Anyone else being told they cant WFH?

[Hmmmmminteresting]

My job is non essential, but for a company who WILL remain open during a lock down. But my job is not essential to what the company would provide during this period. They have provided WFH methods for a select few and then run out for the rest of us less important ones, but we have been told that because we are working for a company that will remain open even in the event of a total lock down, we basically need to just accept what we are being told. This is a shitty thing to do isn't it

I work for a small IT company and the boss hates people working from home. He likes to see where they are. Before Coronavirus he grudgingly let people work from home one day a week, and didn't budge from this until Monday. My job can be done totally from home. I've been told I can work from home all this week and they'll let me know about next week. I'm really anxious now. I was sure once the Govt mandated that everyone who can work from home should, they would tell me I could work from home until the guidance changed. Nope.

I think because it's just guidance at the moment lots of employers aren't sure what to do.
We were told yesterday that the office is open but work from home where possible. There will be a rotating skeleton staff

I have been WFH for a while with an office base that I used at most a couple of times a week.

The company I work for are really good and have been very supportive but they are seriously struggling to get laptops. We have tried dozens of suppliers who can't get anything to us till end of April and the. They need to be built and configured to allow access to company infrastructure securely.

We've dug out every old, needs to be refurbished machine we can, bought dribs and drabs from every supplier we can but there is still a gap of hundreds of people globally who we can't get laptops for.

We also have call centre staff across several sites globally who need phones and the company who do our phone support are massively busy sorting out every other clients business continuity plans so can't do the configuration work to make the phones function over a VPN until Friday this week. Allowing for some bugs and issues with that config means middle of next week would be the earliest they could WFH and that would mean taking their desktop/monitor/keyboard.... home as we don't have laptops. We had BC plans like diverting calls to other call centres, not for a global pandemic that takes out every site worldwide at the same time.

Getting kit and infrastructure support right now is like trying to buy loo roll or UHT milk.

It’s guidance not law. Employers therefore are protecting the bottom line. What size company fo you work for? Is it private sector?

If they don't have the facilities for you to WFH what do you expect them to do? Can you use your own laptop?

Everyone could WFH at my company easily but they aren't allowing it because they don't want to. I had an almighty tantrum yesterday because my child is vulnerable and has a heart condition and I am now WFH. Most of my colleagues aren't.

Yep. I’m in the public sector, my office is open to the public and I’m in a customer facing role. My work could at least be done by telephone quite easily even if it’s still in the office. But no, we are still open. And just giving customers the option to not come in if they don’t want to and for some reason they DO want to So today is business as usual for me - I’ll be seeing about 10 members of the public at my desk sitting less than a metre away for about 30-60 minutes each. All of my colleagues will be doing the same. I’m also using public transport to get to/from work.
Then Boris says to not get a haircut or go to the gym

Me. Losing sleep over this and a couple of other things.

I feel forced to come in even though most of us can wfh. We're forced to come in because otherwise support staff would sit at home and not work. However, we are the ones making the money for the business.

They're making us put others at higher risj, and also ourselves, by unnecessary exposure.

I pray the PM comes out and says shut offices, tbh, otherwise they'll keep going like this forever. Disgraceful.

Yep! Even though I have the capability to WFH and my job can be done from home it’s been decreed ‘business as usual’ so still have to attend. Ridiculous!

I am self employed, my work is face to face. I am working...

Perfidious Mine is private sector, c20 employees. A couple of admin staff can't work from home so will be there - maybe the boss is thinking that if the admin staff can't go in, they'd ask us who can work from home to go in to open up, be there for deliveries, etc.

The problem with ‘non essential’ is what it means.

On the face of it, you could argue that anything that isn’t health/nhs or food related isn’t essential and then ask everyone else to shut down.
In reality, doing that means thousands of people loosing their jobs and the hardship of the (economic) recovery afterwards.

And if you can argue that your role is ‘non essential’ to the working if the company, then you have to ask yourself why the company is employing you.

I do think that if you can WFH, then that’s what should happen as much as possible though.

My DP is on the same position. He manages a retail store, people need these shops to stay open, impossible for him to work at home or have his hours reduced. He spends the majority of his shift handling money and have customers stand inches from his face asking where this, that and the other is kept. He then returns home to me and my 2 DC (9&7). Really concerning.

You’ve already confirmed why, they don’t have enough laptops
Other posters have confirmed it’s difficult to get extras right now plus they have to be configured etc, smaller businesses probably can’t afford to buy more IT equipment
It sucks but the government has said wfh where possible, unfortunately for you it’s not possible due to supply needs

Well, I've been told that I'll be going into work 1 or 2 days a week from now on to do the same work that I'll be doing from home the rest of the time. The boss wants some 'office presence', so there will be 4-5 people in at a time, a couple of admin people and the rest of us part-time-in's. I guess I might be asked to hit the power button on someone's computer at some point, but the admin staff could just as easily do that. It seems so pointless. Also, if I was one of the Admins I'd want as few other people coming in as possible.

I won’t be working from home but I’m not public facing and to be honest I’m just bloody glad to have a job right now unlike some.