Wfh and now asked to go in

[ThePlumVan]

Wfh solidly for 19 months throughout COVID - mine is the only role within my subsidiary company that can be done this way. Everyone else needs to either be onsite permanently or needs to make regular visits to site, but not me.

Head Office is maintaining wfh (wherever possible) in line with government guidance. Anyone that needs to work onsite has to have head of service permission.

Subsidiary Manager has asked me to start going back in for meetings initially and then basically back onsite to work.

All my work has been done without complaint, with all meetings over Zoom. I really don’t want to go back in (many reasons!). Union advice is to continue as I am.
Am I being unreasonable to want to continue wfh ?

I think it’s really showing which employers are willing to be flexible and which won’t be at the expense of good staff who have worked from home in difficult circumstances and made a success of it but are now being told it’s now real or good work unless they are office based.
It’s bringing up a lot of structural societal problems like the cost of housing and transport and environmental concerns and focusing everything around city centre dwellers. The always- on presenteeist culture. Wanting more work life balance and the unnecessary nature of a lot of the face to face meetings at work which could be done in another way (in some workplaces).

What you need is clarity.
Head office are saying one thing and your manager another.
It would be sensible to ask for a meeting with both to discuss it. Your manager can tell head office why it is best for the business, you can put your pov and your higher ups can make the decision.

Of course, it will destroy your relationship with your manager beyond repair but it sounds like that's going to happen anyway. 🤷‍♀️

There are way more job opportunities than candidates so if WFH is that important to you I’d be looking for another role.

Your manager, whether they see it or not now, is going to be cutting their nose off over a lack of flexibility. There’ll be hiring costs, training time and costs and a drop in productivity both before and for a while after their new employee eventually comes on board. They’re also probably under paying you vs the current market rate, if you’ve been there a while, which means more costs.

And for what? Because you’re the sticky up nail that they can’t help but hammer down?!