Work from home again in England?

[Jourdain11]

I missed the news today and I'm wondering... was much said about work from home guidelines in England? I cannot see that anything has been said specifically but wondering if there was any "laying of the ground".

There's some obtuse people on this thread.if the rota says you need to be in on X day, specifically because your job requires face to face - and some face to face is required for OPs job, zoom/phone etc not being a suitable alternative because the students needs could be anything and you therefore need someone physically there to help.

In that kind of situation then you shouldn't be able to not come in with no notice unless you are actually sick.

It's unfair to the other staff.

@SushiGo

There's some obtuse people on this thread.if the rota says you need to be in on X day, specifically because your job requires face to face - and some face to face is required for OPs job, zoom/phone etc not being a suitable alternative because the students needs could be anything and you therefore need someone physically there to help.

In that kind of situation then you shouldn't be able to not come in with no notice unless you are actually sick.

It's unfair to the other staff.

Who is in charge of all that?

Who is responsible for all that?

Not employees

Employers.

I wish everyone would WFH, it makes my travel to work far easier !

@SushiGo

There's some obtuse people on this thread.if the rota says you need to be in on X day, specifically because your job requires face to face - and some face to face is required for OPs job, zoom/phone etc not being a suitable alternative because the students needs could be anything and you therefore need someone physically there to help.

In that kind of situation then you shouldn't be able to not come in with no notice unless you are actually sick.

It's unfair to the other staff.

Absolutely right. If someone is need un for face to grace work and rm9n a rota, they shouldn't be able to say 'I am not coming in I am wfh'

And the management are the ones responsible for managing that behaviour.

Plenty of places have policies for sick and wfh. We do. If you need to be and can't come in if you are sick, then you are off sick, not wfh. Because your duties that day require you to be in and you are too sick to be.

Again, management need to manage that.

I used to think WFH was a good thing but now I have some reservations, to be honest. I hope it isn’t advised again.

[quote HousethatChunkbuilt]@PrincessNutNuts it clearly isn't. Wouldn't you be frustrated in this instance, as a customer?
University student: hello, I need help getting into my bathroom, the door sticks. I can't open the door at all.
Person in office: ok I'm not your allocated accommodation person
Student: ok how do I get in touch
Office: you email them as they're working from home
Student: but you could just do it, couldn't you
Office: yes I have access to the system and could ask for someone to come and look at your door but I'm not doing the work of someone working from home.
Student: oh

[/quote]
Office: you email them as they're working from home

Or you call them

I would have thought that, for an example like that, there would be a telephone number for urgent queries, and an on call team, who can be contacted by the power of a mobile phone, or Skype, or probably any other not particularly advanced technical wizardry.

So on call admin student support type person takes details of the problem, and contacts the onsite maintenance team, who do have to be physically present obviously, but the person taking the call and directing to the appropriate help doesn't need to be. Why would they? They're in an office somewhere. You phone them whether they're on site, at home, or at the other side of the world.

We're nearly 2 years into this. There can't be any employers left who haven't worked this out yet, can they? Apart from some minor issues about capacity for connecting to the systems from outside, we had this up and running by mid March 2020 and we're not particularly advanced technology wise.

@Treacletartandcustard

I used to think WFH was a good thing but now I have some reservations, to be honest. I hope it isn’t advised again.

WFH is here to stay for t at least as long as covid is - and people keep telling me we're going to live with covid.

(We can't "live with covid". But that's a whole other discussion.)

I think some companies are embracing WFH and some aren’t.

I do think that although a lot of people are adamant they are more effective when WFH I’m not sure that they are.

I also don’t like the fact homes have become offices. I think the individual WFH often massively underestimated the impact that this has on other family members.

Obviously this wouldn’t work for drop ins but we have a system where you can automatically pick up calls from any phone. Customer phones office number and admin answers and directs to my line which I can divert to any phone including my personal mobile.

@Treacletartandcustard exactly. In my job I ring multiple numbers for the same departments, usually one picks up. It didn't used to be like this. Ringing our local general hospital is a joke, you get ten answerphones in a row all telling you not to leave a message as they're only monitored twice a week!

I think don’t think it’ll be mandated again however I think companies will determine whether to implement full wfh where possible. This morning, the company I work for has sent comms to say if you can do your role from home you are not to come on site. There are many roles that require working on site however those that don’t have been told to stay home to protect those that have to be in especially in the lead up to Christmas.

I really hope not. WFH shredded my mental health with no separation between a full on stressful job and my home, which should be a sanctuary. I even moved jobs during the pandemic to try and ensure I didn't ever have to WFH full time again. I'm not asking for full WFH, I'm doing 3 in / 2 WFH which works well.

@NothingIsWrong

I really hope not. WFH shredded my mental health with no separation between a full on stressful job and my home, which should be a sanctuary. I even moved jobs during the pandemic to try and ensure I didn't ever have to WFH full time again. I'm not asking for full WFH, I'm doing 3 in / 2 WFH which works well.

i feel exactly same as you

No official word so far though!

WFH didn’t end for me,when the restrictions eased my department mandated that only those whose mental health was suffering or those who couldn’t work from home, for whatever reason, could return to the office.
Recently all employees have been given the option to return, if they choose to and there is no set day or hours requirement.
I know that I am fortunate and I do not take it for granted.

I WFH anyway.

I guess they can encourage it if they want to; it might flatten the winter bed pressure curve a bit.

If they are expecting this to have some sort of dramatic impact on the figures, though, I suspect they may be in for a shock.

Remember a few weeks back when all the Zeroes on here were confidently telling us that we should be doing "easy mitigation measures like those clever people in France and Spain"? Well, the numbers I'm currently seeing in places like France are suggesting to me that "easy little tweaking measures" accomplish very little when it comes to COVID. I mean, masks and more WFH probably slow spread and reduce viral doses, but that's about it. Go full-on Hong Kong, or stop kidding yourselves.

"Pandemic-control measures are both effective and easy to do. The trouble is that the measures that are effective are not very easy to do. And the measures that are easy to do, are not actually very effective."