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.

If you do want to say something I’d double check your employment contract first. If the organisation has offices 3.5 miles away from each other I’d imagine it’s pretty likely there’s a clause in there saying you could be asked to work at another office….

Don't become the office scapegoat for the toxic environment. Comply with a reasonable request and keep that decision completely separate from any other issues that are going on. If you start acting out the toxic environment by refusing to comply with normal requests or being passive aggressive then you are setting yourself up for failure. Be polite, be professional and use the proper channels and procedures to request any necessary adjustments etc.

This, on the face of it, seems so ridiculously overdramatic for the sake of a couple of miles and one day working in another office, but there’s obviously a lot of bubbling resentment on your part so I think anything they ask would probably be ‘wrong’. It would be (rightly!) seen as unreasonable to kick up about this and you’ll be labelled the awkward difficult one, regardless of the rights or wrongs beforehand. I suspect a job hunt may be sensible!

Ooh nasty - I hope that isn't the case here but a very good point and one op should be prepared for.

You are being precious about this - thought you were going to say 35 miles away! Go - you might enjoy the change!

I thought you were going to say 3.5 hours, not miles.

YABVU

Just go……it’s good to switch things up occasionally……stops complacency.

How much notice do you think would be reasonable?
There must be a reason he wants you to stay at the other office all day instead of popping over for a meeting and returning to base. Maybe they plan to reassign you there.

If there's a back story then you will have I expect much stronger things to push back on, so I'd advice you don't pick this as your hill. Because there is no way this would be considered objectively unreasonable, and objecting to reasonable requests means you're taken less seriously about the other things. Go to the location. Start recording the instances of lack of support or poor culture that have led to your feelings then raise those.

Honestly if you don't just want to present as difficult and awkward I wouldn't make a big deal of this.

OP having to travel short distances to meet people is an utterly ordinary thing to need to do.

I thought from the title you were going to say you’d been relocated to another city permanently or something - not asked to travel 3.5 miles for a day.

It’s not unusual for me to get a phone call saying ‘can you meet me in Y at Z time later today’ - it’s never crossed my mind to think this is an issue.

I actually agree with this. As long as it doesn't make your journey very difficult, it's, on the face of it, a reasonable request. However, if it's against the backdrop of zero consideration for staff, it becomes less so.

In my workplace, if this arose, it would be a genuine request along with apologies for the short notice, and if it was inconvenient for me, there would be no issues with reorganising the meeting, or holding it virtually.

Unless OP's job requires her do to whatever is asked without question, there is some level of courtesy and good workplace etiquette missing here.

Short notice to me is once I had set off for the day , or telling me late the day before that the location was now an hour or two away or needed a train to be booked

changing office location within a couple of miles the day before isn’t an issue on the face of things

No one needs more than 24 hours notice to work 3 miles away unless severe issues like logistics in the background.

you just don’t want to. So I’d own that, but you will look petty and ridiculous if you say you need more than 24 hours notice to work 3 miles away.

I'm sorry but what is wrong? It's a branch of your workplace and it's only 3.5 miles away. I can't believe you could be so incensed by this very basic and simple request.

I worked somewhere where the head office was 5 mins from my house, but I was often called to meetings in their other location an hour away. Did it bother me? Not really, it's just work.

I've been expected to fly for 3 hours to a different city for a meeting with less than 24 hours notice!

If you are generally so awkward about work things maybe there's a reason he wants to meet you away from your normal place of work.

Inflexibility can contribute to a toxic environment, especially where teams are involved. It should be a two-way street though, something some workplaces forget. After many years being flexible for my work, they turned down my first request for flexibility when my family circumstances changed - I left as soon as I could. It does sound like it’s time for you to move on. Good luck with your job search, life is too short to be unhappy at work x

What’s the issue. 3.5 miles is nothing, I work 6 miles from home as it is (20 minute drive) so no big deal. If that 3.5 miles costs you extra (genuinely) then you could ask for it back, and if it takes extra time you could say you might be a little later and/or need to leave early for eg school pick up but a meeting with 24 hours notice so near is perfectly reasonable

Why do you need over a day’s notice to travel an extra 3.5 miles?

You are being completely unreasonable to think this is a challenge to test you!

It’s a non issue.

Is it a reasonable request? On the face of it yes.

You said you are not happy at work but think if pushing back might inflame things even further rather than just complying.

Not sure what the bug deal is, I would just go.

I agree, of course irs not a challenge to test her, he’s just in that office and it’s ludicrous to suggest she needs more than 24 hours notice to be 3 miles away, Christ as long as she gets 30 mins notice it’s no big deal, just irritating.

if the op behaves like this at work then she’s adding to the toxic atmosphere.

you sound like one of those employees who is just unhelpful and a pain in the a===

Fucking hell. I get asked to travel internationally at the drop of a hat. And I’ve got kids to coordinate around that. Guess what, it’s my job.