Are you starting to go back to office if you’ve been wfh?

[Littlemiss74]

I’ve been wfh since end March. I had a shielding letter and my employer has been great saying I could stay at home even when shielding was paused. Most other staff were still wfh too anyway but now they are starting to return to office. We’ve been told there can’t be more than 50% staff on site at once so people are going to do a split between home & office.

My boss has asked if I could perhaps come in at the end of the month to see all the safety measures in place with a view to returning. She knows I have been anxious. I am part time so don’t think she would expect me to go in there every day. She said it would be good if I could go in some of the time so we can have team meetings and project planning time together.

At the moment I feel ok about returning but I am anxious about the winter months when there always people in work coughing & sneezing. I take immunosuppressants so need to be careful. I want to show willing and I am slightly conscious that ‘out of sight, out of mind’ may occur if I’m away too much longer.

Just wondering what stages other people are at in returning to the office, how often do you go in a week and what are the covid restrictions in place? Also if you were shielding how do you feel about returning and the winter months?

I appreciate there are many people who will be vulnerable who will have continued working throughout.

I go in once or twice a week but not been any directive from the bosses.

We’ve been told we probably won’t go back until January and in the meantime, if we do need to go in, we need written permission from a senior manager. There are some teams in as their work means they need to be there but most floors are closed while adjustments to layout are made. I’m fine with this tbh as I am happy enough wfh but ideally I’d like to be able to do a couple of days a week in the office, to get the interaction and go to meetings (if they’re socially distanced!).

This is public sector in London.

Just revisiting this thread I started a couple of weeks ago to see how people are feeling now as things are rapidly changing. Do we think Boris will change his mind about encouraging people back to office when they are quite able to wfh? I notice that is what the Welsh first minister said in his latest briefing - work from home if you can.

We reopened on 24th August on a voluntary basis, 7 people out of 30 came back. Following local restrictions starting yesterday, we advised against coming in unless for wellbeing reasons. We are now down to 3.