When do you think we will be allowed back to offices?

[Ethelfleda]

I have done a search but couldn’t find anything

I am posting as someone who is working from home, and has been since March (and usually does a couple of days a week) but who is looking forward to going back to an office!

Does anyone else feel the same? I keep reading articles saying that we will never return to office life and I find it quite depressing.
I can be just as productive at home, and I know the bigger picture here is far more important than my lamenting on office life...
But do you think the government will lift the ‘work from home wherever possible’ plan before there is a vaccine?

We've been told we are likely to be heavily home based til at least the start of 2021. But the vast majority of our work can be done from home with no negative repercussions. We have a volunteer skeleton staff rota each week for the bits that can't be done outside the office. About half of staff don't ever volunteer and the other half of us do varying amounts of time there. There are a small number of people across the business whose role cannot be done from home and they've been office based throughout.

It's fascinating how different people are. As on this thread, some in my office are hating every minute of working from home and others finding it transformative.

I'm happy and productive working from home and don't see any need for me to go back but I don't mind going in part time if that's what they want (assuming it's not dangerous).

I do think a lot of companies are going to be a) Remembered for how they treat their employees during this time and how safe they keep them and how much they respect them and b) Going to severely lag behind their competitors when it comes to recruitment if others are offering more flexible arrangements in the future.

my office has opened this week , people in 50/50 with a plan to be fully operational by end of july.we can work from home so theres plenty to of us complaining about it, but they're going ahead with it anyway.

We sometimes struggle to empathise with each other but I tell him to imagine spending every minute of your day with other people without a break - that’s kind of equivalent to how lockdown with so little human interaction feels to me.

Yeah, it's no doubt really tough for a lot of social people at the moment who are wfh and with things shut.

I work Flexi and my core hours are between 7 and 6. I get in at 7 every day usually and finish about 3 just because it's quite quiet for that first hour and I avoid rush hour commute. Downside is I lose an hour's sleep so that's physically tiring. I also go for a walk on my lunch hour to recharge, or sit in a coffee shop. When I get home from work I just need to recharge and relax.

Wfh is ideal for introverts, open plan offices are more ideal for extroverts. Many would be happy to combine the two. I'd be happy to go in 2 or 3 days a week and wfh the other days. I think balance is important. I'd be too much in my comfort zone to always wfh 100% of the time.

Yeah, it's no doubt really tough for a lot of social people at the moment who are wfh and with things shut

I’m not all that social to be honest mainly because my still not sleeping toddler makes that quite difficult. I love to spend evenings at home with DH. It’s just the connection to and engagement with people that I’m struggling without. I like my home to feel like a place of rest, and love the feeling of getting home after a long day.

I totally agree with you that offering balance would be key. I appreciate my time at work so much more now that I’m part time.

Our office is opening for about 30% if you want to go back. You have to book your desk the week before. For everyone else, its home working for the foreseeable future, with the possibility of it becoming more permanent if we want to. No one will be forced to do either apparently.

Please let the university admin staff back (so I can have one less person at home )

@Feellikedancingyeah I’ll join you in that request, I’m university admin and desperate to go back

@AgentCooper I'm clutching at straws but can't see confirmation and clearing being possible when at home

My office is opening again next week at 20% capacity. The majority of this capacity is reserved for colleagues who can’t work effectively from home for technological reasons. There are a small number of desks reserved for colleagues who would like to work from the office for personal reasons

Given that the office is central london, I honestly don’t expect to be back until next spring

The numbers at work are tied to the 2m advice. This will rapidly reduce once no uptick in infections happens. End of July at the latest will herald a 1m guidance, this will ensure every job is now viable. Normality will resume faster than you could imagine. All reset to normal by September. Bookmark this.

@Stokey do you work for a certain retailer?

We've been told we will be home working until at least September/ October. We usually spend half our time in a hospital setting and half in an office but there are normally five of us crammed into tiny office so that isn't possible. We are all doing ok working from home, the normal face to face advice we do now obviously has to be done on the phone, form filling takes a lot longer but are just adapting.

@user1471439240 I really hope so! What a difference that would make!

Ours is now saying that they are putting plans in place to re-open our head office. They have no idea when and it will be ‘when government guidance changes’
MD said gut feeling will be that it won’t even be thought about until mid to end July.

We were told a month ago to expect to WFH until October. This week, they’ve changed their minds. The office I work in in North Yorkshire is opening in July on a voluntary basis. It’s a large, half empty office so social distancing will be fine. And the vast majority of people drive in, so no public transport risk to consider. Those who do get the train are being told to stay working at home. And our office in London is under review. It’s more complicated & distancing will be harder. But they are aiming for August on a voluntary basis.

19MadameMarie

I'm similar to you. Open plan office working and public transport drains me. I currently work 4 days to give me a day to recover and still tend to have to limit activities in the evenings and weekends. If I could wfh the majority of the time, I think I could work full time and have a more meaningful, active social life.i prefer to spend time in my local community or with people I choose to spend time with.

I do enjoy collaborative working, on specific tasks, and would happily go into the office for meetings and planning but I'm so much more relaxed and able to get on with work from home. Open plan offices are renowned for being bad for people psychologically when researched. Ditto long commutes.

I feel for those who are not set up for wfh. A separate space and decent equipment and desk/chair is vital. Employers are shits if they're expecting a 12 hour day out of someone in a studio flat.

To answer the question, I'm public sector and no one has said when we will be back. My office is very modern with no windows to open and air con which blows right across the office. My DDs similar 6th form college have deemed that unsafe, so I'm not keen to go in to my office anytime soon. The virus can be carried right across offices by air systems. so social distancing and hygiene alone doesn't seem to be adequate.

Public sector here and desperate to get back. am miserable and frustrated at home, as are my team.
am pushing the Exec to get social distancing in place asap so people can start to come back. Trying to work from home when you don't have separate office space is not viable long term. Taking zoom calls with a laptop balanced on my knee while sitting on the bed is crazy. If they say many more months I will seriously have to look at resigning and seeing if I can get something in a sector that's open for business. My mental health and family life is fucked

One thing to bear in mind is that wfh alone vs wfh with your family in the house is completely different. I'm desperate for my teens to be back at school and college and not enjoying the mess around the house all the time that's inevitably created with 3/4 of us home all day.