Boss not letting me work from home

TELLIT01

AskAsk said:

i keep hearing that productivity is improved when people work from home in the media, but from my experience, people are less productive when they work from home as there are distractions at home.  whenever i call someone now and they are working from home, they are often not there to answer the phone or when they do, the call signal is very poor and i can't have a proper conversation with them.

It's not black and white.  Some people have distractions at home, others don't.  I don't see any way a person with children in the house will be as productive when working from home as they would be in an office environment.  On the other hand, somebody with no kids and a dedicated work area at home doesn't have the distraction of the general chat in an office and may actually be more productive.  My wife has all the kit and systems at home that she would have at work, in fact it is the kit she would have at work..

JamoLew

TELLIT01 said:

AskAsk said:

i keep hearing that productivity is improved when people work from home in the media, but from my experience, people are less productive when they work from home as there are distractions at home.  whenever i call someone now and they are working from home, they are often not there to answer the phone or when they do, the call signal is very poor and i can't have a proper conversation with them.

It's not black and white.  Some people have distractions at home, others don't.  I don't see any way a person with children in the house will be as productive when working from home as they would be in an office environment.  On the other hand, somebody with no kids and a dedicated work area at home doesn't have the distraction of the general chat in an office and may actually be more productive.  My wife has all the kit and systems at home that she would have at work, in fact it is the kit she would have at work..

Totally agree - nothing more annoying that trying to hold a video call with someone to see/hear kids running amok in the background - if someones allowing that to happen during a meeting, what is it like usually.
I am fortunate to have a dedicated workspace at home and probably better kit than in work, am probably 15% more productive, but absolutely hate it
WFH isn't for everyone for a variety of reasons

Dizzy_Ditzy

We are a team of three and need to have one person covering the office every day. Two of us do two days and the other does the odd one.  Our jobs are 90% doable from home but we need to deal with post and face to face queries. Maybe thats why your employer wants you to be in the office? You really need to speak to your employer to ask them why 
Speaking for myself, I quite enjoy my office days - its a chance to have a "semi" sort of normal, with other people that you can chat do and laugh with and commiserate with! 

AskAsk

Dizzy_Ditzy said:

We are a team of three and need to have one person covering the office every day. Two of us do two days and the other does the odd one.  Our jobs are 90% doable from home but we need to deal with post and face to face queries. Maybe thats why your employer wants you to be in the office? You really need to speak to your employer to ask them why 
Speaking for myself, I quite enjoy my office days - its a chance to have a "semi" sort of normal, with other people that you can chat do and laugh with and commiserate with! 

i used to work one day a week at home and 4 days in the office at my old place.  i had no distraction at home, except myself as i could never get motivated enough to do anything and would just leave the work and go and do other things instead.  of course i never told my employer this!  but when you are home and there are so many other interesting things that you could do instead of working, who wouldn't just put work aside if you can and go and do something else instead??

liney

JamoLew said:

TELLIT01 said:

AskAsk said:

i keep hearing that productivity is improved when people work from home in the media, but from my experience, people are less productive when they work from home as there are distractions at home.  whenever i call someone now and they are working from home, they are often not there to answer the phone or when they do, the call signal is very poor and i can't have a proper conversation with them.

It's not black and white.  Some people have distractions at home, others don't.  I don't see any way a person with children in the house will be as productive when working from home as they would be in an office environment.  On the other hand, somebody with no kids and a dedicated work area at home doesn't have the distraction of the general chat in an office and may actually be more productive.  My wife has all the kit and systems at home that she would have at work, in fact it is the kit she would have at work..

Totally agree - nothing more annoying that trying to hold a video call with someone to see/hear kids running amok in the background - if someones allowing that to happen during a meeting, what is it like usually.
I am fortunate to have a dedicated workspace at home and probably better kit than in work, am probably 15% more productive, but absolutely hate it
WFH isn't for everyone for a variety of reasons

Unfortunately, you can't stick children in a box and lock them away from 9 to 5. When people were forced to work  from home, and childcare was closed, what on earth did you expect? Depending on how old the children are, being in a different room could be neglectful, and irresponsible. I do hope you aren't an employer, or a parent.

Barny1979

AskAsk said:

Dizzy_Ditzy said:

We are a team of three and need to have one person covering the office every day. Two of us do two days and the other does the odd one.  Our jobs are 90% doable from home but we need to deal with post and face to face queries. Maybe thats why your employer wants you to be in the office? You really need to speak to your employer to ask them why 
Speaking for myself, I quite enjoy my office days - its a chance to have a "semi" sort of normal, with other people that you can chat do and laugh with and commiserate with! 

i used to work one day a week at home and 4 days in the office at my old place.  i had no distraction at home, except myself as i could never get motivated enough to do anything and would just leave the work and go and do other things instead.  of course i never told my employer this!  but when you are home and there are so many other interesting things that you could do instead of working, who wouldn't just put work aside if you can and go and do something else instead??

Because those working fulltime from home currently would have zero output

AskAsk

Barny1979 said:

AskAsk said:

Dizzy_Ditzy said:

We are a team of three and need to have one person covering the office every day. Two of us do two days and the other does the odd one.  Our jobs are 90% doable from home but we need to deal with post and face to face queries. Maybe thats why your employer wants you to be in the office? You really need to speak to your employer to ask them why 
Speaking for myself, I quite enjoy my office days - its a chance to have a "semi" sort of normal, with other people that you can chat do and laugh with and commiserate with! 

i used to work one day a week at home and 4 days in the office at my old place.  i had no distraction at home, except myself as i could never get motivated enough to do anything and would just leave the work and go and do other things instead.  of course i never told my employer this!  but when you are home and there are so many other interesting things that you could do instead of working, who wouldn't just put work aside if you can and go and do something else instead??

Because those working fulltime from home currently would have zero output

they would have some output, but it would be less than what it was when they went into the office full time.  the media articles state that the output is more than when they went into the office full time in general, which i find hard to believe.

MrsStepford

duk3nuk3m said:

I currently have a disagreement with my boss at work. The company I work for is classed as "essential" where some of my colleagues are able to work from home and some are not due to their job roles. During the lockdown earlier this year, I proved that I was able to work from home effectively. Since the 2nd lockdown was announced, my boss is now insisting that I come into the office on a certain number of days and work from home on the other days. Is there anything I can do, as I feel as though my boss is completely disregarding the current guidelines?

Suggest that you look up employment law on www.legislation.gov.uk and the terms and conditions of your own contract. I'm seeing Lockdown 3 trending on Twitter, so it seems Rishi Sunak is pondering another #EatOutToGetCovid19 scheme. There could be a cycle of back and forth into 2021. 

AskAsk

MrsStepford said:

duk3nuk3m said:

I currently have a disagreement with my boss at work. The company I work for is classed as "essential" where some of my colleagues are able to work from home and some are not due to their job roles. During the lockdown earlier this year, I proved that I was able to work from home effectively. Since the 2nd lockdown was announced, my boss is now insisting that I come into the office on a certain number of days and work from home on the other days. Is there anything I can do, as I feel as though my boss is completely disregarding the current guidelines?

Suggest that you look up employment law on www.legislation.gov.uk and the terms and conditions of your own contract. I'm seeing Lockdown 3 trending on Twitter, so it seems Rishi Sunak is pondering another #EatOutToGetCovid19 scheme. There could be a cycle of back and forth into 2021. 

i am hoping the vaccine will work and we can all go back to normal soon.  eat out again?  that would be great.  i hate these blooming lock downs as we can't go out to eat.  so bring it on 

MgComp

It seems your question has already been answered, but again, as it's just guidance, i think your boss has the right to ask you to come into the office, especially as your business is classed as essential. He has already compromised by still letting you work from home for a couple of days a week.

On the most recent note, i have just seen in the news that the vaccine could be arriving from as early as December!! Here's hoping all goes well and we can start vaccinating, only then will resrictions begin to be lifted i think.