Wfh issue - new director

[Hattieandcake]

New director doesn’t want anyone working from home. There is nothing in the contract to say that we can however lots have obviously with recent changes in society. Is it worth pursing a request via OH due to health issues? These are physical and MH. I am concerned they may say not fit for the role as has to be in office ( it doesn’t! ).

I would definitely have an oh assessment and request reasonable adjustments to enable you to perform your role. Reasonable, being the main thing. It may be that one of these adjustments is a compromise where you mainly work from home, but will attend the office on team/training days. Ask for assistance from oh in the first instance. You've not applied for or been denied adjustments yet.

This is getting out of hand. Working from home is a cushy number and ideal for skivers. Not surprised a lot of employers want folk back in the office.

If you have a disability/long term health condition I would make a request for hybrid working as a reasonable adjustments.

You can ask for occupational health to be involved as well.

But you will need to declare your condition to HR and your manager and explain how it affects you and why it makes travelling to/being in the office an issue.

If you don't have any health issues that could justify home working then it will be more difficult to argue that you want to keep WFH.

How would you suggest everyone skives? I would say I worked more hours from home as I was at the base and didn’t need to allow time for travel etc. plus no chatting with others / going for a walk to grab a coffee etc. This is an ignorant opinion.

Does the contract state the place of work is the office address?

What would the grievance you proposing going to achieve? Why is it harassment? Let the union/staff representative argue/deal with consultation and other legal issues.

https://www.acas.org.uk/statutory-flexible-working-requests/making-a-decision

Fairness seems quite robust here ?

the contract says location of work is business address (3 offices) - seems they have just enforced no wfh in some areas without any consultation, business reason will be “business needs demand on site” but hoping I can ask for an explanation as to why.

I can't believe you work in HR

Harassment for asking employees to comply with a contractual term, whatever next!

I think you may be muddling several things up OP.

That link is about the right to request flexible working. You haven't mentioned that you have made one of these requests. You can make such a request, although there are a number of grounds upon which it could legitimately be refused (including detrimental impact on quality and or performance) even if you would really like to wfh.

There's also the possibility of making a request for reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 if you are disabled. I'm still not clear if you are looking for permanent home working or just a bit of home working when your health is bad. As mentioned, I know where I work they wouldn't do permanent home working for a disability unless there were truly exceptional circumstances - they would make changes to the office as they want people to come in.

You can also request to change your contract to become a contractual home worker, but I assume they will probably say no.

As a pp mentioned, in theory you could try to argue that working from home has become an implied contractual term, although this could be extremely difficult as you would be going against the explicit contractual terms.

You could potentially try speaking to someone like CAB but I personally wouldn't hold my breath if expecting to work exclusively from home permanently.

If your contract says office based then they have every right to say come back to the office. Since covid WFH became an unofficial/informal thing for many, and companies didn't change contacts and just stated at discretion of manager.

My contract and job description says hybrid with no required office days mentioned(I go in on average twice a month or when my boss is in so that could be 3 or 4 times a month), I know newer people have been recruited on contracts that state x number of days expected in the office a week. People recruited before covid never had their contracts changed.

You could ask but they could also say no.

I’d get in every day and build trust first before asking to work from home. Once they know you can do the job and are supportive they are more likely to be flexible.

Whatever your contract says, if a particular aspect of your working life (in this case WFH) has been an accepted "Custom & Practice" over an extended period then it does count as an intrinsic part of your Terms and Conditions of employment which does mean that changes can't be unilaterally imposed without notice.

However even then, Ts&Cs can always be charged if the correct procedures are followed - which means having a period of consultation after which the employee can be informed that the new Ts&Cs will apply after X date which must be far enough in the future to give the employee time to consider their position and to give their notice if they do not wish to continue under the new Ts&Cs. You are not obliged to work under Ts&Cs that don't work for you, they are not obliged to employ you under Ts&Cs that don't work for them.

The remedy is to find a job with Ts&Cs you like, not force your current employer to make decisions in your favour.

Unfortunately your contract says office so the onus is on you to request a variation.

In my personal experience many people who wfh are not fully on the job, just look through Mumsnet for examples, people caring for young children, doing their housework, nipping out to collect children etc and that's not including simply not working for lazy reasons. My dh had nothing but problems with 2 members of his team so they were all brought back in in 2021, the slackers then left!

Some people do work well from home but many don't hence managers not being keen, it's hard to have one person wfh and say no to others hence blanket rule. Interestingly the employees of my Dh thought they worked well from home, their output told another story

It does seem to be the thing that we are being asked to go back into the office.
My contract does state hybrid with a minimal 2 days in, they’ve now requested all of us compulsory 3 days - with 3 months notice, no car parking & not enough desks - but its mandatory.

Shame really as I’d prefer a more flexible approach rather than mandatory- sadly though a few decided flexible meant never coming in and no meetings till 10 or between 2 - 4 (one person even said no meetings after 3 because her daughter was home and she would be distracted while on a call)

People are voting with their feet but then concerned whether other place will also start to bring people back in.

I work in HR and have worked with this kind of issue in particular, and this is extremely common at the current time. The 'custom and practice' argument isn't going very far at tribunals when the move to wfh was a response to the pandemic. Very very easy for management to change the contracts to fully home based so long as they follow the correct procedures and consultation and can show just cause ie how it is affecting business. If you have a genuine health issue requiring you to work from home then this could be picked up via reasonable adjustments but expect everything else to be looked at first! Yes employees can make a flex working request which is a different procedure, but employers can quite easily say no if it doesn't work for them on business grounds.

I think in the past couple of years employers were reluctant to do this as there was a fear that good staff would 'vote with their feet' and leave to join a more flexible employer - but they are all at it now (well not all, but I think there's critical mass) which means the flight risk is less of an issue so employers are going ahead with the Great Return to the Office. Many are still doing hybrid 2 days/week which is the holy grail for me - I used to be a fully wfh person but I've got back into office life and can see the benefits, I do feel more connected to the team/organisation. Whether employers are genuinely seeing productivity gains or just doing it to feel more in control of their staff who knows but it looks like it's here to stay.

I have a reasonable adjustment to work from home full time following an OH assessment. My contract is just a standard one, but my organisation just states a minimum percentage of time to be taken in the office, not 100%.

I fully WfH as a reasonable adjustment after an OH review.

In my case the process, although daunting, was quite simple and I feel secure having OH backing for my WfH role. It means I'm not subject to the whims of a new manager who doesn't like WfH for example, nor do I have to justify why I am allowed to permanently WfH whilst other colleagues are not.

But the key points in my case were:

• I have a genuine, medically provable disability, which had been documented on my HR records for many years. It didn't just suddenly develop when being asked to RTO. I'd also worked hybrid (and increasingly from home) on an informal basis as an adjustment for several years prior to Covid.
• WfH was a natural reasonable adjustment for my disability and I could clearly document how that could help me continue to stay in my job.
• It was clear that due to my disablity if full time RTO was mandated for me that I'd need to resign on health grounds.
• I'm a valued employee, with specialist skills and a good work record of achievement and attendance.
• I had a supportive manager, and before entering into the OH process to formalise my WfH, I'd already been given reassurance that OH recommendations would be followed and that permanent WfH wouldn't be a problem in my situation. In fact management were keen that I did have a formal OH recommendation as that justified why they didn't expect me to RTO, whereas others (without disabilities) were being expected to work hybrid and increasingly back in the office.

I think the key thing you need to ask yourself before going down the OH route is whether genuinely you need to WfH as a reasonable adjustment for a disability, or whether you just would be happier/prefer to WfH. If it's the former, then I think you have a good chance. If it's the latter OH will likely see through that and may not recommend permanent home working.

And where do you work?

I genuinely do work from home and get fed up with the implication that we slack off and our output is shit. It's tedious and predictable from all the anti work from home lot.

Working from home isn't new, it's been going on long before covid (my Dad used to do it in the 90s), and people need to stop spouting the same old rubbish that they've read in the Mail or Telegraph or that their neighbours dog's brother has told them.

While I don’t have a recognised disability I have a significant health issue that would mean wfh would improve performance in my role. Even just one day. “Business needs” and “the same as everyone else doing my role” is a lazy reply in my opinion. Ironically I used to sort out issues more quickly from home that those at the office ignored as they were out having multiple fag breaks etc. The union have informed me to ask for a formal response and dispute it as they believe that the organisation has imposed this via the back-door without consultation. Their policy says it’s management discretion but they allow old fashioned managers to make up the rules in a lot of areas. The main argument seems to be “it’s the same as other admin assistants in office A”. We are not all the same.

Why if it isn’t in their contract ? He has every right to get them back in the office if not in contract.

Also what happened before Covid ?? No wfh…get over it those who think office attendance is a chore. Disability or no disability..,, we ALL worked in an office !

Honestly I think you might struggle here. It's likely that everyone will have 'good' reasons or health conditions that suit wfh better.
I think telling him to 'do one ' is unhelpful in the extreme but I'd put a strong as possible case together and look for a phased return at the very least which would give you time to look for something else.
There is a real kick back out there against wfh full time so I think this is only going to get more common.

I was in a similar situation recently. I was working 2 days in the office and 3 days at home, but part time hours. My new manager wanted me in every day and for various reasons that wouldn't work for me at all. In the end we compromised on an extra day in the office,, but also I negotiated a non-working day.
I also have some health issues - the majority of them are not 'active' - although I could possibly have an 'attack' at any point and not be able to come in to work or be ill at work. This is why I work p/t as it gives me more flexibility.
I had been in my role for over 3 years, so I did have rights, I even got some free legal advice who did say that your normal way of working, if you've been there over 2 years constitutes an unwritten contract as well. And they should prove that it's in the interests of the business for you to go in for more days. Depends how legal you want to go, I didn't want to go down that route so had to find some type of compromise.