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Covid

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Original poster

Management pressuring to come to work

47 replies

countrylady2 · 05/01/2022 10:18

I went to work yesterday, a colleague was unwell and then went home and tested positive for covid. Everyone went home soon as they heard the news as some were anxious etc.

I work in a team of 7. The manager is on annual leave, 3 people are off sick, 1 on annual leave and person who has covid is working from home.

A director has emailed me asking what I am going to do about covering the office. For some reason they always want 1 member of staff in to cover in case a member of the public has a major issue even though there are other people in the office.

I am really annoyed as I am working from home today as the covid incident at work has given me bad anxiety, I can’t get hold of LFT’s to not put people at risk and yet this director who is working from home and lives over an hour away won’t come in and is checking our messaging system which is building up because all the staff are off. He has since sent another email to everyone asking people to cover tomorrow and even says organisation’s are struggling for staff, it’s like he has nothing to do.

I don’t know how to respond to his email as he should be sorting staffing issues out, I’m trying to contact and resolve customer enquiries that are building up with all the staff off. Just finding it all stressful.

OP posts:

Dreamstate · 05/01/2022 18:27

Well by todays news it looks like wfg guidance will be dropped end of January only 3 weeks to go. People won't be able to hide away under anymore excuses.

Summersdreaming · 05/01/2022 18:40

You all walked out because 1 person tested positive?? Left the business empty?

Original poster

countrylady2 · 05/01/2022 19:14

@Summersdreaming I didn’t, I stayed as I had stuff to do. The people will do anything to go home.

OP posts:

Original poster

countrylady2 · 05/01/2022 19:14

@Dreamstate

Well by todays news it looks like wfg guidance will be dropped end of January only 3 weeks to go. People won't be able to hide away under anymore excuses.

Good, I’m getting fed up of the excuses.

OP posts:

SilverGlitterBaubles · 05/01/2022 19:15

[quote countrylady2]@WorriedGiraffe There is a rota system of one day a week where people need to come in but people just don’t want to come to the office and will find an excuse to not come in.[/quote]
Then it's up to your manager to mange this better. I believe the guidance is WFH 'where possible' and in this situation business needs are that someone needs to be in the office so it's not possible for everyone to WFH.

Watapalava · 05/01/2022 19:20

just read you op

he director is on leave and only you are actually free to go the office so of course it had to be you!

Original poster

countrylady2 · 05/01/2022 19:22

@Watapalava It was another manager who just didn’t want to come in!

OP posts:

SilverGlitterBaubles · 05/01/2022 19:23

[quote countrylady2]@SummerInSun Always the downside of being the reliable one! I suppose it’s good the manager will know I worked hard to sort the mess out.[/quote]
I think there is a similar resentment in a lot of workplaces OP. Some people will say the cannot come in because they are concerned about Covid but they are perfectly happy to go to the gym, pubs, restaurants and travel abroad for holidays. It starts to grate a little when other employees are shouldering more burden by being the ones who are present in the workplace and having to do extra tasks to that cannot be done by those WFH.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 05/01/2022 19:27

Surely, given we have been in these circumstances in some way since March 2020, your employers have facilitated home working for everyone who doesn't need to be face to face?

So why aren't they saying to everyone "work from home if you are a close contact/isolating and feel well"?

It is nice to have one person in for possible drop ins but that's a luxury in such times. Every effort should have been made by management to enable all services to continue remotely where possible - and they should be managing the staff who are failing to deliver when home based

Summersdreaming · 05/01/2022 19:41

Sorry I thought you meant you all went home. Sounds like your colleagues are taking the piss. I would email the director and ask them why nobody is sticking to the rota apart from you, and what they are planning to do about it (phrased nicely obviously )

BambinaJAS · 05/01/2022 19:55

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Surely, given we have been in these circumstances in some way since March 2020, your employers have facilitated home working for everyone who doesn't need to be face to face?

So why aren't they saying to everyone "work from home if you are a close contact/isolating and feel well"?

This is the correct view.

This is a failure of management to institute proper procedures when you have multiple people off due to infections.

I would reply asking to see where the procedure has been documented (for having one person in the office at all times).

If the Director is doing it on an ad hoc basis, then you have your answer.

At that point, you have an audit trail of emails and can refuse as you have no LFTs and there is a WFH guidance in place.

Original poster

countrylady2 · 05/01/2022 20:22

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz I thought this. We had an email sent to say WFH as much as possible from HR but views about this varies depending on the manager.

OP posts:

massiveblob · 06/01/2022 07:06

Why do they all hate going to into work so much? The managers shouldn't have allowed them all to just go home.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 06/01/2022 07:20

I am really annoyed as I am working from home today as the covid incident at work has given me bad anxiety

people just don’t want to come to the office and will find an excuse to not come in.

I don’t think you really are in a position to judge the others in your office! How do you know that they don’t have bad anxiety? - why are you the only one that gets to have it?

ElectraBlue · 06/01/2022 07:27

They can simply redirect calls to whoever is on call that day...no need to be physically present in the office.

That's what we do in our office. Reception calls are redirected to people's work mobile on a rota basis. The technology is there.

If everyone is sick of isolating following the guidelines, tough. Nothing that can be done about it beyond finding alternative solutions.

chocolateorangeinhaler · 06/01/2022 07:27

What's the company policy re Covid? They must have some policy by now.

A colleague in the office isn't close contact, I'm guessing you go to a supermarket, do you expect everyone in there to not have Covid, you haven't a clue in reality. You could be passing and in contact with asymptomatic people every day but you don't say your worried about that aspect.

You mentioned anxiety. What are you doing about that? You know it's your responsibility to challenge those feelings don't you. Has work got a well being service that could get you some help?

Ducksareruiningmypatio · 06/01/2022 07:34

We get this a lot "Oh gonna wfh today" then some lame excuse as to why.
The service levels are shite and we end up carrying the burden.
The sooner the guidance changes the better

ilovebagpuss · 06/01/2022 07:43

One of our care homes has 13 people off at the moment with Covid imagine if all the rest of the team legged it because they were worried? Who would feed and care for residents? Or supermarkets who would sell us food. Some none key sectors are taking the proverbial really and should just get a grip unless vulnerable of course.

Kshhuxnxk · 06/01/2022 07:44

@Ducksareruiningmypatio

We get this a lot "Oh gonna wfh today" then some lame excuse as to why. The service levels are shite and we end up carrying the burden. The sooner the guidance changes the better

I know what you mean - we have one whole department wfh but the rest of us are making sure there's someone in the office and mucking in. We're keeping ourselves safe we're keeping the business running and we'll be the ones that win out of this, the others, well, no one has seen them for about a year now so they're pretty much forgotten about.

Kshhuxnxk · 06/01/2022 07:45

@ilovebagpuss

This is it - when your business needs staff on site (cleaners, customer service, caretaking) there needs to be some form of the office staff and managers on site to show support and not just leave the lowest paid members of the company basically running the show.

Breakingdud · 06/01/2022 08:38

We are in wales and have had the WFH guidance reinstated yesterday.
It’s optional but you need to have good reason for staying in the office.
The usual suspects grabbed their stuff and dashed out of the door as soon as they came in and the hard workers who recognise that WFH does not really deliver the service properly they hung back and stayed in the office.
Immediately, once the WFH had gone home and set up the speed of communication reduced, dropped calls were being bounced back to the once left in the office and our own manager (who loves WFH) was showing as ‘busy’ all day and uncontactable.

When you’ve got a manager who is inherently lazy themselves, allows some members of the team an easy ride but puts pressure on the harder working team members to make them catch up it never works. There’s so much resentment already - I’d be happy if WFH was scrapped altogether. It’s a shame as it can work if it’s managed properly but most of the time it isn’t.

worriedatthemoment · 06/01/2022 08:52

My ds has had 2 cases at his work and he still has to go in to work
I have managed to order LFT online just this week , you have to try at different times but they are availible

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