Can't work because of fears for elderly mother

[Inoneminute]

Until now we've had almost everyone working at home, which has been OK but we've only been able to provide a partial service. We're now planning to move to something closer to normal.

As part of that I've asked staff to declare if they are official shielding, included in the vulnerable group, living with someone shielding or if there are other things that will make it difficult to attend work.e.g childcare.

I'm now going through 150 responses and we will aim to leave people with concerns wfh as far as possible.

One has said he can't be in work because he lives with his elderly mother who he's very worried about. She's 50, which happens to be exactly my age and 2 years younger than his line manager! This is going to be fun

HGC2, some staff are devastated to be getting advice that they should continue to shield after their letters "expire" on 12 June, they've been hanging on for that

Some people, without particular health concerns, seem genuinely too scared to ever leave the house again. The advice we're getting from HR is that if they can't wfh and arent shielded but can't/won't come in, leave should be unpaid, but I know that will just lead to a rush of fit notes for anxiety, so we're trying to work round people's concerns where we can.

It's bound to lead to some resentment from those who feel they're doing all the work though.

I don't understand what office work can't be done from home?

some staff are devastated to be getting advice that they should continue to shield after their letters "expire"
Like it says it's advice. If they're that devastated about having to wfh instead of an office, they can choose to ignore the advice and go into the office.

Also the staff members you say are too scared to ever leave the house again. That's unusual. They're clearly too ill to work but hopefully will recover with good MH support.

Most people are keen for the UK to follow the lead of other countries. Take the same simple measures that would allow easing of lockdown with less risk to the economy and lives.

It's understandable some people in this country are wary of returning before then. We already have one of the highest numbers of deaths in the world. And it's still early days. We don't yet know about potential long-term complications from having had Covid.

Did I say it was office work? We have some offices but it's not all office based work.

Public sector or government department = poor IT systems, lack of laptops and telephony that cant easily be transferred to homeworking. Database incompatibility.Paper case files that cannot leave the office for data protection reasons.

I was replying to HGC2 who posted about her office workers (my italics).
am doing the exact same piece of work for my public sector organisation too and have had similar responses, can’t keep some people out the office and can’t get others to think about a return!

One has said he can't be in work because he lives with his elderly mother who he's very worried about. She's 50

I assume she has a health condition? Not sure about the "elderly" part mind you!

I am 48 and don't consider myself remotely vulnerable and as for elderly