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?

My boss thought we would all be back in May, the senior boss told her that was very unlikely and it would be much longer. We closed before lock down to protect staff.

My team in a small office have been told January. We might not even have an office by then as other essential colleagues have taken over our office and might not leave. Would be happy to WFH full time as it would solve my long standing school run issue.

I work in a university so god knows. I don't know if we'll be able to have any students on campus even by September.

I work in a University, due back from mat leave 1 Sept. if nurseries aren’t open though I can’t WFH with a 1 year old and I’m the main earner so can’t take any more unpaid.

DH is WFH permanently but how we’d look after the baby and work our office hours I’ve no idea (I know people are working early and late but my job is lots and lots of meetings so not something I can do at 5am on Sundays). It’s a worry!

With childcare I could WFH 90% of the time though easily (although I’d hate it).

Myself and my colleagues are all happy to go back the moment it is allowed. Everyone will go back, most taking public transport, as soon as we can.

I think we will soon, there are parts of the job that literally cannot be done at home, and the backlog is already quite sizable. I don't imagine we will all be in though at the same time, a one week in and then wfh whilst others go in is likely (as it lives on paper etc for a few days apparently, would make sense for the same people to be in, leaving the weekend for it to be deep cleaned and die on surfaces in my none scientific mind), or a few days a week and swap. I imagine it will be a longggg time before everyone is in the office together as usual. A lot of admin staff will probably stay WFH unless they want to go in as the full job can safely be done from home.

The sooner the better. I'm rubbish working from home and it's so boring. I usually cycle to work so I miss that as well.

DH’s office is still running. They furloughed a few and are sitting spread out. Alcohol hand gel on every desk, can only touch your own keyboard and phone. All doors propped open to avoid hands. They even have a kettle policy where they have to wash hands before and after using and only make own drinks or bring flask in. It’s working well.

A friend works in a very large bank administration centre and the whole staff work but on alternate days.

My office is making noises about WFH till the end of the year. We actually have a decent amount of space, lots of individual offices, and big lifts so I'd be perfectly happy to go back a couple of days a week, at least, as soon as lock down measures are eased (I'm not in the UK).

While I like some aspects of WFH I find some of it quite awful.( I'm aware that I'm very lucky to have a job that can be done from home, and my salary will still be paid each month. So please take this as a first world rant!)

I'm exhausted, feel tied to my screen in a way I've never felt before. I miss my colleagues, and I miss being able to sort out small issues quickly face to face. Now it's painstaking email interactions or booking time slots for online meetings.

I also miss having lunch with colleagues, networking, walking/biking to and from work...

I also believe that the productive ones in my workplace are suffering as we compensate for the less productive ones. It was obvious in the office when I was overworked and my line management tended to notice that and react. (Telling them I'm overworked has never made a difference - they have to witness it). It was very obvious when I was in 6 or 7 meetings a day, plus reporting, commnicating, managing my team and producing results.

Now, I'm online for 12 hours a day, working weekends, etc. It's completely invisible. And I feel completely invisible. So I cannot wait for this to be over!

@BirdieDance I don't think schools should go back soon either. Some social mixing soonish is pretty essential, but big offices, universities and schools will probably be closed for months...

This will permenantly change the way we work. It has proved that our technology can handle it. I think our office capacity will reduce hugely and there will be much more wfh.

As for when our offices will actually reopen... I can't see it happening before September, even if the schools are back before that. We are in a big open plan office on the 9th floor with 200 people hotdesking, sharing the kitchen area, meeting rooms, toilets, lifts....

Why does answering the phone require you to be in the office?

I was wondering that too. I’ve they don’t have Skype etc. In my sister’s office many still have old-style desktops so have had to go in. WFH only works if you don’t have old tech.

I'm exhausted, feel tied to my screen in a way I've never felt before.

Yes, there seems fewer reasonable excuses for why you need to be doing something else, especially if you don’t have kids, so some people are always “online”‘putting pressure on everyone else.

Months probably. They are planning return to work now in waves of who can/can't work from home and who is shielding etc.

I will be last as I can do all my work remotely and they want to keep social distancing, which is fine by me.

The variable for most people though is what you do about schools. If what's now considered non-essential workers have to go back, means schools will have to re-open of a fashion.

I worked from home some days before the lockdown, so for me it was a relatively easy switch to being at home full time. There are others who can't work from home who've been unable to work at all because social distancing limits the number who can be in the office. I don't think my team will be back until social distancing is no longer required simply because we'd take up unneeded space.

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.

There is the matter of children’s education to take into account. It isn’t all about fobbing the kids off on someone else.

I work for a small charity with only 9 employees but our office is a room in a shared building and is really long and narrow. There's no way we could be 2m apart. One person at each end maybe but the person at the door end would need to get up and leave the room to give the person at the other end 2m space to get out. I hate wfh, I get so easily distracted. But I see it being the way we work for a long time to come unfortunately.

"computer magic means that my laptop Skype account rings."

what is that system? I have no idea how to do that. Turn a landline into a skype line.
I actually have skype working today, which is nice.

I don't think my office will be back to 'normal' this year, however we have already partially opened the office.

I suspect there will be less homeworking come June, as not everything can be done from home long term, but I think homeworking will be much more of a feature for a long time.

It hasn't even been mentioned at my work.

I'm vaguely expecting to have the odd meeting once lockdown ends but to remain mostly homeworking for 9 - 12 months, possibly permanently.

I'm 4 days a week - I don't think I could bear it if it was full time.

I think our company might allow very key people (finance, some customer service, IT) back in in very small numbers in the summer if the government allow, but getting everyone back in i don't think will happen until winter, maybe Oct/Nov :-( i actually miss being in the office

I hope so @MinesAPintOfTea I really do. Despite the desperation of some to get back to normal, the prospect is very scary.

I don't miss being in the office at all! I really like (most of) my colleagues but I don't feel the need to see them in the flesh, so to speak. I love not having to commute into London and will feel this love even more strongly come the colder, darker months.

90% of my work can be done from home so I'll happily come in for the 10% that can't, but god forbid they start expecting me to schlep in on a bus, a train and a tube for meetings that we've run perfectly well online for the past 6 weeks.

I find online meetings unsatisfactory. There is a skill in chairing a discussion so that everyone gets a genuine say and is heard.