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?

There are LOTS of reports and comments on WFH in the Financial and Business pages of (for example) The Times. Not least by psychologists and mentors (within the workplace) on the benefits to companies and employees.

Personally, I know of people who started with 1 day back in the office, then 2 and now are expected to do 3.

How can someone do their job properly at home, if they are also looking after 2 under-5s?

That is the exact reason why employers don't want mums / dads / grannies WFH and watching LOs at the same time.

There is a grey area around the age 8-11 when some kids are able to entertain themselves but don't really need much supervision. That WFH benefits especially in the few hours afterschool, but maybe not all day in the holidays.

But younger kids need input and unless your blessed with angels 😇 siblings will fight and squabble.

But as I said earlier their are MH benefits to being out the house, and the watercooler conversations that don't happen over teams.

It must be rubbish for the children too when their parents think that is ok.

I don't think my employer really minds whether I have my children at home or not, but I don't think it would be fair on them beyond the odd day here or there. They are in private school too so it's a long holiday to cover but I let them pick what kind of activity clubs they do, and then we intersperse these with family holidays and each parent taking them on days out (and the occasional day of them vegging at home while we work, or vegging at home while we hang out with them)

Ok but as you say, unless it's written into your contract that WFH is a right, you have to assume that your regular place of work will be whatever office it is that is listed in your contract.

Do you think perhaps a newspaper with declining circulation controlled by Rupert Murdoch might have a bit of an agenda?

Then you must report it if you think it's fishing for content.

Who said anything about WFH with 2 under 5’s?? No one. Read my post again.
WFH allows people (mothers) to work when they normally wouldn’t be able to, as they can get to their child care in time. You said yourself, your dd couldn’t find one that worked, had to look at 6. This is a problem for many. Mine are IN NURSERY and school whilst I wfh, and I finish at 5.15 for pick up. If I was in the office I wouldn’t be able to get back in time to do pick up. That’s the difference.

Yes I recently started a new job and it felt so much harder with people working mainly remotely. Its an area of work I feel very comfortable with, but it has taken a lot longer to get to know my colleagues (it's the right thing for my health, but I think working at least partly in the office has a lot of intangible benefits)

I haven't read the full thread but I'm so frustrated by all these women saying "return to office is reinforcing the gender pay gap" - only if you want it to. I have children, work a very long week, plus a long commute, mostly in the office. I am the higher earner. My DH and I figure it out between us. There's single mums doing the same in my office.

No I don't see the logic in your point at all.

What exactly is the agenda and why?

I can't help wonder what sort of work OP does if she has to check in through a turnstile.

2-3 days in the office is about the norm?

Yeah, personally I would prefer that we tackle the assumption that women are the default childcare rather than consigning women to invisible wfh roles which studies suggest make them less likely to get promoted.

Quite.

We live in a society where there are all kinds of very deeply ingrained reasons why a disproportionate share of caring labour falls on women. These cannot simply be opted out of, and nor do women as a class have the power to change them. Any kind of policy or argument that ignores this is going to be bad for women. The reality is that removal of access to flexibility is bad for us as a class, even if we'd rather it wasn't.

@Plomant , OP who has not come back since is WFH and has 2 under 5.

A pretty normal office job in my experience!

Exactly.
This is a battle to fight at the household level and if you aren't doing that I am not sure why employers should fix it for you.

(Abusive partners aside of course)

You're the only one of the two of us who made assumptions about it, though. And you're still doing it here. You have no idea, whereas I made a post upthread telling OP she needs specialist advice and she's not going to get it on this thread.

Personally, I think the reason OP hasn't come back is because she's a journalist, but that's by the by.

Ok, well let us know when that's been sorted. Then, and only then, we won't need to worry about the way removal of flexibility makes the workplace harder for mothers.

Time to "force" them all back into offices, not just "mums".
The customer services (which were shit
when I moved here from another country 20 years ago) have suffered even more, it's beyond a joke.
And no, I cannot go back to my country yet, because one of my (abusive) parents are still merrily sitting there, alive and kicking.

I disagree with the 'you shouldn't be looking after kids while working', as long as the work you are employed to do is done correctly and on time then it doesn't really matter what else you are multitasking with.

They are paying you to do the job, they have ZERO say over anything else in your life. If the job is done then you have no right to be penalized for your personal life.

Women in the past too kids to work. My Nana took all 5 of her kids to work and she died 10 years ago in her 90s. It wasn't deemed unusual at all for women to have young kids 'in tow' back in the day, it was just a given. Many men where away at war or working in mines etc... women need to make money too but someone had to watch the kids.

That was the reason some jobs specifically didn't allow mothers to be hired, but plenty of jobs allowed flexibility to mother to bring kids to work.

It is in the hands of women though.

They’re the ones leaving their jobs or going part time.

My last company did a survey on staff based in three countries on productivity from wfh compared to in the office and found that productivity increased when people were wfh so they stuck with it.

Most offices of any reasonable size have access card entry through some kind of turnstile or gate. Otherwise how do you stop complete randoms walking in?

I know, but where did op say she has them at home with her whilst working? She didn’t. That was just assumed, I’m assuming that op (like many of us) needs to wfh in order to make it to pick up in time.