Anyone else being pressured to return to the office?

[QAztyn]

Despite successfully working from home for the last 14 months?

Very old fashioned culture of presenteeism at my workplace, despite the guidance in Wales still being ‘work from home if you can’ we are being asked to start coming back.

Can’t quite get me head around why they are putting pressure on even though guidance hasn’t changed?

Anyone else finding the same?

@Crockof

I have found those that have most enjoyed working from home are those that have been the least productive. The most productive have been desperate to get back.

And I’ve often found the opposite. Those with discipline like wfh and those missing the social activity want to get back.

No. I'm admin and we're going to be skeleton staff for the foreseeable future. I don't think we'll go back 100%.

I guess employers should have trust in those who can and want to work as effectively with from home.

Problem is, what do you do when you have an employee who wants to work at home and thinks they are productive but they’re not. It’s going to be very difficult as a manager to say ‘A, you can work from home as we trust you’ and ‘B, you can’t because we don’t’.

@Twiglets1

"pressured to return to the office" - it's nearly June! Once people start wanting to return to restaurants, non essential retail etc, there is no excuse for them not to return to the office at least part of the week. I wonder if those same people feel "pressured" to return to the things they enjoy too?

There's an Indian variant. Where I live cases are rising again. That is a pretty damn good reason.

We have found that the most productive people want to come back into the office.

The least productive want to say working from home and are very vociferous about it.

Luckily their contracts state that they are to work from a named office. This was written pre-covid.

They are very welcome to leave if they want to take the Micky out of another employer.

No pressure at all. We have been told we won't be asked to come back till step 4, whenever that is,and it will be very flexible with people only being required to come in for certain things and the rest will be own choice. A lot of people (including me) are wanting to come back in at least occasionally now and management seem very prepared to listen to people and be flexible at the moment.

My DH has to go in three days a week - there are aspects of the job which just can't be done effectively at home. He can't do a full 37.5 hour week at home, so up until now work have been asking if they can spend any excess time on personal development, ie courses, updated reading matter. Our internet regularly goes down, so he has to have a backup plan of phoning.

@PinkSparklyIncorrigibleDunce

Sadly not, I have the other problem in that I'm not allowed back. I would love to be told we have to go back!

Same. My employee is being very quick to "reassure" people that there will be a very gradual return and lots of discussion about new working patterns. I just want to go back! And, as going back, is returning to the status quo, I'm not sure why it is so difficult!

@FlorenceWintle

I guess employers should have trust in those who can and want to work as effectively with from home.

Problem is, what do you do when you have an employee who wants to work at home and thinks they are productive but they’re not. It’s going to be very difficult as a manager to say ‘A, you can work from home as we trust you’ and ‘B, you can’t because we don’t’.

I have this in my team. They forget I have oversight of everything they do. We worked some wfh days before but those slacking are really pushing to make it permanent. Now I’m facing claims of anxiousness at returning, from the same people who I’ve seen on Facebook in every pub, restaurant, gym and in and out of others houses these past few weeks. They have a list of demands the length of their arm such as ‘i won’t come in unless the company pay for parking so I don’t have to get on public transport’ 🧐 quite frankly many are taking the piss, a small few have smashed it at home but funnily enough those are the ones who want back in.

Despite successfully working from home for the last 14 months?

In fairness, you cannot know that all employees have been "successfully" working from home. Many of them may not have been, either due to their home circumstances or because they're taking advantage of the situation.

If your employer thinks that their business operates more effectively when people are working from the premises, then so be it.

My productivity is identical because I have no choice, I can do my job exactly the same whether office or home, but that's because we are monitored heavily and there's no way to skive if you wanted
(I am on my 30 min lunch typing this before someone pipes up)

I went back in for the first time last week after having been desperate to go 2/3 times a week - my employer has been keeping us out through deactivating our passes! Had to jump through all sorts of hoops (understandable given advice is to wfh if you can, but still) to get permission to go in.

We are going to be given the opportunity to decide, there's a feeling that a mixed mode of working will be preferred by most which i think is probably right.

Some of my team have been working from home, there are usually 2 of us int the offices, one in each office. The people working at home say they are being as productive as ever and they like it and don't want to be office based. The two ;of us in the office are run ragged doing all the things the others can't do from home, yes it might be about 10% of their work but that means 2 of us are having t do 30 or 40% extra. I'm awaiting some requests to continue but I want them back in here at the first possible date.

I suspect that all those who want to rush back to the office are the ones who will have more opportunity to appear more productive as they are "in the office"
At home- there's no time wasting by making massive brew rounds and chatting about last night's telly... at home there's none of that so no opportunity to skive- plenty in the office though.

@Sargass0

I suspect that all those who want to rush back to the office are the ones who will have more opportunity to appear more productive as they are "in the office" At home- there's no time wasting by making massive brew rounds and chatting about last night's telly... at home there's none of that so no opportunity to skive- plenty in the office though.

I see the opposite at my workplace @Sargass0 people aren’t visible so they can say it takes 3 days to do a task and nobody can see them chilling in front of the TV for 1.5 days first.

In the office you can literally see what they’re doing, or not doing.

@Sargass0

I suspect that all those who want to rush back to the office are the ones who will have more opportunity to appear more productive as they are "in the office" At home- there's no time wasting by making massive brew rounds and chatting about last night's telly... at home there's none of that so no opportunity to skive- plenty in the office though.

I suspect all those who want to stay at home only do so because they want to take the afternoon off to play golf, save money on childcare because they can work whilst looking after their children and can get on with their housework between things.

(These are all things my colleagues have actually said by the way, but I wouldn't dream of stereotpying that everyone was like that).

I have an inept manager who wouldn't notice what I was doing if I sat and did it very loudly in front of him. I want us to get back to the office because my job is simpler to do when I don't have to spend my day trying to get in touch with people virtually. My colleagues have openly said they ignore communications from me because they want to get on with their own work. They are more productive. I work substantially more hours to achieve the same results as I did in the office. My manager does nothing (see previous comment re inept).

I'm also fed up of working in a corner of my living space so I can never switch off from work. And I'm in a better position than many of my colleagues who work sitting on their bed or working on the kitchen table (and have to clear everything away each night and reset up in the morning).

As we never talked about last night's telly when we used to all be in the office, it seems unlikely we'll suddenly develop a huge urge to do so.

I wonder if these people who feel they are safer wfh will also be avoiding pubs cinemas and restaurants.

I always find those that argue they are the most productive at home are those who really don’t want to go back. Clearly there is a disconnect ss management don’t feel the same way, and it’s not just about the individual it’s about the management of remote employees and the interaction when it’s virtual.

Depends what you mean by ‘successfully’ doesnt it

I was seconded into a Covid related job, I’ve worked far more hours over the last year than I would normally have done.
I have put on at least stone in weight as I am far more sedentary than I was, half an hour walk to the office, walking up stairs to get to meeting rooms etc.
I have had to upgrade my broadband twice and there are times when it still doesnt cope.
On a quiet day yes I can stick on a wash or run the hoover round, there have been many days when I’ve barely had time to go to the loo or make a cup of tea.
I’m squashed into a corner of my living room with no proper desk or chair, I’ve had more back problems this year than I’ve had for a long time.
Above all I feel very isolated, single parent, no local family so no bubbles. My son is a teenager so there have been no child care issues but having a teen crashing round the house whilst you are trying to work isnt helpful. On the days he is in college I won’t see anyone from 7.30 im the morning till 5 at night.
Lets not forget the minor irritations like the cat trying to leap on the keyboard, next doors kids football constantly thudding into my garden.

I want to go back to the office where I’m set up to work properly and I can leave it behind at the end of the day. And yes I miss the buzz of the office.

I found out today that we can go back into the office, maximum of 6 people at a time. As sad as it is it's made my weekend that I can go in!

Been back for about 6 weeks. We were also in between waves 1 and 2 and we were actually at the peak of wave 2 while I was still trying to convince them to let me WFH (go into great detail of what long term IT projects I have going etc and there were weeks of umming and ahhing until they let me).

I was very productive due to fewer random interruptions, still stuck to a 10 minute tea break, kept a good record of what I was up to etc. They still brought me back in and banned me from WFH at all, not even the few hours I used to do to make up for us no longer opening on Fridays. A few others are still allowed so it's kind of odd, it's not like I wasn't proving to them that I can stay productive. I was perfectly behaved and didn't just pretend to work while playing video games or whatever. It is what it is.

To be fair, most of what I did WFH was rebuilding the website, and now they're outsourcing it lol so it was all a complete waste of time. But that is not exactly anything new for this company. I guess they want me in for presenteeism reasons even though I have less to do. Long as the money keeps rolling in.

@MrsLeclerc

I think the OPs question is more about the company not complying with local guidance than perceived WFH productivity.

I’m in Wales too and Drakeford has been much more cautious in his approach which has given us a slightly different experience.

Every company should be keeping with the ‘work from home if you can’ until the guidance changes.

Are they saying that they’re going to bring people back before this is changed or are they just getting everything ready for the announcement and keeping you in the loop?

A lot of offices will have to bring people back in small groups with social distancing still in place. Logically, this would be the people who don’t want to WFH first. I’d be interested to know what they have in place to handle corridor activity, toilet occupancy, break room facilities, printer/storage room access, ventilation etc. Might be worth asking if a risk assessment has been done. Especially, if they’re bringing people back before the guidance changes.

The OP doesn't say that though, does it? The OP sees people actually turning up for their job and doing the job they're paid for as "an old-fashioned culture of presenteeism" It doesn't take a time and motion study to imagine how productive she's been WFH if that's her attitude to work.

@DareIask

I wonder if these people who feel they are safer wfh will also be avoiding pubs cinemas and restaurants.

On another thread two days ago, it would very definitely seem not.

Interesting that the OP doesn’t want to go back to the office but on another thread criticized someone else for not wanting “things to go back to normal and told them “we can’t stay like this forever”.