WFH Equipment

[Workfromhomedesk]

If you work from home, does your employer fund desk/chair/screens etc?

I am currently officially office based, and am in 3/4 days a week with 1/2 at home. I use the dining room table. Work are now saying they want to make our contacts remote working with "maybe" 1 or 2 days in the office. I absolutely do not want this, I much prefer the office.

Is it wrong to expect that they should now be providing suitable equipment? I don't have anything at the moment and I do not want to fund it but I need large screens to work effectively for more than 1 day a week. My dining table chairs are also not great for my back.

I have self funded everything apart from the laptop. So 2 decent screens. I did actually take a chair home as I have a middle aged back.

You really don't need to discuss your mental health situation unless you want to. Have the discussion, but just say there is not enough room for you to wfh and you have started getting back pains because you don't have a proper set up, but - catch 22 - you don't have room for a proper set up ergo you need to be in the office.

I'm sure there will be enough people wanting not to work their days in the office for it to balance out.

Another variation on the theme above, we all have to hot desk unless we have documented specific desk requirements due to health needs. You could exaggerate any aches and pains and get your own desk that way possibly.

Don't give up your job, there must be a better solution.

I know you can't do anything about the lack of actual space at home to WFH but that aside my employer has refused to fund desks, chairs etc as in their view we are saving a fortune each week in commuting - which we are so I agree with the policy - it more than offsets the cost of a a bit of furniture. In fact over a year I'd imagine most people would have saved enough to purchase a home office/ cabin type structure for the garden

My commute on the train would be circa £100 a month and that's only because I'm local. Most of my colleagues it was more like £200-300

And some people might agree that they are willing to self-fund because of the benefits they get from WFH. But employers get financial savings too in terms of reduced office space, which is expensive. However, on legal grounds an employer is responsible for ensuring proper health and safety and DSE , and any injuries including long term impacts of a poor working environment can result in them being sued. So it's a daft employer that doesn't think about such things.@

A @couldishouldigoforit that sort of makes sense if you're not commuting at all - but the increasing cost of energy would negate any savings now I'd think- but a part wfh part office is the worst of all worlds, as you can't even get the savings from a monthly travel pass as not going in every day.

I absolutely am fine with not having an allocated desk - hot desk on whatever one is available would be fine, it's just the availability of such that worries me.

Big girl pants time. Also, can confirm that everything seems worse at 2am...

It really does! The imagining of these conversations is also almost always worse than the reality too.

I ended up being really honest with my work in summer 2020 - "I'm really sorry but I just feel like I am losing my mind being stuck in my house all the time, please can I go into the office".

If it's that there's only room for 1/3 of you then I expect it will work fine - there will be some people who want to be in once a week absolute max, or even less and those will balance out against those who don't. If you're happy to WFH even a day a week from your dining table that will also help counteract the space issue.

I have to remind myself that mostly managers don't have massive ideological reasons for asking everyone to do things like working from home, its practical. So if you want to work from the office, they are unlikely to be personally affronted. It's a different situation from trying to insist you never want to be back in the office and much less likely to cause upset.

@rookiemere

I was concerned about energy bills but actually mine has barely increased due to WFH - I have the TV on, washing machine tumble dryer running, heating still goes on as normal - the cost is certainly much much less than the reciprocal saving in commute costs.

Very few people these days walk to work so 99% of WFHers are making a financial saving overall

Within days of the first lockdown I had a second monitor and proper office chair delivered by my employer. If I needed anything extra it would've been provided and paid for no questions asked.

To answer your original question OP, our employers were fantastic during covid and I got my office chair sent to me along with new docking station.

I understand it's purely a cost saving exercise - consolidation of teams into smaller spaces so we can dispose of parts of the estate.

I have booked a meeting with my line manager to talk about my concerns, will see what happens - not until next week unfortunately as we are all pretty busy!

I would hate this! I have nowhere to wfh. When it was necessary, I worked in the lounge but that meant nobody else could be in there. It's not a long-term solution though. I got given a laptop for work 2 months ago - we started wfh in Feb 2020 and finished May 2021 - so too slow to be of any real use! I also resent being sent on health and safety courses about the importance of an ergonomic work station when I am crunched up on a dining room table!!

Be honest OP.

"I understand from the perspective of the organisation why you want to save costs and reduce office space. However, I have worked from home for over two years now and I know that it does not suit me. I much prefer being in the office and work much better that way. My circumstances at home mean that I would still want to come into the office. Is that going ti be possible?"

If they say no bring out the big guns and say you're thinking of leaving if they don't sort it.

I do think this is a real problem that people who don't want to/can't work at home who are in career sectors that are becoming more wfh are forgotten.

I'm job hunting at the moment, and my options are actually limited because I don't want to consider a fully remote job for the same reasons as OP. I would put up with hybrid at a push. I live in a place where I'm currently able to walk/cycle to work so my commuting costs are zero and could continue to be zero if I got a local job . But many local companies are now going fully remote. I don't see how this model of working can persist - surely not everyone has space for home offices, desks, two monitors, office chairs ... ironically the thing that everyone valued in lockdown was space - now we are giving ourselves less space!

My company will provide DSE equipment as needed for WFH, but more importantly despite having an official policy of WFH as routine but office time for organised team time (which we have to book desks for), there have been allowances made for people where WFH is not suitable for whatever reason.

They do have to make formal arrangements for their office space to be allocated, but once done they are considered to be work from office colleagues. I think they may have had remote working removed as an option entirely for this concession though and attendance is a mandatory 100% in exchange for a permanent desk at the office.

Definitely speak to your employer. If they're retaining office space they may be able to make arrangements for you around your wellbeing. If needs be ask for occupational health support because WFH will result in absence due to the increase to your stress and anxiety. Best of luck.

What would they do if someone said that they just didn't have space to WFH? I moved jobs during the pandemic as I specifically didn't want permanent WFH as I would struggle with the space. I like people, I like being around them.

Lots of people, for lots of reasons, have said throughout lockdown and beyond that they prefer to work in the office - every day, some days, whatever - and they have. WFH has never been made compulsory by my employer, but neither has being in the office.

I think they are slowly realising that the WFH has gone too far - so many people have moved too far away to be able to easily come into the office for team meetings etc, and there's a concern about a diminishing "brand loyalty" amongst employees. Whilst neither WFH nor WFTO will ever be compulsory again (I think), there does seem to be a sentiment that a "company" isn't a "company" if we're all working individually from our kitchen tables, for ever.