Reasons you 'cannot work from home'

[AnnieHoo]

I'm struggling with this phrase and have been really uncomfortable with decisions made in my public sector workplace. We are a team who do admin support and system support for key workers.

The key workers we support are all working from home. Other key workers are in the open plan office all the time but we try to keep away from them. The reason we have been told we have to go into the office is to answer the phones on a rota and deal with post the odd letter, invoices and process application forms. Fair enough.

I am worried about the staff mingling as so many people are coming back to the office because they 'cannot work from home'. Reasons are:

Mental health - "I'm going mad being at home all day"
Live with elderly parents - " it's their house I can't be answering the phone all day"
Live with parents and a toddler - "my toddler doesn't understand I have to work"
"I wouldn't be able to concentrate because my husband would be in the house and it's his home too"

Does this sound right? Nobody has a clue at my work.

We were in a company wide meeting recently, thousands of listeners, and one of the speaker's toddlers came in and refused to leave. Not sure where her partner was.

People WANT to commute??

If I worked from home with a toddler I doubt I’d be able to as DH wouldn’t be at home to look after toddler

Then again, that also means if toddler at home without a childcare setting to go to, I wouldn’t be able to go in either

Lots of people like this at our work as well. Our office is firmly shut so they are being offered passes for co-working spaces which are pretty empty at the moment anyway

For me, because I live alone and that plus having no differentiation between work and home in lockdown 1 nearly broke me.

I walk to work so no public transport, and in an office alone and work in a hospital so if I venture to the kitchen or toilet or corridor or stick my head into another office I wear a face mask and distance from people as much as possible.

It means something you can’t do from home. For example, I’ve gone into the office for tasks which involve a lot of printing and scanning because I just can’t do that at home in any volume.

All of the above plus:

Heating not working/can't afford to have heating on
Wifi down
No phone signal at home
Building work at home/neighbour's
Noisy neighbours
Not safe around partner
In studio or houseshare with nowhere to work except bedroom

I have never WFH throughout this whole pandemic. The other 100 employees are. Reason - post. We get hundreds of letters/documents a day. Files need made up, scanned, documents that need signed by customers need printed off and sent in our business post collection.

That’s the only reason why.

To the pp. That person may not have had a partner? May be a single parent. Or the partner could be at work?

No room at home to set up a workstation. 4 adults in a flat, one with mental health problems. Sit on my bed with laptop on knee. Mental health shot to shit. Office is huge, covid compliant and safe. But no, got to work at home.
Can't do it anymore.

I think it’s intended as a role you can’t do from home, my dh is a builder, he can’t work from home unless he fixes our house (which does need doing). No pay though. My sister is a mw, she can’t work from home.

I think things like having kids at home / no space / privacy for confidential aspects of role are fine as long as office is Covid compliant. We run offices for construction company, everyone is socially distanced, less staff in but some do need to go in. Office manager takes her hard drive home and works from there some of the time.

I've had to buy noise cancelling headphones to drown out my families noises. I miss my colleagues and liked the break between work and home. I'd love to be in the office but it's unlikely I'll ever be in again, the company are saving a fortune apparently.

ProfessorPootle this is the same definition I'm going with. It is reassuring to remember that our workplaces have taken steps to be covid-compliant but also to hear from everyone the wide range of reasons for not being able to work from home.

It is concerning every time you hear on the news 'work from home unless it is not possible' and the examples of 'keyworkers and construction workers'... they never mention mental health, abusive relationships, caring responsibilities... and that more and more people are struggling.

@Onedropbeat

If I worked from home with a toddler I doubt I’d be able to as DH wouldn’t be at home to look after toddler

Then again, that also means if toddler at home without a childcare setting to go to, I wouldn’t be able to go in either

Mental health - "I'm going mad being at home all day" I think one is the most legitimate but in that case I'd agree to a reduced number of days on a rota Live with elderly parents - " it's their house I can't be answering the phone all day" assuming they have a room, and you're not putting calls through to their landline in the living room, I don't get the issue?
Live with parents and a toddler - "my toddler doesn't understand I have to work" where will toddler go if you do to the office? That's where they can go then "I wouldn't be able to concentrate because my husband would be in the house and it's his home too meh, my husband has coped since March. Me, 5 yo and twin babies who were 3 months old. No sympathy for "I can't concentrate if my sex mate is within my aura"