New WFH policy: 2 (or 3) in and rest from home

[TwoYearsMarried]

What would you think of this?
For me it seems fair and is the ideal. I would work 2 days in the office and 2 home (I work a 4 day week) but I worry for graduates, the younger generation basically enforced to stay at home for 2, sometimes 3 days a week. Working in a bubble. Also what's the point of going in at all if the 2-3 days you choose to go in differs to those of your team.
Any insight based on what others are doing? Would you be happy with this new policy?

Bump

We have a similar thing, 3 days in (or with clients) 2 days home - for me it will end up being roughly similar to what I was doing before

We don’t have an upper limit so if people want to come in more I don’t see a problem - for me I see that we will have people being hesitant and not coming in or having lots of people on certain days and not others - for me the challenge is things like whole office meetings - can everyone come in? Will 2/5 of the office be at home?

Ours are saying, work where you like whenever you like but managers can schedule some times where everyone must be in. These won't be regular but based on staff feedback that some kinds of collaboration work better in person so when these are required we'll schedule them but otherwise people can do what they like (with the exception of some particular roles that have always been remote as they involve visiting other places).

Bruce Daisley has been writing about this though. Younger people may miss out on promotion or networking opportunities by people not being in offices.

I think this is a massive issue for younger people. We visited friends recently who have moved: their new house has two 'offices', one upstairs one downstairs. So they have an extra reception room and a 4 bed house. They're both v senior but the majority of people can't afford this.

When I lived in house-shares (till my 30s) I would literally have had a breakdown if I had to somehow work and sleep in the same bedroom. I also manage people now, and feel there are big issues with communication: I learnt so much about how to do my job by watching people more senior than me, how they spoke on the phone, how they arranged things with others. I feel like the debate about WFH is being driven by middle-aged middle class professionals who are saving time on the school run/communte: I fit that category myself but I wonder how people will feel in ten years time when there's a generation of recent graduates who aren't able to properly do their jobs because they've had absolutely no exposure to working with others.

We’ve been doing this for 18 months. Works well.

We have a desk rota so people book in with the people they need to be with.

The flip side of course is that there's also a danger of the young, perceived 'go-getter' types will always be around and be seen to be working, as opposed to those with caring responsibilities and disabilities who may choose to be at home more.

I'd highly recommend dipping into previous Eat Sleep Work Repeat newsletters on this if you're interested.

I would love 3 days in 2 at home but I have a young family. In my 20s I think being in an office full time was character building, mixing with people and demographics I wouldn’t usually in my day to day life overly give much time to. I worry that keeping younger people at home will lead to even more social divides, if you can’t hear other peoples take on things and opinions how can we be open- let’s be honest birds of a feather fly together, most of our social circles are very similar to our own in terms of outlook.

When I lived in house-shares (till my 30s) I would literally have had a breakdown if I had to somehow work and sleep in the same bedroom.

A colleague in her 20s has had a breakdown from this. Ended up needing medication and cbt.

There are two separate issues here:

1. Individuals having a suitable, comfortable place to work. Agree this is likely to impact the younger generation more (not exclusively though, plenty of people with young children at home may be struggling too). Employers should have a responsibility to offer a suitable workspace.

1. Whether junior members of staff need to be physically present with senior staff in order to learn how to do their job effectively.

This varies enormously, depending on the type of job and isn't essential for all roles.

For our profession, learning happens from a mix of analysing/writing documents and discussing matters (which can be to seek guidance or share ideas or mentor others).
All of that has continued to happen over the last 18 months whilst we've worked from home.
We didn't all just stop doing our jobs (including mentoring, developing others' skills etc) because we couldn't be physically in the same room as each other.

My organisation have said there will be no upper limit on working in the office so younger people and those who prefer office work will be able to. We will expect full timers to be in 2-3 days and there are plans to try and coordinate timings so that teams can sit together and collaborate in person.

I keep reading about the loss of mentoring and face to face opportunities but we have been hotdesking (6-7 desks per 10 ppl) for a few years and tbh that made it far more to collaborate and build relationships than WFH. Fewer days in but with a greater chance of sitting with team members looks like a much better option.

Our junior ranks are not eligible for the option to have WFH days, and for the rest it comes with the stipulation that everyone's pattern has to work for the whole team - ie you can't have only the juniors there on their own on any days etc.

Plus anybody of any rank who does not want to WFH can revert to the previous full time in the workplace pattern.

@cindarellasbelly

I think this is a massive issue for younger people. We visited friends recently who have moved: their new house has two 'offices', one upstairs one downstairs. So they have an extra reception room and a 4 bed house. They're both v senior but the majority of people can't afford this.

When I lived in house-shares (till my 30s) I would literally have had a breakdown if I had to somehow work and sleep in the same bedroom. I also manage people now, and feel there are big issues with communication: I learnt so much about how to do my job by watching people more senior than me, how they spoke on the phone, how they arranged things with others. I feel like the debate about WFH is being driven by middle-aged middle class professionals who are saving time on the school run/communte: I fit that category myself but I wonder how people will feel in ten years time when there's a generation of recent graduates who aren't able to properly do their jobs because they've had absolutely no exposure to working with others.

I agree so much with this

Also what @OnlyFoolsnMothers said about people becoming more and more segregated and I'd also say losing the skills to 'exist alongside' people that they don't agree with or maybe even don't like very much. You see it so much on here where people create huge issues because they need to exist alongside people they might not choose as their best friend, and they blow things out of all proportion. I think wfh can fuel that.

I say that as a HUGE advocate of being able to wfh at least some of the time, and someone who has done it for at least 10 years.
As a pp said, it works for those of us who are older, more experienced, and who have dc, who have enough space in our homes to create workspaces, and, of course do jobs that can be done from home. That narrows it down to quite a small % of the workforce

@cindarellasbelly

I think this is a massive issue for younger people. We visited friends recently who have moved: their new house has two 'offices', one upstairs one downstairs. So they have an extra reception room and a 4 bed house. They're both v senior but the majority of people can't afford this.

When I lived in house-shares (till my 30s) I would literally have had a breakdown if I had to somehow work and sleep in the same bedroom. I also manage people now, and feel there are big issues with communication: I learnt so much about how to do my job by watching people more senior than me, how they spoke on the phone, how they arranged things with others. I feel like the debate about WFH is being driven by middle-aged middle class professionals who are saving time on the school run/communte: I fit that category myself but I wonder how people will feel in ten years time when there's a generation of recent graduates who aren't able to properly do their jobs because they've had absolutely no exposure to working with others.

This. 100%

Not good for some disabled people as we can't pick what days our disabilities appear. Some of us benefit more from WFH every day. Not every employer is accommodating of our needs in an office environment.