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?

Wfh has also saved me about £150 a month in petrol and parking fees. Has saved OH over £400 a month in train fare

I was working at home but have chosen to go back into office where some other people are still working. I couldn't work effectively or comfortably at home. We all work spread out, only one person in kitchen at a time. Hasn't been an issue in the loos.

Our work phones are set up for Skype. But even before that, my work landline could be redirected to any UK number (it would ring once in the office then switch to my mobile)

I've put a note in my calendar for 15th June. I can't wait!

I have a five minute commute and genuinely like my colleagues. Although I'm working from the spare room in my office chair, it's still playing havoc with my back. Our office is also plenty big enough for us to maintain a 2m distance, with two staircases (one for up and one for down) so I'm hoping it will be soon!

I think we're working on the assumption that we'll be WFH for much of 2020. Our buildings are currently locked down.

One of our subsidiaries is still having to work from the office because what they do can't be done from home, although they're going in on a team rota basis.

I think anyone expecting things to go back to ‘normal’ is pretty naive.

If your employer can’t show that they can implement social distancing then they may be a real risk of a law suit. So ‘lunch with colleagues’ is not going to be much of a thing, nor in person meetings etc, til this is over. Over as in vaccine.

@Personal I agree - even if we went back the 2m rule for meetings etc would feel very strange.

I'm hoping not for a while and that DH work will let him WFH more in the future now we know it's possible.

A lot of it is traveling to London and while it's easier to talk in person, this has proven conference calls work.

From a selfish perspective we are looking at buying our first house. He walks to work so we live near his office in a city (can drive, but don't want to for work). Hopefully if he can WFH more we could get a bigger house further away. But who knows ....

DH works on a large military base. Essential staff are still going in, everyone else is working from home. But two other bases in our area are working as normal, running training courses etc.

DH’s work is talking about getting everyone back in during May.

The people waiting for a vaccine - it could be years until we are all vaccinated. I don’t think life will still be like this in 5 years!

Ah military bases, where those who go home for weekenders travel back to all parts of the country and then come back on a Sunday to the cramped barracks (and the cycle repeats so they're probably taking it back to their households elsewhere); and those who risk taking it home every evening to their families as said conditions make it more likely that people are spreading it. I'm sure they have testing in place though for those with symptoms? Oh wait, no. It's obvious why they are still operating, because they have to, but

I have no idea what my employer will do (and nor, I strongly suspect, do they). They have kept recruiting to the point where we have exhausted our space and can't expand anywhere else in the building, and we already work shifts which overlap, meaning that everyone is in the office between 12-5 daily, within later shifts running on beyond 5pm. The only solution is likely to be a lot more homeworking. I intend to resign if they won't let me WFH permanently: we're already doing it and I am pretty sure I am recovering from Covid at present - it's been nasty and I'm not going back to commuting on public transport for the foreseeable as we just don't know enough about immunity etc.

I think our workplace are planning for working from home for a number of months yet. I worked from home a couple of days a week anyway, so can’t say I am enjoying it but I have adjusted. My DH’s company is probably going to go back sooner given the profile of their business, they require more people in the office (they are in engineering).

Dh has already been told his offices will be closed until September. I would imagine similar for me. I normally work 2 days at home anyway so don't really mind. It's having the others at home that occasionally drives me mad.

Mine never left the office. We got told a week into lockdown that they think we actually fit the key worker criteria so to carry on. We spread out in the office and work from home on certain days if we do not have much to do.

I used to work for a large FTSE company for years that led the way with home working.

I left last year but there are some issues with wfh. We went through a assessment before we were allowed to do so. We had to confirm that we had childcare in place. So many people tried to do it and assumed that they could work when the toddlers/babies were asleep. This meant that they were often no where to be seen during the working day and when you eventually got hold of them there were children crying and shouting in the background. Very very unprofessional.

I think it takes a certain type of person and seniority to make home working work properly.

Of course this situation is completely different but I am not sure of the productivity now that most of the work force if they can work at home. Some people just dont have the set up, or technical expertise. There is also the issue around security and who is accessing their computers when they are at home. Homes are not security cleared by their nature