Apple Watch - this happened in the office during her training.

I worked in a call centre many years ago before WFH happened, the amount of calls that were answered were monitored and people rewarded each month based on the amount they answered. It was quiet common to " accidently" loose connection then, would also be done when it was break time or close to going home ect.

That was exactly my point.

Thank you for supporting.

This has inspired me to also confess.

I have never admitted this on MN before, but I used to be a fucker for this when I worked in a call centre for a few months in the 00s. When I knew I was leaving, in my final month I stopped even pretending. Any time a phone conversation got complicated I would 'accidentally' lose connection.

So if any of you asked a difficult question on the phone to a certain broadband provider and have suspicions you got hung up on deliberately in summer 2004, that may have been me and I'm very sorry indeed!

you weren't the only one- everyone had their tricks, once you did the bare minimume and stats were met you were fine.

This is true.

You're missing the point. to (try and) prove a very, very weak argument. Ted, who sits next to me, is part of my business and is covered by my company's policies; they adhere to our company NDA's, ICO, GDPR, etc policies/guidlines. My insurance covers me if Ted goes on a bender. Much like a junior Dr would be in a hospital performing his/her job for that business, they have privileges, need to know information. Your partner does not.

As for cleaners, ours come in every day. She asks if I need my work area cleaned. We have a policy on which information is left out 'in view' in our office and which is locked away, whether paper or laptops. She works for us, so she has a legitimate reason to be in our office. She is bound by our company procedure.

The exact same if we have to use an outside contractor.

I worked in a call centre in 1996 and also cut off calls a lot.

Because it was generally people being confused by the system, complete assholes or thick as pigshit.

I was working for 'talking pages' which was supposedly a call centre version of the yellow pages except companies paid for the advertisement on the 'phone.

So if you called wanting the phone 'number of the builder you knew worked down the road. I couldn't give it to you even if you asked for it by name because they hadn't paid to advertise.

So i'd have to give you the numbers of the builders in your area that were paying to advertise. Which could be miles and miles away. And I had to give 2 of those shit options before looking on the non-paid for list. And most of the time, people were being complete abusive twats before that because they thought I was a liar not telling them the number of local John in the first place when I clearly had it.

And I get how frustrating and gas-lighting that was for callers but a lot of people were such nasty, abusive assholes i'd just cut them off because it was so horrible to be a victim of the abuse.

And some people were thick as shit. I remember someone calling and saying he knew the company could be contacted by email so he wanted me to do that for him and when I said you needed a computer to make an email address (late 90s) he called me a thick liar and made various abusive assumptions about me.

I have WFH 100% since 2017. Moved to a new job in 2023 also 100% WFH. Until recently I would’ve have 100% supported it….
then I had something happen which got out of control. You could argue company culture is the reason why it couldn’t be tackled.

i managed a team of 9 in a busy department. Most of my team were fantastic.

i had one guy who was never really comfortable being managed by a woman. But we got by. He had an old-fashioned attitude to his job (eg didn't trust excel formulas, he would still add up a row of numbers “just to check”). Getting him to embrace automated tasks was difficult, even when I told him it was to allow him more time to branch out more (which it did - our company was growing massively and he wanted to be part of that growth). I couldn’t keep track of how slow he was being as I couldn’t see him not trusting agreed process. He was lying about how long things were taking and overriding automation. He took on new work and became stressed because he couldn’t manage his time. He wouldn’t let go of the old ways, nor would he let go of the new responsibilities. He was overworked through his own stubbornness and mistrust of excel formulas!!

then things got really nasty. When he was angry he would call women in my team and scream and shout at them. Every time I pulled him up on it he denied it. My word against theirs. HR were useless. My boss was useless. He then claimed all the women collaborated to make up lies about him. I was furious. Still no support from HR. They said it could go either way…, he is relying on the ability to deny it every time and the women are all being shouted at, or the women are all lying in collaboration. HR said there was nothing they could do.

I was sure had we all sat in an office it would be completely impossible for him to continue this behaviour. He definitely had a problem with anger towards women. 121 teams calls were an easy way to continue to shout at women until they cried. I was trying to protect my team with no support from my boss or HR. It was a stressful time. i hated the fact we all WFH as he could bypass all behavioural norms. I was really stuck and I couldn’t believe he was getting away with it.
I mentioned it to a friend who said, next time he does it tell them to record it.

when he finally did it to me, my friends words popped into my head: I recorded him on my iPhone. His language was disgraceful. Swearing, sexiest slurs etc, Massive massive error. Without looking into the implications I reported it to HR thinking I had the key to solving this with the recording. I ended up sacked for recording someone without their consent.

I know someone who works full time and wfh during half term week whilst caring for her 2 young children, one of whom is a baby.

I spent a couple of days with my young niece and nephew and didn't manage to finish a full cup of tea.

What would your choice be between a one-to-one with a Dr or a DR and her partner?

Come on now, be honest. If it's not the first, I'm sure you'd be happy to screenshot your medical records and post them here, since it's not an issue, or just share a few work-related emails involving another person? My guess is that you'd not be happy to do that, and I'd not either. It'd probably lead to you getting the sack, depending on your job.

Mishandling sensitive, confidential information has sent people to their graves, but it's okay; my complaint was resolved.

It's the same argument over and over again: you can't pick and choose which parts of a policy we want to uphold.

I know this is a far cry from the initial question about WFH, but it shows that many people just aren't suited to it and are willing to die on the hill to prove a point.

And this is from someone who works from home, hotel rooms, coffee shops across the UK, would I ever conduct a work call in a coffee shop- not a cat in hell's chance - would I do while driving down the motorway on my own?- yep.

Exactly.

So the cleaner and the outside contractor have the same glimpse of a screen that a partner may have of a WFH individual.

So not much.

And okay, they wouldn't be bound to the same policies as a low paid employee or contractor.

But the low-paid employee or contractor would be much more likely to pass on information they glimpsed on a laptop if it was beneficial to do so because their job wasn't all that great and not invested in wanting to keep it, than a partner of an employee privy to confidential information who would be potentially risking their loved ones employment.

And that would only be if the sharing of the information was beneficial in some way to the person sharing it so they were actively looking for it/passing it on.

I will never take a job that requires me to be in the office for 5 days a week unless it pays significantly above market.

People who get bitter about others who are able to wfh are really pathetic.

Exactly and there are many others doing similar. I have a friend who openly admits to moving the mouse.
I have many more examples

…

Really? Immediate dismissal no warning? And what happened to him?

I think some thst moan are fed up with trying to get through to organisations/government depts that rarely answer their phones, and when they do, tell us thst they haven’t got full access to files until they contact their office.🤷‍♀️

I wouldn't consider myself to be bitter or pathetic. I am in tune with the number of people I know who are 'WFH' and abusing their position

Before WFH did you attend the customer service surgery and wait your turn for your confidential 10 minute 1-2-1 appointment? Because if you didn't, you have no basis whatsoever to likening a customer service agent working from home instead of in a large open-plan office to a GP.

Exactly what exactly? I'm not sure this is the 'Gotcha' you think it is.

Anyone who is not invested in a job or doesn't care can share details. No NDA, etc., will stop that, but I'd say Ted is less likely to share work details than someone who overheard or saw they shouldn't have seen, down the pub or in their own social circle. Six degrees of separation becomes a real thing when it's data that shouldn't have been shared.

I am not talking about people who are rightfully annoyed at colleagues who are terrible workers.

I am talking about those I specifically mentioned.

That's terrible management by your company.

In the same circumstances, I think we would have been advised not to answer unexpected teams calls and to ask him to book in a meeting, with a witness, and advise him in advance that the meeting would be recorded. I've been told to do that in the past with certain people who are known to be difficult, but they rarely last long.

Several years ago there was an issue with bullying and all non-management staff were told that they must attend an in person meeting which was quite rare at that point in time. Someone from an external department came in, asked us all a lot of questions and we never saw the bully again, idk what happened to her.

That kind of behaviour isn't tolerated here.

I have a chronic health condition, WFH 4 days a week and 1 day in the office. It’s an easy (for London) commute of 40 mins each way door to door, but that 1 days absolutely wipes me out.

Without WFH I would definitely not be able to work as much as I do and have no idea how I would support my kids. I am also more productive at home - no distractions!