AIBU to be annoyed at changing office days after booking travel?

[Carlie97]

I schedule my wfh days carefully and conscientiously depending on what's going on in the office, when numbers of staff are down because of leave or toil or others out at meetings and then I plan the fifteen days a month I have to be in the office. It was formally agreed I could wfh for a set amount of days a month.

I then book my travel tickets (expensive) around this and it fits into my very tight monthly budgeting. I don't have much left over for luxuries really apart from the odd takeaway maybe.

It usually works out OK, but colleagues aren't as considerate as I am and will just book leave or wfh without checking other's calendars. There's got to be a number of trained staff in the office per day.

Anyway, since I arranged my wfh days for the next month and booked my travel tickets, I've been asked to go in to the office for a meeting on a day I was supposed to be wfh. This is going to cost me lots more in travel and time and it's likely to be a meeting I could have just logged on to remotely really. I'm pissed off. Aibu?

I don't think you can expect your colleagues to be more considerate other than the office being covered. Can you block out your calendar as at home days, no in person meetings?

Can’t you push back the timing or ask to join remotely?

You don’t have to roll over and die …

I think it's unusual among hybrid workers to have complete control over when they wfh (unless they have a contract that actually specifies, for example, that they work from home on Mondays and Tuesdays). The normal expectation would be that you come in on days when there are team meetings or big company events. You could request that you get advance notice (say of a week) of days when you are expected in the office, as it's pretty poor management to schedule these as last minute unless urgent.

I'd suggest you only book, maybe 13 of your days in advance, and leave the others to more last minute?

You’re not, no, but have you explained this to them? Is there an option where they let you expense the travel to compensate for the inconvenience and extra cost?

Obviously I don’t know how long you’ve worked there or how long it’s been since your last pay rise, but if finances are that tight and they’ve not been giving you pay rises adequate to cover the increased COL, it doesn’t feel unreasonable to talk to the boss and get this resolved so that you won’t be out of pocket.

And at the same time, this might make them take action to make others be considerate of staffing levels and to look before booking their wfh. Sounds like a shared calendar could solve this fairly quickly so that this doesn’t happen again.

Yabu, working from home is usually agreed only if you’re not needed in person. Management would usually Saw you should factor in the cost of a railcard as you might be needed in person at any day and working at home is a privilege not a right. I would be sympathetic if my employee told me this but it’s not my job to organise the business needs around when they can get cheap travel when they should theoretically be available every day if working full time. I’d be annoyed if someone raised this with me.

I think the reply to your manager is “I try to book my wfh considerately, based on office staffing, but last minute travel tickets are exorbitantly expensive so I do like to stick to the days I’ve chosen. I firmed my calendar and booked my travel but now i need to be in the office. It’s a meeting I could attend remotely but I’m required to attend in person for reasons that aren’t clear to me. Can I claim travel costs for the additional day in the office because my ordinary place of work that day should have been my Home? the extra travel from my own pocket, is not really affordable on my salary. Can we have a quick chat to figure out the best way forwards? This doesn’t come up very often but with CoL increasing i can’t afford to lose money on travel plans changing last minute.”

I can't imagine working somewhere where unforseen stuff doesn't happen last-minute. Booking such rigid travel doesn't sound workable.

@Unexpectedlysinglemum you can’t assume that “working at home is a privilege not a right”

It may be a contractual agreement; some peoples ordinary place of work is Home

Or it may be written in a formal flexible working agreement which has been agreed by management in which case that can only be revisited once annually by either party; it can’t be suspended at a whim.

A well written agreement will spell out who is responsible for what, and when office attendance is mandatory and with what frequency etc.

Can't you get a refund on one of the dates tickets?

@Ablondiebutagoody but she is there in the office half the time; she offered to attend remotely too.

My dh employer had this problem too and they solved it by saying EVERYONE is expected to work in the office every single day. It is only enforced for all-team meetings to stop people saying “but it’s my wfh day.”

The manager in question won't care. He puts in 'in person's meetings regardless.

They don't check what the levels of staffing in the office are though before booking leave or wfh. I'm the only one who does.

Unfortunately not. They're advanced rail tickets which mean no refund at all or exchange of dates without a fee.

Are your travel tickets actually cheaper if you book a month in advance . Our train tickets would be the same price, so although we budget for the amount of days going into the office , never actually buy them until the night before . Days are frequently changed around and having bought travel tickets in advance wouldn’t be a good enough reason for us not to accommodate updated plans .

Why are you booking the train tickets so far in advance if your office days are subject to change?

How much is the fare and what's the refund fee?

Edit: exchange fee, not refund fee.

What would happen if you just said no, sorry, cant do that day, how about the day after?

Don't explain. It's not your manager by the sounds of it and its fair to offer an alternative.

Is that something they should be doing though?
as in, policy is that annual leave should only be booked if no more than 2 people are already off (so 3 can be off at once) and you have agreed with a colleague(s) that they’ll cover the office that day.

if not and people are allowed to book days off as they choose and the policy or unwritten expectation is that management make sure office is covered / demand bums on seats then they’re not doing anything wrong.

you could try saying colleague hadn’t asked me to cover that for them and I’ve already made my travel arrangements for the month.
but ultimately it doesn’t sound like your boss will care.

Yes much cheaper. I was paying around £250 for a season ticket beforehand. Now it's more manageable.

I book my travel in advance and if I want to change the dates I can do so with a £5 admin fee (plus the difference in the cost of the ticket). It seems to be the case whichever carrier I am using (I book using LNER). I always thought that it was quite a good deal tbh.

He won't care at all.

My fare is usually £20 per day and exchange fee is £10. £10 I don't have really. Last month I was already scraping what I could from the cupboards to eat for a few weeks before pay day.

Wow, that's a lot for a low fare!!

They don't usually change though. I'm considerate in making sure there is cover in the office before I schedule my wfh days and im usually very flexible in other ways such as scheduling my wfh days around when im needed in the office and I work really hard but it's all very 'meh' from management. They couldn't care less.