Aibu - manager is refusing working from home

[Iwant]

Saw the message from the PM last night, as I think we all did.

My husband works for a large company (A civil service department, so a government one!) but in a senior HR role, so he isn’t front line service iyswim. He has a laptop and works from home 1-2 days a week anyway.

Flurry of messages from his colleagues (geographically dispersed team) this morning to say one of them contacted their manager this morning, assuming they would all now be working from home following the PM’s directive that all who can, should. She said absolutely not and she expects everyone to be in their sites. No ifs, buts or maybes.

There is NO work my husband does that cannot be done via email or telephone. The ‘sites’ she is taking about have thousands of people in them that CANNOT wfh.

Half his colleagues are as worried as he is, half are not bothered in the slightest and think the whole thing’s a fuss over nothing.

I can’t believe the manager has said this. It seems completely unjustifiable and will endanger the vulnerable people in our care and families. Aibu?

Another group who don't care about the rest of us who might die!!

DH is a civil servant and they had an email from their director last night telling them to work from home.

Her response was that she has not been given any directive (!) and that therefore she expects people to continue visiting sites.

Sounds like a classic case of someone promoted beyond their abilities. She's a fucking senior HR manager - she should be involved in setting the fucking directive, not waiting for it. At the very list she should be able to make a pragmatic, common-sense decision.

(Yes, I know she might work in recruitment, or pay and reward, or many other functions of HR that won't be directly involved in making decisions about this, and I have no idea of the hierarchy of the department and just how senior she is, but I'm ignoring that for the purposes or writing a ranty post!)

OP is your husband or preferably any of the staff under him in a Union?

A few members need to make complains to the union so the union reps can escalate those complains and involve more senior reps if required.

Yeah he should go to the hr director level person assuming it's not her and ask for their guidance.

If it is her he should ask her what the strategy is given the announcement... so that he can do his job properly and provide guidance to the areas he supports.

@plombear absolutely ask. As you said earlier, whether there are an adequate amount of laptops with the correct systems on and whether they will cope with everyone working remotely is another matter entirely (there isn't and they won't). But please don't feel just because you are new that you are not in a position to ask.

My DH is also a civil servant, today is his day off but they still emailed to say "we assume you'll WFH, call today if you want to confirm, otherwise test the full tech capability tomorrow and let us know".

Given the nature of your DH’s job, I think he has a responsibility to make a stand with this.

Does he know any union staff he could tip off?

@PlomBear

I’ve only been in my civil service job a couple of weeks. I have asthma but I’m really not in a position to say I have to work from home am I? As I’m always reminded on MN, employers can dismiss you at any time within the first two years!

I'd suggest a discussion with your line manager about your health issues and in my experience they should offer a reasonable solution. Just dont tell them you spend your working day on MN!

My husband's work is the same. We're both asthmatic and I'm currently going though cancer treatment. His work can 100% be done from home.

I don’t spend all day on MN, honestly! 😂

Just feel vulnerable due to being so new. Not sure how I would WFH effectively as I don’t really know what I’m doing.

I’m really shocked by the lack of guidance in the civil service and military.

I suggest he builds his case same as he did to work from home before.

Approach the situation with reason and common sense which is difficult to argue with.

I'm CS and my teams are wfh with a small number asked to attend the office to maintain coordination.

The biggest issue in CS is because you've got everything from border force to job centres to call centres to office based policy advisers so advice doesn't fit all circumstances. And quite a few inept managers who need spoonfeeding and cant make their own decisions.

I’m really shocked by the lack of guidance in the civil service and military.

You'll get used to it!

Apart from the wider issue of how ludicrous this policy is, I think your DH needs to develop a cough and/or high temperature.

I agree with BonnesVacances - if you feel vulnerable and there are other vulnerable people in your family then your DH could show the greater common sense and enforce WFH by self isolating due to a sore throat / feeling under the weather etc. Seems crazy he'd need to go to these lengths but his boss sounds incompetent.

It’s not policy it’s “where possible” and it was made less than 24 hours ago. Businesses need time to put a plan in progress.

The advice from one large government department is for everyone to go in until Thursday, ensure all it is functional and put in place contact arrangement etc. Then everyone from Thursday.

This is from the highest level

It’s not policy it’s “where possible” and it was made less than 24 hours ago. Businesses need time to put a plan in progress.

And, as the OP describes it, it is very possible for her husband.

If someone works as a senior HR professional in the civil service and were surprised by yesterday's announcement, then I suggest that they are not competent to be in their role.

We have know about coronavirus for months, and seen the impact it has had in other countries. The civil service has been through business continuity planning cycles for many, many other situations. They shouldn't be waiting for prime ministerial press conferences before deciding how they're going to carry on running their departments.

It's crap, isn't it. My DSis has been instructed to go in despite the fact her job can be done fully WFH and she did a 'test day' wfh yesterday.

I had to tell DH to make a stand after they had a case in his office (zone 1 central London) and his boss was still insisting he go in. I'm 20 weeks pregnant and told him that I'd be moving out of our flat if he went in. Thankfully he made the point and his boss accepted it (she already knew about the pregnancy so wonder if she was just trying her luck) but he shouldn't have had to do that.

Also CS and expected into work although my team all have Surface Pros and can work at home. I happen to be at home today to prepare for an event and cannot access the VPN. I have other stuff I can work on but it’s clearly unsustainable.

Is she planning on going to each site to explain this in person or will she work from home? If she's staying home she hasn't a hope of pretending she thinks it's ok for anyone going on site.

I'm CS (in a Corporate role). The whole department has been told, as of today, to wfh until further notice, with the expectation that we will all be wfh for 12 weeks.

@ItsGoingTibiaK it takes more than a few months to ensure everyone can work from home, improving the IT infrastructure and availability of equipment doesn't happen overnight; and reasonably it's far too expensive to have the capability to the level needed now constantly, it's not needed or sustainable. If he is senior management to be honest I would expect him to wait for a directive which cascades to all staff. I would be pissed off if they were WFH before we had been supplied with the relevant equipment. I am sure by the end of the week things will change, including for less senior staff who are equally as important.

I’m CS. Got several emails yesterday saying wfh if you can.

Everyone has been super supportive and we were expecting this. Lots of people have been wfh over past week. Our dept has quadrupled its wfh capacity over the past week for this.