Working from home ending?

[Iamamanandlost]

Jp Morgan, Asda, Amazon and WPP are forcing people back into the office? Is it ending working from home?

Some (often senior) people are hired for their skills and expertise and paid accordingly to be on hand to deal with issues as they arise. Again, it astounds me on mumsnet that some people just cannot grasp that not everyone has a job akin to sticking beads on a mat where the sole aim is to complete as many process driven tasks as possible!

I work from home. It’s my own company so nobody is going to complain if I start or finish at a different time. I just need to get my work done, doesn’t matter when particularly. On busy weeks I will be doing stuff 7 days a week, even if that’s just a few hours early mornings on the weekends. I schedule my work so I’m busier teen times and have more time free in holidays with child

Work shy wfh =

"Sorry I can't attend the meeting I'm walking my dog"
"Sorry, got to go, I need to pick up a parcel from the post office"

• being equipped with those mouse-jiggly things that make you look like you're online on your laptop.

• doing all your Christmas shopping online when you should be working.

it doesn't take much imagination to work it out....

Not being able to work because someone is eating their breakfast.... now there's a novel excuse I haven't heard before!

For fuck's sake, it really pisses me off when people say that those of us that work from home are Work shy

There has been at least one thread on here where people were invited to post up their most outrageous WFH piss takes. It wasn’t short of contributions.

I imagine if there was a thread about people taking the piss when working from a work place that wouldn't be short of contributions either.

I’ve wfh for years, since having my first “proper” full time job, years ago now. I think the numbers will decrease but wfh is never completely going away, there’s plenty of offices that were remote first long before Covid and don’t have offices to go back too for one and people spread across the globe.
i think a lot of the problem with the wfh that originated during Covid is just a lack of wfh culture, just here’s a laptop start wfh with no kind of idea of how that works/looks like/how to keep a team engaged etc compared to remote first companies prior to that.

We have a dilemma. Our Flexible Work Policy has stated the we are able to have 2 days WFH unless agreed otherwise.

The problem is some people are hugely taking the piss. One of my team members hasn’t been into the office for 6 weeks, and even before that it was 1 day a week. Adding to this I have a crap manager who constant moans about it but doesn’t either rewrite the role, or enforce the policy.

As a result the policy is being reviewed and it’s going to be changed. It’s a huge shame because if we had the right management of it, we could have all just hot-desked and save a bunch of money.

The tide seems to be turning a bit, hopefully at least hybrid will stay though. I'm fortunate in that I live close to work and am happy at home or in the office, but it's clear wfh suits some better and being in office suits others better. We're asked to try and go into office a few days a week but no real pressure and to be honest most people are in 3 without a fuss; having that choice taken away and being forced i suspect would actually lead to less willingness.

Anyone who slacks whilst wfh will find a way to slack in the office too. I'm more concerned about the young people entering the workforce. You learn so much just by being around other more experienced workers. You see how they interact, plan, and deliver their work. If those more expert people are not in the office, how will the next generation grow?

I think they mean after work, so you finish at half five for example you are at the gym for 5:45 rather than an hour travelling and then going.

but you could do it in work time for a while I’d expect depending on your job. You could be yellow as you are having a wee, or on the phone , only when one person is trying to get you urgently you’d get found out. But that’s just the same if you are in a big office, people wander around to avoid work.

No space in the office for me, I’ve been known to sit in the kitchen at a small table or share a small desk with three others! Phone calls are made in the car because there can be 5-6 staff all talking to each other (work and personal stuff) which makes listening to someone on the phone tricky.

WFH is best for me but we HAVE to go into the office 2-3 times per week! Petrol used to travel 28 miles plus £8 parking isn’t much fun 🤨

My company expanded during the pandemic and the head office car park and desks were full before that started. After pandemic we went to hybrid working, higher management happy we’re all meeting our daily deadlines, so they closed one other office and reduced another to save money.

Not a chance we’re going back to office full time, hybrid working is best case scenario for us employees and for the company.

Organisation I worked for introduced WFH 25 years ago. It's taken a long time to get established and COVID accelerated it. It's here to stay, in various forms.

It's shortsighted at best, the best workers will probably look for hybrid opportunities.

Various businesses are 'ending WFH' as the latest silver bullet. This is just the latest in a long line of managerial initiatives to improve efficiency/productivity/collaboration/whatever.

Blanket approaches seldom work for all teams. Surprise, surprise not all office work is the same. Some jobs need face to face collaboration. Great, get them back into the office.

My job is mostly about making sure that data is available, that systems are working. Anyone can contact me throughout an extended working day (8ish to 6ish) and be confident that I will be available.

This can be done in an office but TBH nobody will benefit. If anything, the service I can provide will be reduced. Face to face questions always take longer than a quick Teams chat message of 'is XYZ available yet?'

I've contractually wfh since 2010. I won't be going back.

Our organisation is selling off buildings (public sector) and we officially only have to go in 2 days a week, although in reality we can do 1 day a week, or fortnight.

We can access anything we need remotely, apart from printing and postage but we rarely need to do either.

I won't work anywhere now that insists I go into an office every day, just to show face. I can be easily as productive at home as in the office, and a sensible approach to being flexible benefits both the employer and employee, especially as we dont have official flexi time or overtime.

Obviously some jobs can't be done remotely, and I have done jobs in the past that couldn't be, but I am at an age and level of experience now that I don't want or need to.

There is plenty of skiving to be done in an office if you are that way inclined, but communiting for the sake of it, should be consigned to history.

I WFH 4 days and office once. I am far more productive when I WFH. Bloody love it and I too wouldn’t work for a company that doesn’t allow hybrid working.

I am working on an intense time critical project. As such I'm not going into the office on the whole. As instead of using an hour at each end of the day for a commute, I can instead use that time to get crucial tasks done.
I do occasionally take a nap during the day - but always book this as a break, and return to work refreshed and with a clear head. (But to be fair in the office we do have a space I could use for a nap if necessary.)
We also no longer have room in the office for everyone all the time. And my team is split across 3 cities in the UK.
I will go into the office to collect stuff. And will be in person for the big event.

My new job is 100% wfh. One of our admin people prefers to be in the office but she seems to be an exception.

I’m supposed to be in the office 40% of the time. My organisation hires in six locations across the country and is location blind - which means scenarios like mine are common, where there is no one in either of the teams I work with in my local office. Basically everyone comes in and spends the day on teams without the privacy of having conversations at home. Some people have very, very loud voices. And the slackers spend the time “working” in the kitchen area or “popping” to the canteen.

meanwhile the senior managers talk about how great it is hearing the “buzz” and “collaboration” in the office.

Then that is a management issue, that person should have sufficient monitoring, sufficient work, and sufficient deadlines to ensure that isn't a possibility.

People love to pretend WFH employees do less work, it's nonsense the same people who produce little in an office will do the same at work.

They need sacking or managing better, I'm an employer and find WFH works very well for engaged workers. I won't be changing the model of WFH for our staff.

The nature of my job means I'm out and about visiting people a lot so for me there's no difference if I go via office or from home. So busy days you'd never been in the office at all.
Now, I might be in the office 1 day a week if there's meetings or I might pop in 3 times if I'm in the area but I no longer commute daily to an office base.