Being 'forced' back into the office

[PinkPeonies22]

Wondering whether anyone works for companies that after letting them work remotely for several years during the pandemic, have now told them they need to return to the office. How have organisations been policing/enforcing it, and has anyone been made to leave for refusing to go back? If so, how? (eg. was it via disciplinary?), and did you have compelling reasons why you wanted to continue to work remotely? Thanks in advance.

I'm afraid employers are within their legal rights to ask people to go back for the office. Most employers are being flexible but in my company people who didn't want to come back we're told to give notice which they did.

thank you so much for sharing. so essentially they were asked to resign, rather than forced out via a disciplinary. I guess it might have come to that if they refused to resign?

If the employer needs people to be in the office, then that is what has to happen. None of us should expect to dictate where we work.

If your place of work in your contract is the office and your employer wants to have everyone back in the office, the you have two options

1. resign
2. fired for refusal to return

Always better to resign than be fired on your cv

Is your contract a wfh one? If not then contractually they can get you back in the office.

It sucks - our organisation definitely has some dinosaurs at the top who are resistant to change and want everything back the way it was pre covid.

I know some teams were basically told get back to the office or else, but they backed down when the team members pointed out it wasn't a company wide policy (more some department heads going power mad!) but if it is company wide I'm not sure what you can do. Do they have any good reasons for it?

I worked with staff to get them back - we gave loads of notice. Some
Just refused without good reason (eg disability). So they had to resign as they were not prepared to return and we were not in the business of building a remote workforce regardless of their views.
We hadn't needed to go down disciplinary process but would have

Was the job office based when you initially accepted it? If so, as others have said, your employer can absolutely expect you to resume office working.

I have been at work (in the 'office') throughout Covid but several people at DHs work have been told they are now required back into the office full time. To refuse would be a disciplinary matter. There is no more home working within the organisation.

To be honest given the number of people on here who think they can look after young children and work from home it's hardly surprising companies want people back in the office.

We WFH during the pandemic, having not been allowed to do so before. After a year, our contracts were changed so our place of work was defined as “home”. Lots of people weren’t happy because they didn’t have space at home, but they “had” to agree in the end to the change in contract. There was Union involvement.

It's been interesting in my sector to see the seismic shift over the past few months. As soon as a few companies and departments ramped up returning to the office others have followed like dominoes. I suspect this will increase over the coming year, more and more back to the office at least for part of the week.

We have to be in 3 days a week minimum, this can be monitored through our IT log in location or via swipe cards but it isn't really, most people are happy enough coming back though have to say I am enjoying it too.

You could apply for a reasonable adjustment if you have a medical reason for not being able to return, but this would likely be subject to occ health confirming. You could also quit but to be honest with more and more returning and more competition for fully remote work jobs it might not be the best idea.

I am being forced back into the office. I work for the Shitty Daily Mail as a lacklustre journo who has to post vague scenarios on Mumsnet because I can't do any real journalistic investigative work.

😉

I explained to my boss that if he wants me to go in to the office two days a week rather than one, he will have to pay me an extra £500 a month because that's what it will cost me after tax & NI.

He backed down. 😊

People who were resistant to coming back were told that if they didn't appear in office it would
be treated as unauthorised absence and subsequently disciplinary action would result in them being fired with all the issues that would bring eg reference etc

None of us should expect to dictate where we work.

because. We. Are. The. Robots. We. Must. Serve. This site has some bizarre work ethic proponents

As a follow-on, some staff begged to come back to the office, but no-one was allowed, and the offices were sold/leases not renewed.

This! It's so true!!!

I just wish the company my husband works for would make up it's bloody mind.

First it was 20% of your working time a month but whenever you want, then it was 1 day a week but whenever you chose, then it was 2 days a week but one day designated, then it was 2 days a week but closing the office on Fridays so that can't be one of the days. I'm waiting for the next installment

A lot of public sector employers have dumped office space (“efficiencies”) so a FT return will not happen

We were told last year we were supposed to go in two days a week and that it would be tracked and anyone not complying would need to explain why. However since so many of us are not co-located with our teams, and some were going into an office to sit alone or on Teams all day, they have backtracked and said 2 days a week is the "ideal" but only if it's going to be meaningful. This was just our division, think others have been different, some more strict and some less. To be honest, in my location, we're selling off a load of office space so we now have 4500 colleagues to 1500 desks so they're obviously not anticipating a full return to the office.

We have had to get people back in due to poor performance. It's hybrid 3 days from home and 2 designated days in the office with your team. But those who are not performing are 'invited' to attend the office 5 days for additional support before being put on a performance plan if they still don't improve.

It mostly works. The problem is that all the best staff are still at home and it's harder for them to support their colleagues remotely than it is in the office. True teamwork doesn't happen anymore. No one overhears someone struggling and just offers to help, like they used to. Managers do their best to help and support those who are struggling, but if they don't do they job themselves they don't really know it inside out like others do. The teamwork and unplanned training/learning from each other just doesn't happen now.

They tried that in our place and 8 out of a team of 12 resigned. They then backtracked. Obviously if fewer people had felt so strongly then they would have probably made life difficult until those complaining did resign. Begrudgingly they agreed to hybrid but it isn't enforced.

I am perm working from home due to my disability so wouldn't have affected me.

You can apply for a flexible work arrangement too which must be considered with a formal reply.

That said, if everyone is going back, think of what you will miss out: training, progression opportunities, social occasions etc.

Right! I'm actually quite proud that people are putting their foots down and saying no we don't want to work 40 hour weeks in the office with 2 hour daily commutes then 2 free days on the weekend where you are so exhausted from working and facilitating working that you barely have time to do life admin or actually enjoy the fruits of your labour. If someone can do the job just as well at home as they would in the office, it's unreasonable for employers to demand seats on desks after so long of successfully incorporating wfh into our lifestyles.

No because those were the terms that you agreed to when you took the job !

if it doesn’t suit you find a remote job