Return to office - your situation

[stumpage]

nunpuncher said:

It's a very narrow stance to take as we have a wide range of roles, some of which require or benefit from in office work and some where it really shouldn't make a difference. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out as in the last week alone we have lost 10% of our team in the US.

Company coming out of lock down, probably need to take care of cash reserves until all back to normal. Insist people come back to the office and lose 10% who hand their notice in. Save on headcount while also saying goodbye to staff that don't want to tow the company line making managing the situation going forward a lot easier. The company may suffer in the short term but I've yet to see a business, especially largish, go under due to staff turnover.

As you say interesting times and I can see many employee/ employer battles. It's who wins the war that I'm trying to figure out.

[anxious_ant]

So it looks the the government will ease restriction and drop the recommendation for home working in July.
Has anyone heard anything in regards to returning to the office?

My company has been strictly following government guidelines, and so far has never officially said anything regarding flexibility of home working.
Our US offices has started updating contracts to allow flexbile home working, but not the UK offices. Rumours is that it is to due fear that those who cannot WFH will complain, claiming unfairness.

[TTOBES]

TTOBES said:

My HR dept a couple of months ago came up with two days a week working from home.

Turns out that speech wasn't delivered correctly - they meant two days a week working from home between then and June, but nobody has started doing that.

Now our CEO is suggesting, in coordination with the founders of the company, that the whole group work from home on a Wednesday. During a UK office call however, it dawned on him that this idea wouldn't be as simple as different teams have different requirements and preferences etc.

With less than a month to go there is still no WFH policy. This is financial services. We also signed a lease on our own office in February last year, oops. Prior to that we were in a WeWork with just a month's notice so things might have been different if we were still there.

Finally, we have a plan. After months of Friday morning catch up video calls with our head of Compliance, HR & CEO taking it in vague turns to tell us stuff about Boris' roadmap that we all already knew, a return to work plan has been implemented.

Until 19th July - come in as you wish
19th July - 7th September - come in twice a week but company will allow flexibility on this until people have been double jabbed
7th September on - in office all week with optional WFH on Wednesdays.

Took them long enough.... it's not the most complicated of plans.

[Countdown]

anxious_ant said:

So it looks the the government will ease restriction and drop the recommendation for home working in July.
Has anyone heard anything in regards to returning to the office?

My company has been strictly following government guidelines, and so far has never officially said anything regarding flexibility of home working.
Our US offices has started updating contracts to allow flexbile home working, but not the UK offices. Rumours is that it is to due fear that those who cannot WFH will complain, claiming unfairness.

We're basically moving to a "hybrid" working model which translates as "work from wherever you want as long as your boss is happy". Nobody will be designated a "homeworker" (because then we'd have to stump up for furniture and equipment) but everybody has a laptop and mobile so there shouldn't be much problems.

[Sporky]

stumpage said:

As you say interesting times and I can see many employee/ employer battles. It's who wins the war that I'm trying to figure out.

To extend the analogy a bit I think this'll be a war of attrition with no-one winning.

Employers who push too hard will lose a lot of staff goodwill and engagement. They may lose actual staff too. For some/many roles they'll see a drop in productivity if they force people back into the office.

For employees it's tricky; it's hard to say if this will be a good time to move on. There may be a lot of people chasing the remaining WFH roles, or there could be a hiring spree by more flexible employers, who can hoover up people who work from home well.

I think the progressive approach is to bring staff who can't work as well remotely back into the office - some of them will probably be quite keen. But people who've been working hard and productively from home, and are happy doing so, are going to be pretty miffed that they kept the company running all this time and are now being yanked against their will back into the office.

[ro250]

Countdown said:

anxious_ant said:

So it looks the the government will ease restriction and drop the recommendation for home working in July.
Has anyone heard anything in regards to returning to the office?

My company has been strictly following government guidelines, and so far has never officially said anything regarding flexibility of home working.
Our US offices has started updating contracts to allow flexbile home working, but not the UK offices. Rumours is that it is to due fear that those who cannot WFH will complain, claiming unfairness.

We're basically moving to a "hybrid" working model which translates as "work from wherever you want as long as your boss is happy". Nobody will be designated a "homeworker" (because then we'd have to stump up for furniture and equipment) but everybody has a laptop and mobile so there shouldn't be much problems.

I'm hoping that's what we'll get. There's no one size fits all (especially in large global companies) so I'm hoping people who are beyond the first rung of the ladder will be given some flexibility to what works for them and the business.

[nunpuncher]

stumpage said:

Company coming out of lock down, probably need to take care of cash reserves until all back to normal. Insist people come back to the office and lose 10% who hand their notice in. Save on headcount while also saying goodbye to staff that don't want to tow the company line making managing the situation going forward a lot easier. The company may suffer in the short term but I've yet to see a business, especially largish, go under due to staff turnover.

As you say interesting times and I can see many employee/ employer battles. It's who wins the war that I'm trying to figure out.

We've done ok throughout the pandemic. It's one of those "too big to fail" companies and profits over last year and first quarter of this year were good. We've also been continually hiring for the last year so don't think losing staff is part of the plan. We do lose a percentage of staff every year but take more on that we lose so this is the first time we've seen a deficit. Also worth considering that real estate is a far greater cost than people so why not take the opportunity to cut the greater expense?

No single individual is bigger than the company but when your staff survey says 60% want hybrid working, 25% want permanent WFH and only 15% are desperate to return it just seems a bit short sighted to insist they should all return.

I know every company is different. This is just my own situation.

[untakenname]

City AM have being decrying WFM this whole pandemic (don't blame them seeing commuters make up 99% of the readers) but this headline is something else

https://www.cityam.com/older-workers-planning-to-w...

[Sporky]

Wonder who they're funded by...

[Halmyre]

Sporky said:

stumpage said:

As you say interesting times and I can see many employee/ employer battles. It's who wins the war that I'm trying to figure out.

To extend the analogy a bit I think this'll be a war of attrition with no-one winning.

Employers who push too hard will lose a lot of staff goodwill and engagement. They may lose actual staff too. For some/many roles they'll see a drop in productivity if they force people back into the office.

For employees it's tricky; it's hard to say if this will be a good time to move on. There may be a lot of people chasing the remaining WFH roles, or there could be a hiring spree by more flexible employers, who can hoover up people who work from home well.

I think the progressive approach is to bring staff who can't work as well remotely back into the office - some of them will probably be quite keen. But people who've been working hard and productively from home, and are happy doing so, are going to be pretty miffed that they kept the company running all this time and are now being yanked against their will back into the office.

I find that if I'm working on a task I'll carry on past my 'normal' finishing time while the creative juices are flowing. If I'm back at work I'll be buggering off on the dot to avoid a half hour commute turning into a one hour commute. And next day it'll take me time to pick up the thread where I left off.

[Welshbeef]

Halmyre said:

I find that if I'm working on a task I'll carry on past my 'normal' finishing time while the creative juices are flowing. If I'm back at work I'll be buggering off on the dot to avoid a half hour commute turning into a one hour commute. And next day it'll take me time to pick up the thread where I left off.

The commute has changed and turned into productive output.

Now going back in full time losing 10-15 hours per WEEK on a 40 hour week. To assume that carries on plus more work again means late night working every day of the month. No time for exercise sports kids after school or a night out with the Mrs meal out etc.
Covid19 and return to office will certainly see plenty of issues come to the surface.

[Stev8s]

Just an observation as someone who has worked everyday going in to offices repairing office equipment over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a shift from compulsory masks ,temp checks signing in etc no offering you a brew to you don.t need to bother with any of that what's the point now most of us are double jabbed think people have had enough my mask (black one ) spends most of its time now under my chin from a distance people think I've grown a beard lol

[geeks]

untakenname said:

City AM have being decrying WFM this whole pandemic (don't blame them seeing commuters make up 99% of the readers) but this headline is something else

https://www.cityam.com/older-workers-planning-to-w...

The 90's called, they want their website back!

[anonymous-user]

geeks said:

The 90's called, they want their website back!

How dare you. I’ve always liked CITY AM’s simple style, retro-font logo, and of course their interesting articles!

[Truckosaurus]

Lord Marylebone said:

...Some of it sounds very overzealous.....

Indeed. My own employer seems to be taking the line of - work at home until everything is back to normal so we don't have to implement lots of changes - the only thing they seem to be planning on doing is to improve the 'drop in' desks for visitors from other offices, which probably needed doing anyway as they were not especially appealing at most sites.

I also notice there has been a big splash of publicity over 'flexible season tickets' from the train companies, which seem to be identical to the Smartcard carnet tickets I had been buying well before the pandemic.

[ATG]

untakenname said:

City AM have being decrying WFM this whole pandemic (don't blame them seeing commuters make up 99% of the readers) but this headline is something else

https://www.cityam.com/older-workers-planning-to-w...

Adds to long list of things that hacks write about but do not understand or do not actually believe.

[snowman99]

What’s all this working extra hours that you would be commuting? I’ve been spending it with my young family. Work just as hard in normal hours but I see no need to give them an extra 3 hours a day for nothing. Else you have this problem when you inevitably go back. If extra work is needed they should resource for it or pay for it.

There was an article in the Economist suggesting working from home is less efficient hence the extra hours many are putting in.

[skwdenyer]

Stev8s said:

Just an observation as someone who has worked everyday going in to offices repairing office equipment over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a shift from compulsory masks ,temp checks signing in etc no offering you a brew to you don.t need to bother with any of that what's the point now most of us are double jabbed think people have had enough my mask (black one ) spends most of its time now under my chin from a distance people think I've grown a beard lol

Interesting. I spent today on the site of a supplier (major international logistics operator): every desk had screens around, masks compulsory when not behind said screens, strict "no loitering in corridors" rules, equally strict "no non-essential visitors to site" rules enforced, etc. No sign of easing there.

[Jaguar99]

snowman99 said:

What’s all this working extra hours that you would be commuting? I’ve been spending it with my young family. Work just as hard in normal hours but I see no need to give them an extra 3 hours a day for nothing. Else you have this problem when you inevitably go back. If extra work is needed they should resource for it or pay for it.

Completely agree. I have told many of my coworkers this too. They seem to think it is a badge of honour to work the extra hours. In normal times, the guy who works two doors down from where he lives gets no less pay and works the same hours as the guy with three hours commuting each day. Because anyone has to WFH it brings no requirement to work extra hours and, like you rightly say, a rod is being made for people’s back and a potential issue being developed for the Company.

I had a call from the MD this week asking me to think about my return to the office. We have a couple of projects that are at a critical point but should be complete by mid/late July. I have said I will be back in the office when these projects are done - assuming the Gov does not tighten things down between now and then.

I plan to go back full time as I can’t be bothered with having work stuff in two places and want to make it a clean break.

[Halmyre]

snowman99 said:

What’s all this working extra hours that you would be commuting? I’ve been spending it with my young family. Work just as hard in normal hours but I see no need to give them an extra 3 hours a day for nothing. Else you have this problem when you inevitably go back. If extra work is needed they should resource for it or pay for it.

There was an article in the Economist suggesting working from home is less efficient hence the extra hours many are putting in.

Yes, if I'm putting in extra hours every day, I'm banking them and taking the occasional bit of time in lieu.