If you are an office home worker when do you think you’ll be back?

[Greyrosewall]

I’m currently home working but our team was the last to leave as they put us all in separate offices for the first week or two.

Our MD is now starting to make noises about people going back to the office so I’m wondering if they’ll get our team back and again spread us all out.

We’d still be using the kitchen, toilets etc so to me it would be difficult to completely socially distance.

Interested to see if anyone else is starting to move back to the office?

DH reckons they'll never go back to all being in the office, every day, simply because they have everything in place, now, and productivity is mostly at least as good, though there are certain things that need to be more hands on. People have been popping into the office on an as needed basis.

No word on when I'll be going back, but frankly I can't wait. I really miss my colleagues and the general atmosphere.

My employer is planning on opening the offices for critical workers at the end of May. However, there's an acknowledgement that commuting and childcare issues will keep people working from home for the foreseeable.q

I think we'll be back part time, rota basis as soon as government eases restrictions, and we'll be trying to continue some form of social distancing. Full time and full team though? Probably September/October onwards? December?

All of our desks are well over 2 metres apart anyway but it’s touching all the communal areas/stuff I’d be concerned about.

We were one week on one off when lockdown happened so they might go back to that

1st July at earliest. I can't see the government endorsing it until the end of the furlough scheme, which is end June.

I'd rather wait a few more weeks- late June/early July as I have an 'underlying health condition'.

A lot will depend, for us anyway, on schools going back, or childcare provision reopening, as I can't see how senior managers with children at home will go back to the office.

Younger colleagues are already asking, like I have some magical foresight.

I'm working on the assumption of September. In 2021.

I can't see how they will get us safely onto overcrowded public transport, into lifts that usually take up to 16 people, working open plan etc. before that.

I also can't see how I will stay sane at home for much longer...

September at the earliest. However, management have realised most people can work from home and I don’t think they’ll continue paying expensive office rents for much longer.

We've been told likely not this year. There are people who need to go into the office so those who can work from home have to do so to ensure adequate social distancing is in place.

I think 2022 in all honesty unless they get lucky and have a vaccine ready and rolled out quickly.

I'm lucky in that I can do my work very easily from home.

Really not sure, but probably not for a while. For me the main concern is getting to work and back. I am in London and public transport is really packed - it’s like being in a sardine tin and you have people breathing and coughing etc into your face.

I don't think we're going back... We're a small company with lots of home working anyway but we've realised that we really don't need the office.

I think for us being office based will be a thing of the past. We may go in as and when we need to do something face to face but generally this had shown there's absolutely no reason to travel.

I'm vulnerable so began working from home about a week before my colleagues. I'm fully accepting I presumably won't be in the office for the rest of the year at least. I'll be sad to miss the Xmas night out!

I worry about this for DP. He works in a tiny crowded office, no opportunity to socially distance. But as soon as you no longer have to work from home he will be expected to go back.

I'm at a redbrick University in student administration, and where as before I was seeing students at a helpdesk speaking to them on the phone and replying to emails, for the last month I have been WFH just replying to emails.

Thinking about it, phones could be sorted so they could be answered at home, and face to face stuff technically doesn't need to happen.

It's just the way Customer Service has always been done, but I think it's time for a major rethink, and the first thing to go will be phone lines..to be replaced by online chat . That will mean I could WFH easily for a couple of days per week.

But yes anyway, Uni bosses getting very twitchy now about the prospect of not being open for business for the September intake. Quite frankly, universties in this country will be fucked if all we can continue to offer is online/remote learning. International students, who keep uni's in business, will just go to another country.

Why does answering the phone require you to be in the office? I've been taking to professional clients on the phone 5 days/week at home. They can ring in the same number as if I was sat at my desk, computer magic means that my laptop Skype account rings.

The contrast between this thread and the numerous "when will schools go back" threads is stark. People seem desperate to get the kids and teachers back ASAP whilst accepting that their own workplaces are closed for several more months in the interest of their health.

I don't know really, 10 of us in the office and 5 working from home so the other 5 can space out. Im WFH. Theres another 60 odd working in the stores/factory so all sharing facilities.

I'd like to WFH until the schools go back. Youngest is 12 and i like being there to make sure shes doing some school work and basically has a bit of company. Shes really struggling with no school and missing her friends.

2 oldest are both furloughed and doing nightshift now on the xbox.

DH's company have told him, his company will go back AFTER everyone else has returned to work and whether lockdown has been successful. They are taking the 'everyone else can be guinea pigs' approach.

So he's stuck at home for the foreseeable and beyond.

(The company did not permit homeworking before the crisis).

@redtoothbrush That sounds incredibly sensible. I saw a poster saying she will come out of her own imposed lock down 3 weeks after everyone else, as by that time it will be clear if deaths are rising or it is safe.

I work in a tower block with old lifts and a narrow staircase. We have c 500 people squeezed onto our floor. We hotdesk and often there are not enough desks so people work on communal tables. We have 2 small kitchens.
It would be extremely challenging to socially distance.

Yes I know lots of people that hot desk. TBH I am amazed at all these people who work in such large offices that they can spread people out so much. I am unconvinced that is a common situation.

We were told return to “normal” won’t be before January. Not much more than that- I guess everyone is waiting to see what happens