Mums forced into office by big UK company?

[MM90]

I work for a big, well-known company. The bosses are considering plans to force all colleagues to come to the office 3 days a week. They are thinking about checking our turnstile data individually and disciplining anyone who doesn’t come in for 3 days every week, whether they need to be there or not. I thought this was the 21st century where working women have the chance to create a sensible work / life balance so long as they perform in their job. My line manager gave me a great performance rating during Covid. I have two children under 5 and no family nearby. Any thoughts on this?

@WindsurfingDreams yes exactly!

• *I am disabled - I negotiated adjustments with my employer which included some home working. But I don't pretend to WFH while actually giving childcare.

One American 'study' which going by the wording in the abstract, doesn't sound very scientific. And an article from a pressure group.

If WFH is so amazing for everyone, why are an increasing number of employers asking staff to come back to the office at least some of the time? They stand to save a load of money by not renting offices, and the convenience of WFH applies to senior staff too. Maybe not everyone WFH is as wonderfully 'productive' as they insist.

Not even a question that was asked before 2020.

You should have your under 5s in childcare anyway during the working day so it doesn't matter where you are.

I thought we wanted equality?

@ricecrispiecakes yes but why would these women be all "technically I'm WFH today....giggle" if it wasn't their designated work hours?

Doesn't really matter. I think @HoppingPavlova point was - what you "need to get home for" after work is irrelevant to your employer. You are employed to work set hours. You can't just have someone leaving early or WFH because they have childcare issues?!

If you can't get home on time to pick your kids up then you either need to work part time, find a new job or arrange alternative childcare.

I'm all in favour of WFH and the benefits it brings. I am bedbound some days yet can still work. I feel very privileged.

But it's not unreasonable to call out the people who are abusing these privileges. And there have been whole threads of people on Mumsnet admitting to those behaviours.

Your situation is not the norm, though. Most households don't operate like that, and many women find themselves juggling childcare with also looking after elderly parents/relatives. It's one of the main reasons why women drop out of the workforce just as they should be taking up leadership positions, which is why only 10 of the FTSE100 companies have a female CEO, and it's no better further down the scale.

Adults can sort out their schedules. Not all jobs require you to be available to (external) clients, mine doesn't, for example.

I might be in a meeting (or on the loo!) when someone wants to speak to me, so usually people send a quick message to see if you are around to talk, or schedule it into our respective calendars.

And a lot of jobs don't set strict lunch hours, so you could easily take an hour in the morning, and then work through "lunch".

Also some people work part-time (I know, it's a revelation!) so they can flex their hours anyway. Not everyone eg works 3 days with 2 days off, they might work 21-24 hours over the whole week.

@WindsurfingDreams if that's how your hours work in your company then that's fine....so you would surely have no need to say "I'm working from home today". Because you're not. At that moment in time.

Sigh. What do you think everyone did before Covid? Because I knew absolutely NOBODY who worked from home. Parents included.

Google some more of the research then, like I said, there's tons of studies on the subject. Doubtless you'll dismiss them all as they don't fit your world view.

Maybe also Google the leases employers have taken out on those offices, and the money they've invested in them, and you might have a better idea why they want employees to use them.

A wind up surely?

In a nutshell really.

@parkrun500club.... I have a 2 hr each way commute! When my children were small I worked in retail and office work as they grew and got more self sufficient I worked further from home. I had to pay for wrap around childcare. It's not easy and it's not cheap but there was very little WFH available. Many many roles do not have that option. If you have 2 very small children you should have thought this through before going down that path....and I have 4 so I've walked the walk

Neurodivergent mother here and I manage 40-50% in the office 200 miles from where I live having chosen a husband and father for my child who isn’t completely useless.

i love my in office days.

I’m also in HR and worked in the NHS during Covid. I was in every day. Since then I’ve worked for 2 orgs that have brought staff back 40-60% of the time. It isn’t a punishment. There are benefits to being in work as opposed to being at home permanently.

Interestingly Zoom (of all companies!) has decided that its staff must go back to the office 3 days a week if they live within 50 miles of one.

But the HR director has reportedly stated that they can do their job perfectly well on a remote basis.

It's a case of do as I say and not as I do.

My OH runs a pretty successful small (30 employees) business and they decided to go completely remote following Covid after asking the employees what they wanted to do (and of course having seen no drop in work productivity or quality). Their staff breakdown is more than 50% women, and several mothers and fathers. All say they benefit hugely from the time saving of no commute and the flexibility to do kiddy drop off and pick up etc. A couple do have their (v young) kids at home but his view is the ladies in question are so good it doesn’t matter. He’d rather have them than someone without a kid there basically.

it is a digital agency, so fits a remote model about as well as could be, but it had an office for 15 years before taking this step. There’s no doubt it makes a big difference to inclusivity in terms of job applicants etc

Is there a source available for the 90% claim?

@parkrun500club well yes it would all depend on the job and what it is.
It's surely must be a pain if colleague A is working 9 - 5, B works 9 - 12 then takes 3 hours out so is then working until 8 and C is working 10 - 2 then a gap of 4 hours then working 5 - 6.30 and then catching up at random times in the evening.
How on earth can colleagues communicate with each other, work together etc. Can companies really work like that without it actually being a faff.

Wrap around is substantially easier without a commute... Getting wrap around 8.30-5.30 is way easier and cheaper than 7.45 to 6pm. Same working hours...

Long consistent wrap around is hard to source in some areas, probably more post covid, and it's not like school applications take into account work and childcare when you get given a school you didn't apply for...

Literally Google it. There are loads of stats on the subject, all of which point to the fact that caring responsibilities disproportionately push women out of the workforce.

Well, I mean I would precisely say that I was working at home today. Because the office is over an hour's commute away. So literally I make classes on the days I work at home (which vary)

Bless. My son is 21 now, so I'm kind of past the stage of needing advice with childcare but thanks for the advice anyway!

I paid for wraparound care as well - my point was that if I had worked from home more (even back then I worked from home one day a week and sometimes two) it would have been much easier.

I get fed up with the constant "you need to pay for childcare". People ARE paying for childcare, it's the time and effort of commuting they want to avoid (and the stress of worrying if the train is going to be delayed or cancelled - when my son was young around 2010 they were actually very reliable - there's no way I could have relied on them now).

Some of these comments are infuriating! I really feel for you, must seem like the rug is being pulled out from under you and I would feel the same in your situation.

the fact is, whatever your contract says, you’re used to working from home and you’ve come to rely on it. Nothing wrong or unusual with that, despite what others say.

Worth putting in your objections early and often and banding together with other employees in similar situations.

Wishing you good luck x