If you work in an office FT and now WFH

[Energem]

When do you think you will return to the office and on what arrangements?
Where is your office e.g. city like London, industrial park drive in..
What is your management saying (and what do they actually want?)

Work for a media company on Tottenham Court Road, we've been told we can't go back until January - I found out on the grapevine that it's because the finances are in a terrible state at the FD can't find any budget to spend on the office to enforce social distancing, etc.

My boss and a few of the senior management team are pushing to go fully remote however they all live in big houses and are at that stage of life where working from home suits them. Not many outside of them are particularly keen as most of the people are young so live in small flats or house shares.

If we do end up not renewing the lease I am going to ask for a settlement/redundancy as I've been there a few years now. Changing your work location is a fundamental change of your contracts terms and conditions so you can't be forced into it.

worksmart.org.uk/work-rights/family-friendly-work/teleworking/can-my-employer-force-me-adopt-teleworking-when-id

Our senior management are the opposite, joan04. They can taxi / Ferrari / chauffeur in London as they all live in south Ken or Hampstead sort places (big boss has a jet yep) then fume that nobody is in the office except some juniors in flatshares or unsuitable home working environments. Everybody more experienced lives outside London. Clearly they dont pay enough to live in London...

Some sort of flexibility is best as people have childcare and transport to overcome.

Masks and temperature checks are not expensive to enforce, though requiring more space is hence again flexibility or a rota helps. However with the kitchen cordoned off, no social spaces, and having to wear a mask just to go to the loo is really a put off.

@Energem
No physical meet-ups ever. Many staff live in house shares and don’t have suitable accommodation. For many, it’s their first job too, so not ideal. I work in media.

Office in an industrial park. Pre Covid it was standard to wfh 2 days a week.

We are being told new year before we go to office regularly.

City centre office (Leeds)
Government Agency
CEO saying 6-12 months still.

[quote daisypond]@Energem
No physical meet-ups ever. Many staff live in house shares and don’t have suitable accommodation. For many, it’s their first job too, so not ideal. I work in media.[/quote]
I don't think this sounds forward thinking at all. Video conferencing for hours is exhausting, how do you bring people in at the bottom for entry level jobs when they need training, how do you build professional networks and get the experience that comes with working around others? It also assumes that everyone can WFH, for some it's either not possible or very uncomfortable

I work for a large LA, we have been told WFH for now, but we can ask to go back in. My ideal would be 2 days in the office and 3 from home (I was doing 3/2 before lockdown) so will be applying to do that.

Yes, it’s not ideal. We don’t need to do video conferencing, really, though. All training is now done remotely, which the company was moving towards anyway. Some people will leave if they can find other jobs. But the media has been badly hit by the lockdown and savings have to be made. Most people are trying to find other jobs in the public sector if possible.

Industrial estate outside small town. Looking like I’ll be in one day a week from next month.

Our senior management team has told us they're letting the lease expire on head office (central London) this September and we're all moving to agile working. They're retaining their hub offices of which there are 3 others in London (not central) and a couple nationally. It seems a good compromise; all staff can now work from home but have the option to use their local office if needs be.

Massive office on the edge of town. Back 3 days a week, expect it will be more as and when laws relax to fit more in.

Employees are generally against it as WFH has worked really well and there's no obvious business benefit - but upper leadership is taking a strict line. It seems this stance is in the minority on this thread! ☹️

We've been told it will most likely be next year.

@PushyMeez

Massive office on the edge of town. Back 3 days a week, expect it will be more as and when laws relax to fit more in.

Employees are generally against it as WFH has worked really well and there's no obvious business benefit - but upper leadership is taking a strict line. It seems this stance is in the minority on this thread! ☹️

That doesnt make sense does it? Keep the lease cost and workers unhappy and lose people and business.

I like the hub offices idea. I simply dont get management who dont look to a flexible system and want to revert to normal like nothing ever happened (and flexible/agile working was already a trend that has simply been accelerated)
I do think office has value to retain but in many industries it is definitely possible to reimagine (given by nature it was being done in an office at a computer before... and technology has leapt forward the past decade)

I am an accountant and "normally" work in an office FT.
I heard we wont be back in until September at all and they dont except things to be back to sort of normality until January but nothing is official yet as everything could change.

We have been split into 4 groups - customer facing (receptionists etc), entirely desk based (like HR perhaps), other customer facing (out in the community) and I can't remember the other group

Customer facing (receptionists) have had a phased return beginning last week. I'm in the last group and have been told it will be september (when schools all back) when I return.

I am really not happy as I want to continue WFH and as a disabled person I am concerned about H&S but I'm not getting a lot of information from work.

We are a nationwide public sector organisation with offices in every major city and town. Offices vary from small (just our organisation) to large (sharing with other organisations so lifts/stairs/ reception etc).

Staff travel in various ways - train, underground, bus, car, bike.

We do hot desking normally and there are not enough desks for the staff we have, and we have very crowded offices.

Their plan to get us all back by September is just nonsense. Where are we all going to fit unless its all done as it was before? Apparently there is a risk assessment being done but I haven't seen it and suspect it will be a blanket one size fits all approach.

meant to say I think it is madness to go back to work a few months only to be sent home in the event of another local or national lockdown.

How many times can we go back, go home, go back, go home?

London office, c300 people, global firm.

Firm being very forward thinking, no immediate return, considering wider flexibility options 2/3 days a week wfh.

Message from top is greater flexibility.

However middle management think they can ride roughshod over this, none of them have kids/commitments so all want to go back to the office five days a week, they like to have a presence. Utter idiots.

No sign of us returning to the office at all. I think management are quite keen on the wfh method now it's been proven to work. They will probably call us in occasionally for meetings but otherwise I suspect they will use this as an opportunity to save money on overheads like office spaces.

Not back in the office till Jan at the earliest. I suspect we may never go back properly and will be encouraged to wfh where possible for ever.

City centre (not London), I've been going back in 2 days a week, hoping to increase soon. I don't mind WFH now and then, but I hate the feeling of never escaping work (as much as I feel very grateful that I had the chance to during this). I have a few new starters who started a fortnight ago, and it's near on impossible to teach them the job remotely, and i feel like they're going to miss out on a lot by not being in the office much- so hopefully at some point be back to 'normal', albeit with more flexibility I guess. I would look for another job if it was fully WFH, especially as outsourcing looks appealing to a lot of companies

Our offices are saying we can work from home for the foreseeable future.

They are switching to a voluntary basis for going into the office, previously it was only for those who had to go in or had a very good reason to go in. However there's no pressure for those who don't wish to go in, that's been very clearly spelt out.

I doubt I'll go to the office again this year. If I do it'll be only for a day or two and my choice. I wear a mask (before anyone has a go) but it isn't pleasant commuting in one and you can't socially distance on the tube when it's busy so it is safer to work at home. None of the nice things about the office are there anyway now.

We were told in May the earliest we would be back in office would be 1st September. We've had no updates since, will probably get something next month.

City of london office

Fully hotdesking set up which will stop immediately

October phased return

2 and 3 day alternating weeks WFH

Small contact centre. Everyone is back except those shielding

Surrey office of international firm 1,200 people in our buildings, no more than 10% back before Christmas and will be voluntary, temp checks, masks while walking around, one way system etc, they were flexible anyway and I don’t think we will ever return to the office 5 days a week again, working from home has been wonderful for me so am delighted although I do miss my colleges

We’ve not been told when, but have been told it will be a 2 / 3 days in the office expected per week. Specifically we’ve all been told we can’t move away and expect to work from home full time.
Not sure about new office set up. Company is changing to more temporary project teams so not sure how it will work. Theoretically we already hot desk but in practice everyone sat at same desks every day.

Currently you can only go in to work with sign off by senior management and good reason (e.g. difficult home working conditions).