Extreme measures to get WFH-ers back to site?

[skyroofwindow]

Background: Doing an office based job in large department in multinational company. People you interact with are often on other sites and in different countries. When lockdown started the entire department was told to WFH and not come onto site to avoid bringing Covid in and jeopardising operations. Productivity maintained across the department during pandemic and in the time after as people adapted to WFH. Company now wants people back on site, which is not unusual across the corporate world. But there is huge reluctance at this Company/site - especially as now there are not enough desks so if you don't book one a month in advance you end up sitting in the canteen!

Company is now taking a harder line getting people back on site and there are two facts I'm not happy with:
*Whether you receive a bonus this year will depend on whether you are meeting their target for numbers of days on site
*There is a public spreadsheet showing everyone's attendance rate, which includes people I know who have particular circumstances (eg health related) impacting their ability to work onsite

While it is entirely in the Company's rights to try and enforce/encourage people back to the office, the bonus and the spreadsheet make me deeply uncomfortable. But I'm not having much success identifying a specific reason other than it's creating a hostile environment, and staff morale is through the floor. Do I have anything specific I can take to HR? They are aware and seem ok with it so far.

The public spreadsheet would seem to raise data protection concerns particularly if it can be used to identify medical issues.
bonus seems fine.

That name & shame worksheet has GOT to be a GDPR breach, surely? You can't advertise that Mabel WFH 4 days, while Pam's in the office 5 days & gets irate & it turns out Mabel has a reasonable adjustment that she didn't want announced?

If you do not have hybrid or WFH written in your contract then they can do as they wish, but yes, there should be sufficient resource and/or planning in place to ensure everyone has a desk with proper chair etc.

I recommend a calm, clearly worded email pointing out the problems caused to the business: musculoskeletal disorders/ claims as they're not adhering to DSE assessments/ dip in productivity as you haven't got a workspace, inability to sit in teams etc. and a suggested resolution (booking system/ set seating areas/ 40% attendance?)

Be helpful & business focussed to get a better deal.

Our company moved to hot desking before COVID and we never had enough desks tuesday- thursday and even with booking weeks in advance. People sitting in corridoors and kitchen areas. On Fridays tumbleweed blew through.

Now we still have to book way in advance and be in a minimum of 3 days a week but as senior managers are still not in full time it's not clear why we have to be (they just don't trust us?) Paying for wraparound childcare and travel costs just to be seen to be in the office are obviously hitting staff in the pocket In a COL crisis. If attendence becomes linked to bonuses then morale takes a nosedive and job hunting will increase.
At least we don't have a viewable spreadsheet - yet!

It's fine to want people in.
It's not fine not to have an actual plan to accommodate them in their teams.
Public "naming and shaming" is never sensible.

Companies have downsized their iff ices.
So they got to reduce cost but now they ALSO want the benefits of people being in the office.
lIt doesn’t work.

I agree there.

I would also query if it’s actually physically possible for everyone to meet said target if it’s so hard to book a space. Because setting people up to fail isn’t good either…..

OK, so it seems that while the Company's actions are more stick than carrot at the moment, there are no grounds for a complaint to HR. I feared as much, but it was worth checking.

Desks - management knows there aren't enough, havoc has been created and is happening every day (the desk booking system is buggy and apt to cancel your booking without you knowing or make duplicate reservations). Everyone agrees its a ridiculous situation but nothing is done. Facilities and buildings were repurposed, refurbished and rejigged during the pandemic and the department assigned a much smaller shared hot-decking space as everyone was WFH at the time. Management have been told that being on site is less productive due to the facilities issues, but they seem focussed on the presentee rates rather than the productivity - they don't appear to care if extra hours have to be worked at home to catch up from being in the office.

Spreadsheet being "name and shame" - yes that was my instinct too and runs contrary to all the good management & culture training I've had over my career. The company generally has excellent benefits and promotes itself as a good employer so this is very jarring.

Can I ask the specific reason they want people back? @nonotok I think it's coming from way up in the company hierarchy, potentially from another country. Which is why it's not consistent with the lack of facilities on site, although local management don't seem to be pushing back very hard. The reasons why are "it's time to get back to normal" Rees-Mogg type messages. They've been trying to get numbers up for a while - some are back in the office full time, most are at 2-3 days and apparently on another UK site a couple of hold-outs haven't been seen in the flesh since Feb 2020.

How many days a week are they asking you to be in? I think it is normal and reasonable to have two days a week in the office for full time staff. Is there enough desk space available to book for this level of office attendance? @GildedAge Three, and no. Am at two days currently.

Several people have said here that it's time for a new job - planning to submit a flexible working request first. Lots of jobs in my profession are advertised as fully remote, so it can be done, but for Reasons I'd prefer to stay here if I can.

My public sector authority had to sell loads of buildings in order not to go bust and pay the bills for social care. We don't have enough desks or buildings left for 11,500 employees (used to be 17,000 in 2016, but we cut the staff and not the workload). I work from home most of the time. Why is not your business. But I work an average of 42 hours a week (contracted to 37), and I'm too bloody tired to put the washing on AFTER i finish work.

Not everybody who works from home is a slacker. Most work bloody hard. Yes there are some slackers. There are some in offices too. There are some everywhere.

But I tell you what. We could buy back all that desk space and then either increase your council tax by 45%; or stop doing anything to look after vulnerable children and adults and you can take your own rubbish to the tip in your car.

Wfh has nothing to do with looking after children or the passport office or dvla, though. I work from home permanently and don’t do any of those things. My job is monitored to the minute.

This.

I work in HR:

-I would be very unhappy about a spreadsheet being used like that as it’s not an appropriate use of data

-Everyone should be sat at a proper workstation

-Despite what people prefer or think is best, if your contract says your place of work is the office you don’t have a legal right to WFH.

FWIW we link bonuses to mandatory learning. Very unpopular but works well!

I have worked with lots of people who never missed a day at work. And did fuck all when they were there. One guy used to show up with a paper every morning, shut his office door and read the paper and nap all day. I would rather people worked from home, especially if they have not enough space for everyone to work properly - I sure as hell would not work in the canteen.

@nonotok But many many people rely on wfh so they dont have childcare problems!!!

If you have a childcare problem - sick child for example - many places will let you WFH as best you can , make up hours as best you can

That's quite different to having a fit child at home whilst you work

OK, so it seems that while the Company's actions are more stick than carrot at the moment, there are no grounds for a complaint

They are offering bonuses-that sounds quite carroty to me! Working in the office three days and home two days, sounds like a great balance.

I didn't like the sound of the spreadsheet btu then I thought of places I have worked where we have a planner that shows who is in, who is wfh, on annual or study days so it is the same information.

There are grounds for a complaint. If there are no proper workspaces so people have to work in the canteen, it is a health and safety nightmare.

It’s not a new scheme, they’ve added an extra qualifier to the existing performance related bonus scheme. So you could have had an excellent 2023, met all your goals and performed above expectations but if you haven’t got a minimum 60% attendance rate on site you won’t get a bean.

It’s a discretionary scheme, so as someone said up thread, this means it’s not guaranteed and the Company can change their minds on who gets a bonus. In practice, changing the criteria at this stage is demoralising and is a definite loss for those whose presence doesn’t reach that target even though they worked hard.

@2jacqi Calm your tits hen. I've worked from home since covid along with many colleagues. And other than when we all.had to stay home, no one works from home and looks after their kids. Many who did WFH during covid had no choice but to look after kids at the same time. And it was fucking awful

I think whether you can wfh whilst children are present depends on their age. You could take 30 minutes to walk to and from school to collect children aged 7+ and then go back to work whilst they entertain themselves. This would save the cost of 4 years of before and after school clubs without being detrimental to your work output. Obviously not the same with younger children although I know people who stop working to do the school run and then fit their last couple of hours in whilst the children are at their gymnastics/swimming club. The advantage of the post covid age is flexibility.

@skyroofwindow that's what bugs me - there's never a compelling reason! It's so weak! And I suspect in most businesses a 'people management' problem, not a WFH problem.

An office block near mine has converted to residential and looks lovely, loads of parking and even some green space. Surely an opportunity to 'build' more homes, rather than keep space for occasional whole-office pizza lunches that no one wants!

I WFH to limit childcare costs, not by working with kids around (other than extra meetings not in my normal hours) but by cutting out the commute...

I work from home when I have online meetings with non-local stakeholders because at home I have a quiet space for meetings and reliable WiFi while in work I have spotty WiFi and might have to perch in a corridor to do a meeting where I'm talking a lot or if it's confidential.

Fortunately I work for a university which is trying to update the facilities to reflect modern working practices and isn't enforcing being in where not necessary...

I do like being in person for collaboration with colleagues!

Background: Doing an office based job in large department in multinational company.

So were you mostly office based pre Covid OP? What does your contract say, if your place of work is the office then your employer can ask you to come in everyday.

Other than the lack of desks, it seems a reasonable and not uncommon request.

On the one hand it's fine for a company to set their own attendance targets and bonus criteria, i do think it's a bit much if there aren't enough desks for everyone. So they actually have a maximum number of people who can work in the office, which is less than the total number of employees at that site.

Fair, IMO, would be to average out how many days people could attend and get a desk and require those days to be adhered to. I'm not in the UK but there is no way a company would be allowed to demand attendance if they can't provide a proper workstation for them.

The lack of desks is a serious issue. People cannot work without proper desks and chairs without potentially hurting themselves