Asked to work from a different office with less than 24 hours’ notice

[wondershallneverend]

I’m looking for some perspective please.

My normal workplace is Office A, which is where my role and team are based. I have a meeting scheduled with my manager that was arranged a few days ago. However, today just before midday, he emailed to say that he will be working from a different office tomorrow and asked me to meet him there and work from that office for the whole day.

This other office is not one my team works from and it isn’t my usual base. It’s around 3.5 miles away from my normal office. The notice given to change work location is under 24 hours.

I’m not happy to attend the meeting there, I’m uncomfortable with being asked to work the entire day from a different location at such short notice, especially as this wasn’t mentioned when the meeting was first arranged and there’s been no prior discussion or agreement about changing work base.

Is it reasonable to push back and say I can meet him there but then return to my normal working location? Or am I being unreasonable given the distance isn’t huge?

I’d appreciate views on what’s considered reasonable in a work setting.

Utterly unreasonable
It's 3 miles away from your normal place of work
What's the problem working somewhere different for a day regardless of the notice?

3 and a half miles or 35 miles?

How much of a pain is it to get to?

If it’s no more difficult than your existing office I’d say YABU.

Do you drive ? Is it a massive PITA for you to get there ? Personally I would go for the sake of not being awkward if it was easy enough for me to get there but I like my manager and he’s always been super flexible with me so that helps

Unless it causes you massive logistical issues (eg you rely on public transport and the other place is in the middle of nowhere) then yabu.

Why would this be problematic for you?

Depends on if you're driving anyway or if public transport is particularly difficult at the other office. Given how near the two offices are I'd be surprised if a member of my team objected to this unless the other office is hard to get to or there is an overwhelming reason to work from your usual base. I'd allow an expense claim and probably allow the person to travel between the office in work time though

You sound pretty inflexible. If the change in location meant it would mess up your childcare or make it impossible to get to a post-work appointment then maybe you could refuse, but otherwise, what is the problem with working for one day three miles further away?

3.5 miles for just one day?? So what is the actual issue?

It depends what your contract of employment says. Our contracts say that we can be asked to travel up to 90 minutes on public transport or 40 miles by car, at any time.
I’d say being asked to travel 3 miles is very reasonable, unless there’s some reason why it’s impossible to get to (like there being absolutely no public transport options), or you have a specific reason you can only be in one office (for example if you were a wheelchair user and the other office isn’t safe for you).

I would have zero problem with this. It's good to be flexible.

3.5 miles? You’re being unreasonable

On the face of it this seems like a completely non-issue. The other office is only 3 miles away and it's only for one day. What possible objection could you have other than a desire to be in familiar surroundings? Is there a massive drip feed coming?

It’s 3.5 miles away 😆 on Tuesday I was asked to work 27 miles away the following day. It’s annoying because it means I have to leave significantly earlier. 3.5 miles difference is a totally reasonable request. Pretty baffling to me what your issue is.

I was going to say that if you are contracted to work A, then the travel from A to B can be claimed as a travel expense. As its only 3.5miles, that may not be an option though. At my company, it needs to be over 5miles from my home base to claim. Its annoying, but is it difficult to get to? No parking? Other issues?

You're going to need to expand on what could be unreasonable here, unless you've made a typo on the distance

What is the setup for a desk and IT.
Are all your files on the network or have you got stuff in paper filings.

You getting a taxi to and from the other office and can make it I would.

Buuuuut.... if this is not a normal request is there any issues which could lead your boss to need you to work off site?

I can’t under any circumstances understand why you would find this an issue
are you generally inflexible ?

why are you uncomfortable? If they had given you say 72 hours notice, what difference would it have made? I’m struggling to understand why 3.5 miles is such a problem.

Yes YABU. What’s the issue?
Go to office
Do job
Go home.
Whats the problem?

Unless you’re say a wheelchair user and the other office isn’t accessible by public transport, your chair won’t fix in normal taxis and the office isn’t overly chair friendly … just do it?

I say this as a wheelchair user - I can’t actually get to one of my company offices or get into the building (shocking in 2026).

Blimey! What a non issue. If I want to ‘pop’ to the supermarket on my way home, it’s a six mile detour. You’d seriously rather go back to Office A after the meeting, wasting another 3.5 miles and some time, than stay at B and work as normal? That seems bonkers to me.

They aren’t ’changing your work base’, you’re exaggerating that. They’re asking you to work somewhere else in basically the same town around a meeting.

Unless there’s a huge drip feed incoming, YABVU.

You can’t visit for your meeting and return to your base office? What is the barrier to you doing as requested?

OP, you're being a bit (a lot) precious about this.
3 5km away in a different office for one day?
I really don't see a problem with this.

If it's not a pain to get to then I guess it's okay. My main concern here is what will happen later on if you agree. Give someone an inch, they'll take a mile (no pun intended), ie they'll ask for more flexibility and push you even harder.

3.5 miles or 3.5 hours?