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?

Something needs to be done about childcare for sure in this country. It is absolutely unaffordable. I wanted at least two children but could only have one and even with one childcare was crippling.
I could never work from home because I'm a medical professional and have to be in to run clinics. I do work 9 to 5 and have weekends off at least.

ExDP was a manager in an IT company. 100% office based till covid. Company then closed the office and opened a new smaller one. DP's team told they could work from home unless they wanted to go into the office. (no contract change) His team were all men.

Things changed and they were looking at bringing the team into the office and had consultations advising and getting peoples thoughts, all of them (around 10) refused one even said they had a baby during Covid and they had no child care so he wouldnt be going back into the office. He fully admitted he used WFH for childcare. And nobody batted an eyelid, not EXDP, not SLT not HR. He was not pulled up on it and the idea of going back into the office was dropped.

But when a woman says she is using WFH for childcare all hell breaks loose.

What's does it say in your contract? Did you take the job after being told it was a wfh job?

It is people like you that have caused them to make this change.

On what basis were you originally employed?

WFH? Office based? Hybrid?

What's being a mum got to do with it?

Are you working from home with your kids there? If so, what do your kids do while you work?

Surely childcare is a must regardless of your place of work?

Of course it must be lovely to work from home permanently but if staff are pissing off to do the school run, watching daytime tv or making their kids lunch or whatever, that's not working.

Why the change?
Have people been abusing the wfh privilege.
Forced..... for a employee who is paid by a company to be available and work for them, not the other way around.
Like my company vehicle could be parked at work but it goes home, I wouldn't feel Forced to return it daily.

Honestly I think people are taking the piss, and it isn't a bad idea to get people back to a physical workplace and reset expectations which became established during the pandemic.

I say that as a working mother who is becoming increasingly irritated by the reduced availability of colleagues who WFH.

At an exercise class recently, mid morning, there were several women laughing that they were "wfh" that day.

It is what it is (I know many MN'rs hate that phrase) and that's all it is. You're not being forced to do anything, especially not if you find another job that is fully remote so you can resign from this one. I'm sadly not a mum, so no concessions for me and my DH sadly isn't a dad, so no concessions for him, either. If you don't like it, quit.

OP not coming back??

Would this be a correct paraphrase?

I currently look after my two children under 5 while working from home. My employer now excepts me to come to the office but I have no child care,

My companies WFH policy in that there must be childcare in place for any children under 8, and it's encouraged for there to be for under 10s.

That is fairly typical in most companies.

WFH isn't meant to be work around your children.

I'm going to assume you don't look after your kids in your working hours and instead mean it's easier to get to the childminders etc.
I've done 15 years working in an office all day every day, wfh through Covid and now hybrid.
Lots of people I work work when at home work really well but some take the absolute piss.
This is why this is happening to people- in some organisations performance is slipping due to a few people.

The title and what you are saying is quite offensive in a way. ‘Mums forced into office’. What about dads? Are mums the only parents that do drop off/pick up of kids in childcare, or alternatively work with children at home? What about other people in general, such as Dave who has taken up Salsa lessons and now can’t get back in time for the 6.30pm class start or Mary who has a guitar lesson spot at 5.30 which she can get to near her place after knocking off at 5pm when wfh. Do they not matter?

Not covering yourself with glory here.

Surely you have child care in place with children that age? I have big issues with parents using WFH with children who are not over c. Age 10+.

It is just making womens lives more challenging. And it will impact on career development opportunities, childcare availability etc.

“All staff should have some flexible working’ really?
physiotherapists?
BT engineers?
bus and train drivers?
refuse collectors?
bar staff?
teachers? Etc etc etc ad infinitum
As I’ve previously thought….i think people who’s jobs can’t be done from home should have a special tax allowance or weighting.

I do think forcing people to work from the office when they can work from home is silly, as long as they have statistics or evidence that productivity/communication etc is better in person.
However there are people complaining like this at my company, but they were told two years ago that that's what the company wanted, it's just taken until now to enforce properly, so respectfully to those people... you've had two years to look for another job...

But when a woman says she is using WFH for childcare all hell breaks loose.

Wfh in covid full lockdown with no school or child care nearly broke a couple of my female colleagues with children. They were staying up until 3am working after the kids were in bed as they couldn't work with them around.

If you have a job you can do whilst full time caring for 2 under 5 then it can't involve much responsibility or skill

Why would it make a difference if you are a mum or not?
They are only asking you to be in at the times you would normally be work from home and you wouldn't be looking after kids during those times anyway.

I think you need need to stop using ‘being a mum’ as a reason to want to work from home. Yes it makes life easier if you can do jobs in the day, nip out to appointments etc, but that is true for everyone. Your kids should have childcare while you’re working. Many of us don’t have the luxury of being able to say ‘but I don’t need to be in the office’ … your bosses clearly think you do.

Covid led to a lot of people becoming very entitled on this subject and believing they really can have their cake and eat it in terms of being able to work from home all the time and save money on childcare. We’ve had some problems at our work since we mandated 2 days in the office with people who now no longer live near an office because they upped and moved to the sticks whilst remote working despite not being on a wfh contract. We’ve had to go hard line with them. They chose to move, they sort out how they get in for 2 days a week.

Are they only forcing "mums" into the office. If yes, it is obviously discriminatory. If it applies to everyone then you are the one being incredibly sexist to claim that only mums are effected.

Absolutely true. I'm pretty sure those of us who pay for childcare when we are WFH are now in a minority.

please stop making this a mums issue and making it out like we are being victimised because it’s not the case. I’m assuming there are men in your workplace with children who will also be made to come in?? There are plenty of us in a hybrid role with children who make it work.

personally I’m fed up of the whinging about being back in the office but also people taking the absolute piss not actually doing their jobs while they wfh. It’s your responsibility to make sure you have adequate childcare in place, not your employers.

Could be that no one batted an eyelid or pulled him up on it because they knew damn well that the baby’s mother was the one picking up the slack and doing the childcare (even if she was wfh as well) while he sat in the home office and kept the door shut so his calls weren’t disturbed.