what reasons can I give - justifications for working from home

[Tempjob]

I requested to work from home one day a week. I am part time (3 days a week) and my commute is 3 hours per day. My employer has asked me to list the reasons why I would like to work from home. I know that my employer disapproves of working from home. Does anyone have any tips about how I can justify my desire to work from home?

Start with why you want to work from home, then address your employer's concerns and highlight the benefits to the company.

Unless your role is technical and non customer/client facing I see no reason why you shpuld work from home: meetings, calls, access to a colleague to discuss a thorny problem - access to printer, 1:1 conversations, often impromptu, the sociality of work and the interpretation of body language and nuance.

It is not your employers issue that you have a three hour commute.

Start with any health, disability or caring responsibility issues that apply. Then add whatever else is applicable. Maybe a reference to traffic/eco concerns/pollution, if they have any kind of green policy. Emphasise any work efficiency benefits.

For me the main thing is that there are less distractions from colleagues and other things. Is there any way that you can price that it will increase your productivity?

You don’t need to explain why you want it, you are entitled to ask for flexible working (if you’ve been working there 26 weeks) and don’t need to provide a good enough reason why you want it.

I would state very simply your reasons for requesting, just so you’re not seeming obstructive, and then would set out a business case in terms of why it would benefit your employer, and pre-empting any concerns you think they might have with prepared solutions.

I used to have a commute that long, and I know how knackering it is. My employer at the time agreed to let me work from home one day a week because of that long commute. If they hadn’t done that, I would have been likely to leave the company far sooner just because getting there and back was so exhausting. In terms of reasons to state to them, your health and well-being could be improved by reducing the time spent travelling, and it will also make it easier for you to keep working there for a long time to come. It is also helpful for days when you have work you need a lot of concentration for, so you could maybe say that you’d use the day at home to work on specific tasks if that applies.

My commute is only 45mins each way and I still feel loads better on the occasional days when I wfh. It isn’t just the commute that is easier, it is the whole morning routine with the DC and obviously I don’t need to dress smartly so some days I don’t shower in the morning which also saves time. I work just as hard but finish the day feeling like I’ve had a half day. I would love to have a set day working from home but like you, I’m not sure what my justification would be for asking.

Really don't know why so many workplaces have an issue with this. The organisation I work for is based entirely from home. There is no office.

British workplace culture is backwards as fuck.

I see no reason why you shpuld work from home:

meetings, calls, access to a colleague to discuss a thorny problem Erm I have a video conferencing system and a telephone.

access to printer I own a printer.

1:1 conversations, often impromptu see above re owning a telephone and video conferencing system

HTH.

What industry are you in @Pishposhpasher ?

I work in the voluntary sector now.

My husband works in finance and works three days out of five from home.

British workplace culture is backwards as fuck

There are several issues that seem to crop up with this flexible working / wfh pattern.

Firstly, what is the culture of the organisation and even individual departments within the same organisation as to how supportive the employer is. Is there trust? is the employee in the type of role that lends itself well to FW? Is there some means by which the employer can maintain visibility that the work is still being done?.

Financial services is very much "bums on seats" in the office, even IT teams end up having to align to that inflexibility, and the "we don't want to set a wfh precedent". If telephone wok is monitored through technology (call-centre type set up with visible indicators of calls holding etc) that's only possible having the person present in the workgroup.

Other sectors are more forward thinking and even encourage remoting, such as consultancies, tech co's where people cannot do their job without significant flexibility, including wfh. It relies on a high degree of trust. Field Sales roles often need the person to remote work.

The arrangement does need to align to the person's role. If they are in a project team with internal customers who themselves aren't comfortable with interacting by Skype it means the person has to be in the office.

In short sometimes the company is back in the dark ages, but other considerations like the role itself being difficult to align to FW may be the case.

OP in your case I would be guarded about your 3 hour commute being tiring or taking too much out of your day, if you think it makes you vulnerable to them saying "that's your problem not ours". It is more likely to be approved if you turn the focus mainly onto aspects that benefit the company - such as being responsive to business need for a longer period as you can be online for more time due to not having your commute, and balancing that with days in the office for team working/interactions.

You could recommend they give you a trial period of 3 months in the new FW pattern, and keep a daily log of how much more productive you are, then proactive set a meeting to report your findings.

It is very poor show to bring Pishposh's from one thread to another Boomsk.

What was said on the other thread has absolutely zero to do with this Employment Issues matter, so how about you abide by MN good practice and hold back on the value judgements? It doesn't matter that the poster sounds "angry", their comment is as valid as anyone's, and actually they do have a point! And maybe show some compassion while you're at it.

Pishposhs comments

Pish can't see anyone's view but their own rather skewed view of life - so I'm not going to be taking her comments on board.

Maybe so, but no need to attack on here, this isn't the place. We aren't the AIBU board

Unless your role is technical and non customer/client facing I see no reason why you shpuld work from home: meetings, calls, access to a colleague to discuss a thorny problem - access to printer, 1:1 conversations, often impromptu, the sociality of work and the interpretation of body language and nuance.

I have Skype for business for meetings, calls and impromptu conversations. I own a printer / scanner / copier combo so that is covered. I see my colleagues 4 days out of 5 most weeks so don't miss out on any lack of their society.

It is not your employers issue that you have a three hour commute.

No it isn't but a break from having to travel once a week can be a lovely break and give you time to do things at home before and after your work time.

I didn't attack herl

What hours do you work, and do you have to do those hours at home.
At my place if someone works from home it means the others at work have to take more phone calls and Skype type queries. We allow WFH in my department as an emergency thing, rather than it just suits you better. But another department let's its team work from home one set day.
What benefits the company from you working from home, which day do you want to do what hours would you do

It's hard to get hold of colleagues working from home.

I agree Jennifer, wfh absolutely rocks, putting on a comfy tracksuit, slippers and grabbing a coffee while the laptop is firing up, and not having to wear smart clothes saves so much time and faff.

But the office days are good too. I can save loads of time walking over to someone's desk or even bumping into people and having a 5 min exchange gives me more nuggets of info than a 1 hour meeting, especially something unexpectedly relevant to what I'm working on.

WFH is actively encouraged at my workplace for the purposes of wellbeing but the reality is that nobody bothers to ask for it as the answer is usually no.
Just lip service/ box ticking.
I also have a monstrous commute which will make me unwell if I don't stop soon.

I see a lot of folks on MN WFH and I'd love to know where they find these jobs.....

LaganBubble I'm currently temping in the public sector. While the pay is not as great as private sector, they are really hot on flexible working.

Where I work everyone who isn’t customer facing is encouraged strongly to work from home. Reason is they can now move to smaller offices and reduce overheads.

Staff come into work less than one day per week

Advantage is, they are always at their desk / the staff in office can be on lunch, in a meeting, in the staff room

But those at home are always contactable