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?

Do you have a London based job? If not then apply for one where the company encourages flexible working (eg HSBC, Houses of Parliament) - in my experience large London based employers usually have more flexible working opportunities than a job based in another UK city as employers are used to using it to mitigate transport and office space problems. If you have a mid to senior level job most employers will encourage at least 1 or 2 days per week. At a number of financial services companies, if you don’t work with clients, for example there is often no need to go part time because most people based in their London HQs wfh at least twice a week.

I wfh a lot and tend to find I’m more productive at home than I would be at the office. If you trust your employees then there is really no reason they can’t partially work from home unless client facing. My colleagues can always get hold of me and I just arrange meeting for when I’m in the office. If there is something urgent I’ll swap my days or just come in an extra day.

I would start with the length of your commute and offer a longer day - if you usually work 9-5 and you’re out of the house 6-8, tell them you intend to work 8-6 for no extra pay, so the company will also benefit, so will you, and you will be better rested to perform your other two days in the office. Offer a 3 month trial and basically say - I’m confident you’ll see the difference and be happy with it but if you aren’t I’ll accept it hasn’t worked

Financial services is very much "bums on seats" in the office

At RBS HQ in Edinburgh most staff have to work some days from home because there isn't space for them all. Not sure about the other banks.

@lazymare - I think that person probably confused Finance with Big 4 consultancy or client side investment banking services. Every financial services firm offers work from home as a flexible working option.

Boomsk

Not sure hilow are my comments on another thread relevant here but it certainly wasn't me criticising pregnant women.

I'm not angry at all, I love my job for the flexibility it offers and I am grateful my husband's job offers similar flexibility.

I am always contactable working from home, either by phone or Skype or email.

The main reason employers don't wfh is they don't trust their employees, pure and simple. My organisation judges us on output, not hours. As long as the work is being done, and being done well (which it is), it really doesn't matter if one of us puts on a load of washing, or receives an online shop, or takes a couple of hours out to attend a child's school assembly.

It is a much better way of working and I really don't understand why more places don't do it.

Home working is definitely more productive than working in an office. You're not exhausted from a long commute or distracted by the office chit chat. You're less likely to be off sick because you won't get the latest office bug. Or on occasion you may feel too ill to travel to work, but well enough to work from home.

And the flexibility benefits everyone. You can be at home for deliveries, to stick some washing in etc. You don't have to take time off work if one of your dcs is off school sick. You can offer a flexible approach to work. So whereas you might always need to leave the office at 5pm, you could work later if you're based at home.

You're saving yourself money (travel costs) and your employer money because they don't have to provide work space and associated costs.

Good idea from pp to ask to do it Ona trial basis.

it really doesn't matter if one of us puts on a load of washing, or receives an online shop

Because we are FW-friendly, people do say "oops sorry just going to answer the door for my Amazon parcel/gas man/Postie" and nobody bats an eyelid!

Sorry I should have clarified re my Financial Services bums on seats comment, I meant specifically companies selling Fin Servs, including Insurances where telephony support needed for claims admin, product support, with call centre type set up. Less so, the Price Waterhouse E&W type accountancy finance corporates.

What I find, running a small professional department, however, is that things crop up and if the client relationship manager isn't there, the issue falls to someone else and breeds discontent. Not all data is available remotely because of firewalls, etc, and unless it's a day for report writing or policy twonking, I don't find it helpful.

Not all data is available remotely because of firewalls

That could be easily remedied if you wanted to improve your systems to give your employees better flexibility.

things crop up and if the client relationship manager isn't there, the issue falls to someone else and breeds discontent.

Do you mean a client showing up at the office? Because if its something that would be dealt with via email and phone at the office, then why can't that be done from home?

Tempjob - what's your job and what are your main tasks?
That could help us to come up with some reasons

I'm a Sales Director and wfh with occasional customer visits and 1 or 2 office days a month

Most of my tasks - calling customers, speaking to direct reports who also wfh, conf calls, doing spreadsheets and presentations can all be done at home far quicker without interruption

We have team Skype calls and annual company wide meetings at head office

Some departments are in other countries so have to deal with remotely anyway, my home location makes no difference

Cannot ever imagine going back to a daily commute, I am far more productive here

Some data is v v sensitive.
My managers manage small teams. Their admin teams still need to be managed, as do their middle managers.
The SMT where I work would not be happy if key people were regularly unavailable.

I provide my teams with morning catch upz every other day. 20 mins. If they aren't there, they miss it and no, I don't have time to repeat it.

I'm sure wfh works in some functions but certainly not all.

When DS was born I went back part-time, wfh two days, in office one day. It was awful. It diluted the divide and home wasn't home any more. Also, I quickly fpund my finger stopped being on the pulse and I wasn't as strategically engaged. Add to that the sociability of work, the dressing for work, seeing people, making connections, albeit with a cheery smile or comradely wink and for me it was never the way to go.

The number of staff who ask to wfh to facilitate childcare/sick child is mindblowing. It is not possible to work and care for under 7s at the same time. If they can demonstrate there is childcare in place, fine, but if the ceo wants a critical conversation/some critical data he or she wants a conversation where there is 100% attention and no background wailing. If an employee is paid full time and not available when required at 3.30, it isn't a full contractual service. There has to be 100% availability in core hours.

I'm sure wfh works in some functions but certainly not all

It can work in most, but many employers don't want it to so they make excuses.

My staff are customer facing to the rest of the organisation. They need to be at work except for pre-arranged days where specific output is expected. They can spend 3/4 hours a day in internal formal and informal meetings. Due to other people's calendar availability these meetings are often arranged at short notice.

The area in which I work sees at least 50% of staff coming in only for specifics and 50% have a dedicated day at least for something specific. Few of those staff are in on Fridays but that is the day they catch up on admin/mgt and expect my function to be available.

They can spend 3/4 hours a day in internal formal and informal meetings. Due to other people's calendar availability these meetings are often arranged at short notice

Just like my husband, who dials in to short notice meetings.

I provide my teams with morning catch upz every other day. 20 mins. If they aren't there, they miss it and no, I don't have time to repeat it.

Surely they can just skype in?

I've been working from home for 20 years now, the company I work for are opening a new head office and getting rid of the mobile roles and want everyone to go there to work. Sod that for a laugh.

When I do work in an office all they do is sit around talking about TV and booking their holidays, you can't have a private phone conversation and you can't hear yourself think for the background noise. The coffee is shit and it takes me hours to get there and back. I get a fraction of the work done in an office than what I get done from my home office. No thanks.

@Ohtheroses the service my team provides is similar (service provided to internal customers), but we work on a ratio of 10 people to every 6 desks so must do some days wfh each week. We work across multiple sites, so Skyping or teleconferencing is the norm and you can do this just as well from home as from an office building.
There are rules around home working (such as not caring for your children), but also a degree of trust and flexibility. From my pov it’s invaluable- eg can take dc to music lessons after school when on an office day I wouldn’t be home before 6pm at the earliest.
We’ve had significant investment in our IT so all data is immediately to hand. Unless the WiFi goes down which seems to happen in the office too.

Skyping in is great if it works. Except in one or two dedicated environments it doesn't where I work. So many such meetings have collapsed because of it.

So many such meetings have collapsed because of it.

You need better tech or more tech savvy employees.

I have been WFH for 8 years in my current role, which also entails site visits county wide. I have recently spent the last month 'working' at HO for 3 days a week on a phased return and literally did sod all in that time. The office based staff spend 80 % if their day on Pinterest and the other 20% talking about it or drinking tea.

I couldn't wait to return to my home based job where I can sit in my pj's all day but actually doing my job and not being constantly distracted by constant, inane office chatter.
I can also choose when I travel to the sites I need to visit, thus avoiding sat in stationery traffic wasting fuel and choking the planet with fumes.

It depends on your job, I need to be on site because people come to see me and they don't always call ahead. In addition it means I use their electric, gas, computer equipment etc. I can work at home if I need to eg when I get a bug and don't want to spread it (because of the type of work there's immunocompromised people) or a dd or ddog needs me for something though