Back to the office when it feels pointless?

[Cleopatra2022]

I have loved being allowed to wfh the past couple of years. It’s made my life/work balance much better. I rarely get to finish at my official finish time and am often added to meetings that don’t even start until I’m supposed to have stopped working. All so much easier from home when I don’t then face a commute home after.
There’s nothing in my job that requires me to physically be present in an office or with colleagues. Yet from April we are being told to go back. Working patterns mean that for two days a week I’m literally going to be sat there alone. 3 hours of commuting just to sit and do what I could be doing at home. It’s so utterly pointless and just makes my life harder for no good reason.
Is anyone else finding themselves in a similar situation?

I used to have a job where I routinely had to go in just to sit there alone most days. Also a long commute (around 1.5 hrs door to door each way). It was absolutely soul destroying, especially as the office didn't even have a proper window!

I got a job that is fully home-based and feel much happier about it all.

People talk about working from the office being good for networking and learning from others but in many jobs you are literally the only one there, or at least the only one from your team, so it really doesn't make any difference being there or not.

Actually alone?

I'd say no.

Wait til they get the energy bill! I suspect lots of companies will be asking people to work from home again.

We’ve had new recruits in lockdown and their progress is amazing. Honestly have less concerns about their learning curve compared to any other new recruits we’ve had pre lockdown. Maybe it’s a coincidence but we’ve had zero issues. Maybe people find it easier to ask for help via teams rather than worrying about interrupting and approaching busy looking colleagues in the office. I’m not sure. We also had a massive drive to produce documented guides on processes etc which should have existed pre covid anyway so these have been super helpful.

YANBU OP. Thankfully my employer is being really open so far - office is open and desks are bookable but no mandatory office days. I’d try and push back as going on alone is stupid.

@LethargicActress

It's not pointless. People like you with experience are vital for younger colleagues to be around. They learn so much from other people that they will miss out on if everyone stays WFH, and it's not just about you, it's about the workforce as a whole.

I don't think it would take many years for us to be able to see the damage that would be irreversibly done for companies when they can't train new recruits properly because everyone's at home.

That only applies if those people are also in the office. In OP’s case she will be the only one in the office for two days a week which is nonsensical.

I agree with BIWI -- home or office, you could look at setting firmer boundaries around meeting kick-off times. When I was office-based I just declined any meeting requests that came in after 5pm or before 9am.

@Mrmoose23

My partner is having to do this 3 days a week, they are also moving the location of the office soon to 40 miles away where there is no parking available at the office either meaning he will need to catch 3 trains and it will be 2.5 hour journey each way.

I have a feeling from my dim and distant HR days that if a company does this then they should be offering voluntary redundancy. Something about increasing a journey by x amount of time (45 minutes I thought). Of course this was when dinosaurs roamed the earth so things might have changed now.

Also, I'd be asking for a risk assessment for lone working. Is it in a shared building? If not, then are you responsible for opening and closing the place?

Sorry I am a bit fed up with work from home for everyone, last week I was on the school run with my insurance company, in the kitchen getting lunch for a toddler and taking them to the toilet with the man from the bank and my mum’s solicitor couldn’t talk when I called and was transferred to her from the office with a question about our POA as she had her mother staying now she’s working from home and she’s got dementia.

Email is my preference but these were urgent questions and none of their child/parent care arrangements are my problem and my emails querying the way I have been dealt with have been ignored x2 and one got a very terse reply as I need to appreciate that it is better for their employees

@Viviennemary

If your firm wants you in the office thats where you need to be. IMHO. If you want a job permanently working from home then apply for such a job. The wfh was a temporary measure because of a pandemic.

oh

People are allowed to discuss work.

@LethargicActress

It's not pointless. People like you with experience are vital for younger colleagues to be around. They learn so much from other people that they will miss out on if everyone stays WFH, and it's not just about you, it's about the workforce as a whole.

I don't think it would take many years for us to be able to see the damage that would be irreversibly done for companies when they can't train new recruits properly because everyone's at home.

Isn't it all about the industry/sector though?

I mean in my role that was sold as fully remote, the two weeks of physical training last month, consisted literally of spending half the time hooked up to zoom! lol, you could not make it up.

When I have turned up to the office, if I thought it was chance to ask questions and receive real time help, I was badly mistaken - what gets me is when teams are treated differently - the rest of the trainees from my group have been assured they are remote and haven't had to make journeys in ((for now)) we ended up with different team leaders and my take is the come into the work place goes of the team leader's annoyance and their want/instruction to work non-remote.

Not a defence to OP but my local Anglian News yesterday were saying people in our county want hybrid split working and that going into the work place was 'mental health helping'.

It's tough, I can't imagine trying now to change jobs and be saying well, I thought I had a remote job. sounds right whingy, to be fair I don't think better work exists from home then what I am doing at present.

Sorry I’ve only just seen the replies.
My travel time is 3 hours round trip so there and back. It was not as long pre pandemic as the office has since moved.
I already wfh on some days and always have had that in my contract. However since the pandemic they are offering it to all, which is great. But everyone else has picked to wfh on different days to me. Mine are set and can’t be moved as not only is my personal life worked around them, but my work and all meetings are too.
My junior colleagues are also not going to be in the office on two of the days that I will be. So I won’t be useful for them.
I won’t be completely alone in the building since it’s a large company but I will likely be the only person on our floor but certainly our department.
It just feels utterly pointless and I have pushed back and been told I have to go in. It’s purely to satisfy the higher ups who have mandated it without any thought for the fact it doesn’t work for everyone.