Employers who won’t let people work from home even though it’s entirely possible

[doomedbar]

Watching Boris’s speech I really thought that DH and I would be working from home by the end of the week. We both have professional, non public facing roles with completely different employers. Which can one hundred percent be done from home. We both do a lot of work from home around our 37 present hours in the office too.

Both of us are still commuting and sat in stuffy multi-stories. For no good reason. It isn’t even financial as there is no benefit to us being in the office at all.

We are not alone and we have many friends in the same boat.

Does it come down to trust? Fear of the unknown? Managerial laziness? I understand that many many people don’t have that choice and are having to go to work regardless. But I thought the number one way of slowing the spread was social distancing? We could be socially distant but we’re not allowed to be. DH sits within touching distance of 2 colleagues yet they are having a one in one out policy in the tea room!

DH works under a UK management team and they are very blinkered on this. The Irish team are mostly WFH (they have the ability to and are all productive). But UK teams are under pressure to use public transport (despite a company-wide edict to avoid!) and go back into the office .... DH is sooooo angry with senior management about the whole thing (he is involved in discussions as reasonably senior).