"Forced" to go back to the office

Waveguy

Before lockdown was announced I went to my parents (in another county) and have been working remotely from there ever since. Now my boss is saying that I need to be back in the office as of next week. I have been under an awful lot of stress with work and have found being with family really good for my mental health. I mentioned this to my boss and they brushed me aside saying that being in the office will help alleviate this stress by having the support. I can’t commute from my parents, which means living on my own in my flat. Under the current situation I don’t want to rock the boat too much so that I am let go, but they just aren’t listening to my concerns about my stress. I just feel my boss is putting profits before employees saying that we aren’t working as efficiently from home as we were in the office and therefore we can’t work from home.

I’m struggling to know what to do or say from here.

jayzor

It’s not an unreasonable request to ask you to return to the office in all honesty, you can discuss your concerns with them, but other than that you don’t really have any options.

Thrugelmir

Decide whether you wish to keep your current job or not. Without "profit" there'll be no money to pay employees. The last thing an employer wants to be dealing with at the moment is unneccessary hassle. They'll have enough problems already to contend with. 

John_

What do you want from this? Your company pays you to work for them, and where to do it from.

If you are too unwell to work, then you need to take sick leave.

Grumpy_chap

Where did you work from before lockdown?
Quite reasonable for the company to return to normal as much as possible.

comeandgo

Why would any employer continue to allow employees to work in an unprofitable way?  It's now time to resume your work from the office.  If you are ill please see your doctor.

phillw

Waveguy said:

Before lockdown was announced I went to my parents (in another county) and have been working remotely from there ever since. 

Do you have anything in writing from them? If they agreed in writing to let you work from home before covid19 then you could argue it has become part of your contract.
But if they know you want to work from home and are being difficult about it, then it might just be they are trying to force you out which is not going to be good for your stress.
Are you actually less efficient working from home?
You do have the right to ask for reasonable adjustments, you could talk to your doctor and ask him if he'd write a fit note that says that you should be allowed to work from home. They can argue it's not reasonable. But if believe you are just as efficient working from home then I'd want them to put in writing why it's not reasonable.

Jeremy535897

It is still the guidance that you work from home if you can. Why does your boss think the staff can't be as efficient working from home?

phillw

Jeremy535897 said:

It is still the guidance that you work from home if you can. Why does your boss think the staff can't be as efficient working from home?

I think legally the word "can" includes the employers consenting to you working from home.
Some bosses automatically think staff can't be as efficient and some employees aren't as efficient working from home.

Jeremy535897

phillw said:

Jeremy535897 said:

It is still the guidance that you work from home if you can. Why does your boss think the staff can't be as efficient working from home?

I think legally the word "can" includes the employers consenting to you working from home.
Some bosses automatically think staff can't be as efficient and some employees aren't as efficient working from home.

It would be absurd if the guidance could be overruled by unjustified and prejudiced behaviour.

[Deleted User]

I felt like this 1:05pm last Friday after the bosses seemed to do a uturn on home working for a return Monday, put the laptop back on Sunday, saw red mist Saturday (a wasted day or two of worrying but there was no way I could get excited) with family arguments galore but by 10am Monday all was back to normal and I was silently giggling along. Today I had to apologise to my parents.
The boss said a couple of times good for us all to be back together and I will believe it.
I've even been walking distance to a hotel I worked in this time last summer but nothing was as bad as home working. It's ok to leave the house.