Returned to the Office

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fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Spoke to my colleague yesterday, and she's still worried about coming back - more for her mum who she lives with. I've said, lets see how you are after your second jab.

How plans change though. MrsF and I used to commute together as we were near enough for me to drop her off, then I'd tootle back to my site as I had parking. Five years ago I was cycling in every day, and MrsF had jobs in South Manchester. My accident etc, then we both ended up in or around the city centre and no cycle commuting.

Roll on this September, and due to us being in the office on different days, MrsF will be driving in but the traffic from my work to her new work places is horrendous, so no point us car sharing. As a result, I'll probably move back to cycle commuting when in the office - I've worked out an off road route into the city, which keeps the 'boss' happy.
 
OP
OP
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jowwy

Can't spell, Can't Punctuate....Sue Me
ive just had discussions with my director and been told i won't be asked to return to the office for work purposes, i will only need to come back for directors meetings or away days......so i am now basically fulltime wfh

:dance::dance::dance:
 
Yes, and not happy!. I have really enjoyed working from home, it just really suits me (live by myself, am very introverted, love my own company and really cant be bothered with office gossip etc. I also work much belter from home with having no distractions etc, but nope, civil servant and a public facing role (that I have been doing via phone, to a much better degree then face to face) so the higher ups dictate I must be back in the office :-(
How do you measure that you have been doing your job to a better degree? Is that in your view, in the public's view, or the management's view?

WFH will be decided by how effective and cost beneficial it will be to the organisation as a whole and its customers and not by whether it suits individuals better.

I would imagine that an organisation has to decide whether it has to have a completely in-house, hybrid or WFH policy otherwise divisions could spring up between workers in any of these camps.
 
OP
OP
J

jowwy

Can't spell, Can't Punctuate....Sue Me
How do you measure that you have been doing your job to a better degree? Is that in your view, in the public's view, or the management's view?

WFH will be decided by how effective and cost beneficial it will be to the organisation as a whole and its customers and not by whether it suits individuals better.

I would imagine that an organisation has to decide whether it has to have a completely in-house, hybrid or WFH policy otherwise divisions could spring up between workers in any of these camps.
we have hybrid, in office and permanent wfh......each department is different based on what they do for the company. all my customers are internal, so they can get me via email, phone and video chat......i dont need to physically be there to serve my customers
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
My employer is taking a 'year' to review hybrid working. They also have an external consultant in looking at making our building more 'flexible'. Probably at great cost !
 

T4tomo

Guru
only been back since July 2000.^_^ our non-customer / public facing staff are doing are pretty much back in office but flexibility to WFH a couple of days a week. works really well, staff appreciate flexibility, but you still gte a sense of team and knowing whtas going on by being in office 2-3 days a week.
 

Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
Prefer working from home but have been forced to come in 2 days a week. Going to start doing that next week. It's a complete waste of time and my petrol
 

Saluki

World class procrastinator
Saw my GP who has said that she will back me up in my request for a sabbatical. The hour and 20 min, each way commute plus 9 1/2 in the office including my hour for lunc -I requested 30 mins and an earlier finish but it was refused, after all this lovely working from home since March last year just destroyed my MH. Couple of emails and it’s all sorted.
The office had loads of people in, rammed with subcontractors who couldn’t put paperwork on the end of the desk and say ‘paperwork for building ABC123 is here’, but felt the need to loom over me to put paperwork in the file hopper things on the wall right in front of me, behind my screen. It was really loud and awful. I am using the sabbatical time to sort out my PTSD again, look for another job, and not worry about the salary. I know that I can be productive in my home office with a day a week or a day a fortnight in the actual office.
There seems so much more in the way of remote working jobs now too. I prefer to WFH. I definitely prefer not to spend 12 hours a week commuting. I am fully aware that some people have longer commutes.
 
Organisations must be able to find valid measures to compare the effectiveness/efficiency of WFH with office-based work.

I can understand it when people who are happier/prefer WFH believe they are doing a better job but that could well be a subjective opinion and, at the end of the day, or the end of the main pandemic concerns, the only thing that will decide it is the bottom line cost implications for those organisations.

My son, who is partially sighted and works in IT for a government department, lives alone and has been WFH since March 2020. He loves the fact his working day plus commute starts around 8.00 and finishes around 17.00 compared to a frequent 6.30:18.30 day involving unreliable public transport, but feels isolated and misses the daily contact with his colleagues. His organisation is carrying out a review into the implications/logistics of moving to a hybrid work system in a few months time and he is looking forward to that if it comes off. If it doesn't he would like to look for a new job with less travel but changing jobs can be much more problematic for those with sight problems.
 

Alex321

Veteran
Location
South Wales
I've been in once, a few weeks ago. Will be going in again next Thursday, when anybody from the section who can make it will be in.

After that, it will be hybrid working, with most of us probably going in 1-3 days per week, though there is no pressure on us yet to go in regularly.

And having moved during the pandemic, am now only 15 miles from the office (which is in Cardiff Bay), so will be commuting by bike. I did go in by bike the one time I have been in so far.
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
I went in a few times to organise the permanent closing down of the office. We are all WFH now which nobody is happy about as we all had short commutes and love being with each other. We had our monthly office meeting today, sat outside the pub at lunch time with fish n’ chips.
 

Landsurfer

Veteran
If you can do it from home, they can do it from Mumbai or the Philippines.
Just saying ......
Our office never closed, no distancing or masks, just temp checks each day ... no one had Covid (apart from me) or we all had it and didn’t notice.
 

kayakerles

Have a nice ride.
Not yet. Haven’t visited the office since I was sent home to telecommute on March 14, 2020. I'm just only working 5 or 6 more years and would be ecstatic if I never had to go back. Kind of doubt that will happen any time soon with the Delta variant raging here (State side), and our county being a highly infected one at the moment, still, again, whatever! 🤷‍♂️
 
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