Will your companies let you work from home after lockdown has ended

[Makinitrain]

I mean it's great being able to work from home, great for the planet, I suspect good for mental health.
However I imagine that many companies, including mine, will be quick to take it away as soon as they can. Is this because of productivity concerns? Any other reason?

I also imagine WFH isn't great for other businesses which rely on people commuting and meeting after work/ lunchtime.
Thoughts?

@NothingIsWrong if different teams makes sense, apologies I read it as everyone in one day a week!

I think one of the positives coming out of this for our company is that we will no longer do so much travelling up and down the country for internal meetings. There was always a view (and I shared it too) that difficult conversations or proposing new ideas was too difficult to do over Skype. But now we have MS teams ( the video functionality is so much better) and we've been forced into getting used to it so I'm sure that view will have changed and we will continue to have remote meetings.
I used to do 2/4 days at home typically with a day in london or another regional office plus a day in my home office. Hopefully I will be able to just keep the one day in my home office (for my sanity and some 'city life') and do 3 rather than 2 days from home going forward.
If everyone even increased their days at home by 1 that would be a huge impact on traffic/ the environment/ productivity.

My company already does 1-2 days WFH a week as the building isn't big enough to house everyone at once. I'd happily WFH 90% of the time and just pop in for a bit of social(ly distant) interaction once or twice a fortnight. But then I do have a ballache of a commute and a proper WFH space. I can see how doing it from the sofa isn't as fun as it sounds, you do need a proper chair and desk and whatnot.

Already wfh one day a week. Love it. My sanity saver as find the office a cold inhospitable place.Planning to wfh twice a week once I return to the office.Probably Thursday and Friday.
Not planning to go back till September time.

I’m going unilateral on this, whether they accept it or not. My industry is shocking for pointless presenteeism but this has been exposed as ridiculous now at so many levels: clients are now all doing it so it’s absurd to have a blanket ban.

I have been lobbying for a while to be allowed to do this but am fairly new into my job and haven’t felt I have the authority to do this until now.

But if the government is going to recommend it as the default I do now feel I have the wind at my back, so to speak.

If they give people a choice that's fine but if it was compulsory I'd be leaving. I hate it and it's certainly isn't good for my mental health, I can't switch off as all my work stuff is on the dining room table. It'll only work for people with the room to have an office and I know most of the people in my company don't have this so I don't think it'll even be suggested.

I work for a water company and before lockdown, home working was permitted but 1/2 days a week tops. They're really pleased with how well everyone has managed and it's expected being in the office will become the exception, not the rule.

How does that work for people without the set up to work from hom Kcnana? My current set up would fail every risk assessment going and I have no way of changing that.

I'm not at the minute due to IT issues and am furloughed. But I expect I will be unless they continue furlough as shielding and can't go in
It won't be much fun as I don't have a desk so have to use a high table and mostly stand up (although that's usually better for my back!)

I don't work but DH's company is looking set to allow wfh permanently, for those who want to. Some of his colleagues miss going into the office but DH and many others have found they much prefer it and are more productive. We're saving £100+ a month and DH has over three hours a day more to do with as he wishes now he's not commuting. He's sleeping better and is far more relaxed. And I love having him around!

Yes, they were v flexible before (more concerned with what you do than when or where you do it) and are being v cautious about people coming back onsite.

Yes

Thankfully yes!

I’m not working out of the home anyway but I’m really pleased dh is wfh for the next month regardless and then taking a further decision.

The issue is everyone travelling in as much as SD once you get in. Keeping this low in London will help.

We need to improve our IT systems, it's okay but I'm only working at about 75% productivity because everything is slow. So for me I would rather drive 15 minutes to the office. Someone with a longer commute who doesn't work on loads of massive spreadsheets might feel differently.

DH's work don't expect to go back before end of August. They may open up the office to those who are struggling at home but they don't feel it's safe or see the point in having a huge percentage of the workforce off sick or worse for weeks on end.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat We're able to claim expenses up to a maximum value for DSE equipment. I filled in assessment and claimed back money for a laptop riser, separate keyboard & mouse etc. They've been very good to us to date 😊

I had a survey to fill in today for work where they were asking about whether people wanted to carry on with remote working, how much, whether they felt safe using public transport, whether they were vulnerable or had a household member who is, etc.

I generally work from home anyway but was originally told to go in one day a week. I'd prefer that to be one day a month for essential meetings.

DH's firm don't seem to be planning for it yet but he will want to go in one day week. He has his own office though.

Some companies with expensive city offices will be using this as an opportunity to reduce their real estate costs significantly, so will be encouraging continued WFH (though unlikely to be 5 days a week) in the much longer term.

“ I think the trend will be is to reduce office space, introduce hot desking and more working from home.”

Hot desking is an infection risk in normal circumstances. Surely companies who start this now are open to being sued?

I think there is going to be a lot of empty office space in cities in the future. For most office jobs I think this forced move into remote working has gone pretty well and we will see more of it.

DH is an office managing partner, he thinks they will support WFH certainly in the short term as they have spent money on tech so everyone can WFH and they don't want to now spend money on social distancing measures, has been suggested that they will need to put up plastic screens between all desks.

So what will probably happen is they will let people who want or need to go into the office to work on client papers, but will ensure the amount of people in are limited so they can socially distance easily.

Even when things go back to normal DH thinks WFH at least a few days a week will become the norm and traipsing round the country for internal meetings will become a thing of the past. Virtual meetings are they way to go, including some client meetings. They may also look into subletting part of the office, as they won't need the space, and some other companies will want a smaller space too.

I think they'll be reluctantly allowing some wfh but not on a regular basis. I'm not entirely sure why, there are many (most, if not all) aspects of my job that can absolutely be done from home. I'd be surprised if they even considered allowing people to wfh 1 day a week.

I certainly hope so. I never want to go back. Although I did think of a good reason to go into the office this week. I've had a difficult week so far with lots of extra work. The drive home gives me chance to get over a bad day and change my mindset from work to home. Walking from the dining room to the living room doesn't have the same effect and takes me a bit longer to feel relaxed. Still rather be at home though.

I bet I still won't be allowed back in office. Also I expect to put in at least 20 hrs unpaid/wk for long time too. It's a good thing I enjoy my job.