Is this unfair treatment? harassment?

[needhopeandluck]

Company policy says employees need to work from the office one day a week and that presence will not be monitored.
It also says that this requirement does not apply to part timers.
I work part time and I have been told by my manager that I have the obligation to be in the office once a week. Also my presence is being monitored in writing.
My commute is basically half the time I am meant to be in the office working, so a long one.
I would not have cared a few years back, but now I have a toddler with special needs and I find it stressful to be away from him for 9h hours.
I have asked HR about why I am told something which is in contradiction with the policy and the answer I got was that there are benefits to coming in around bonding with colleagues and that they have made accomodations around the hours I could come in.

Is this ok? It just feels unfair.

@needhopeandluck seems fair to me.

Seems fair, if they are willing to work with you around the timing of it

If they've asked you to come in which is against a well known policy I would assume that they are trying to monitor your hours and productivity.

Have you had any conversations about under performance? Have you maybe not worked the hours you're supposed to because you're remote and no one is checking?

My team are entirely hybrid and flexible. They can wfh or come in, I'm in the office 5 days a week to support everyone. They can do school runs/GP appointments etc and I don't bat an eyelid.

But there's always one that will do the school run and then disappear for the rest of the day and not give back the same level of flexibility. (On my team).

Have they asked anyone else to come in? Or just you?

If they are being flexible around your hours I would accept the fact you've been asked to come in. It's one day a week.

It seems absolutely fair enough for them to ask you to go in but it is against their own policy. I find their policy odd as it's probably even MORE important for part timers to be in the office

And it's not remotely harassment.

Are you working from home whilst looking after your toddler at the same time? You mention being in the office means you're away from him. Is that permitted, to work and look after a child?

OP this is why you don't ask for legal advice on mumsnet.

It's impossible to say without more information, but on the face of it, what they're doing could amount to less favourable treatment of a part time worker. Take proper legal advice.

I assume she means the commute

It isn't less favourable- they are asking the same of her as anyone else. The issue here is their policy. Why are they going against their own policy

OP's presence is being monitored. Others (who presumably work FT) isn't.

Sounds fair

It’s not an unreasonable management requirement IMO. If your contract isn’t ‘fully remote’ working some office days are to be expected.

If there are full timers or indeed other people working PT in your team doing similar roles who don’t come in at all then you could say that they’re being inconsistent.

I assume that’s to ensure she turns up. More info is required.

op, how many hours a week do you work?

Surely it’s not their fault you’ve either moved away from the job or got a job you don’t live near to?

Not unfair treatment

If they've asked you to come in which is against a well known policy I would assume that they are trying to monitor your hours and productivity. Have you had any conversations about under performance? Have you maybe not worked the hours you're supposed to because you're remote and no one is checking?

I wondered this, companies usually take this step if they are concerned about performance levels and the ability to oversee the employees activities.

On the face of it I would say not unreasonable to ask you to go in 1 day per week, but their request does seem inconsistent with the policy.

What is the actual wording of that part of the policy (seems odd to me that all part timers would be exempt from any on site time if they request it from others)

What does your contract state? Do you have a fully remote contract or does it say you will need to spend some time in the office?

What is the custom and practice? I.e. Have you been fully remote for a long time and they’re just changing it now? Do you know what other part time employees are being asked to do?

Have any performance issues been raised with you? Or do you think they are concerned that you don’t have adequate childcare and are trying to work and look after a child at the same time.

Sorry for the 20 questions! Would be helpful to get a fuller picture to give you some proper guidance.

@AchillesHeelys

• I have stated that I am not against going to the office, but I raised the concern about why my presence is being monitored, but no one else's. This cannot possibly be fair treatment. Neither my manager or HR have responded in a straightforward way to my message.
• Policy clearly states part time employees are exempt. Policy also clearly states that people are encouraged to come in, but presence will not be monitored. So it is only me who is being 'watched'.
• I am not aware of any other people working part time in my office.
• I/ we have all worked remote since March 2020. New return to office came in December 2023, effective Jan. 2024.
• There are performance issues mainly due to my personal circumstances. I have been off work for 3 months last year when my child's special needs became apparent and I had to see all sorts of specialists and suffered with my mental health. The company is well aware and they have been quite understanding. The other reason is that late last year, my son's nursery reduced his hours drastically from one day to the other due to the fact he could not cope due to his condition. So I was without childcare for 2 months until I could find suitable support. I had to work and look after my son at the same time, which was a nightmare. The company is also aware of this, as I have been very transparent about it. I have worked early hours, evenings, at the weekend to make up for it, but obviously the focus was not the same.
• I have not disputed the poor performance rating as I know the stress and the childcare challenges I have experienced have impacted my performance.
• In the meantime, childcare has been solved and company is aware. They have decided to put me on a PIP though because of poor performance (which was a result of my personal circumstances). Or that is what they say. PIP was not raised in the performance review meeting, but only a few weeks later after I butted heads with my manager about something and I clearly annoyed her.

I'd say you need to start getting used to being away from your child at some point and now would be a good place to start. Lots of people have no choice but to be away from their children all day.
Mandated Working in the office is becoming a thing everywhere and you need to get used to it.

Ok so you’ve had poor performance and are on an improvement plan. Very sensible of them to insist you’re in the office one day a week and are monitoring it. You need to work with them or you may not come off the plan. Your job might be in jeopardy here. It’s not harassment or unfair treatment.

In your circumstances I don't think they're unreasonable at all. They're paying you the same rate as other workers and not getting value for that money, they need to try and improve your performance in order to avoid having to fire you.

Your circumstances sound really difficult and I'm sorry you've been through all that but your employer is still after all a business, they have been understanding but they have to have a limit.

Presumably you're being asked to work from the office because you are in a PIP which relates to poor attendance in the past.

Could they be wanting to measure your attendance and commitment your working hours in order to help you come off the PIP?

I get that it's difficult for you. But maybe try to see it positively as an attempt by your employer to give you every opportunity to re-establish your good working relationship?

They aren't wrong to do this, imo. You have performed poorly and they are trying to correct it. It's really hard when you have children with SEN.

Sadly if your performance is poor and being actively managed, then additional monitoring over and above policy is fair. They sound like they have been accommodating of your circumstances to date, but at some point they need to draw a line and say “this is the job that needs to be done, and if you can’t do it due to your circumstances then you can’t do the job”.

Given the performance issues I think you need to show willing and go in. I wouldn’t be making a fuss and rocking the boat right now. Focus on demonstrating that the performance issues are behind you and sustain that for several months.

OR you need to formally request a remote/WFH contract with no office time, if you really can’t manage the commute given your childcare.

Have you made a formal flexible working request to WFH fully remote?

So is this part of the PIP rather than policy affecting all employees? PT are often required to do same prorata. So office presence would be in hours, or perhaps once a fortnight if travel time was not feasible, It does not sound discriminatory on the face of it.