Refusal of a task

TWIGLET1234

Hi
I’ve written here a few weeks ago , but basically I’m resigning from my job of 15 years at the end of this month. Lots of reasons which I won’t go into here but lets just say that all my years of loyalty have been rewarded by being treated like crap. 
I’ve been working from home for well over a year with my boss now even clearing my office and several months ago agreeing that I could work from home permanently . There are only 3 staff in the organisation. Two of which have customer facing roles/reception and me who has a back office role, and never been customer facing so it works well for me WFH. 

I received an email this afternoon from my boss instructing me that I have to work in the office for two days next week due to one of the staff being on holiday. Apparently it’s a Health and Safety concern to only have one person in the office (!?) 
I do not want to spend two days in the office. I have a massive workload this month and deadlines to meet, with one task requiring full concentration, and no interruptions. I do not need to be covering a reception office. 

I’ve told him in simple terms that I’m not going to do it, and explained my reasoning. He seemed to accept it and said he’ll sort something else. But I know him very well after 15 years and this will not be the end of it  I am fully prepared to dig my heels in and suffer the consequences (I’m leaving anyway)  but just wanted views on where I stand from a legal point. I’ve never stood up for myself before but did so safe in the knowledge that I don’t need or want this job anymore.  I guess he could start disciplinary, but could I counter it with a grievance? My grievance being that a) I work from home and b) the front office/reception is not part of my role. I was actually prepared to hand in my notice today but decided to hold out and see what actually happens here. 

Worth noting that last Friday, the office was manned by only one person (the opposite person to who will be alone next week) and that was absolutely fine. But suddenly it’s not? 

BrassicWoman

sounds like he's done a lone working risk assessment and decided an extra person in the office is safer.
I can't see where he's asked you to cover reception; just that he wants you to go in. No idea why you are so worked up over a reasonable request. 

TWIGLET1234

BrassicWoman said:

sounds like he's done a lone working risk assessment and decided an extra person in the office is safer.
I can't see where he's asked you to cover reception; just that he wants you to go in. No idea why you are so worked up over a reasonable request. It's certainly not a resigning matter.

He doesn’t do risk assessments! It’s not a resigning matter on its own, I’m going anyway. I’m just curious about what would happen if I flat refuse....which I will do (I guess it’s hard without me boring you with all the background as to why this is an issue for me) 

BrassicWoman

So, does your contract say "any other reasonable tasks" or similar, and does it say "your workplace may vary from time to time, you may be asked to work at other locations"?
What do those kind of clauses say?

TWIGLET1234

BrassicWoman said:

So, does your contract say "any other reasonable tasks" or similar, and does it say "your workplace may vary from time to time, you may be asked to work at other locations"?
What do those kind of clauses say?

It doesn’t say anything like that at all. I need to dig  it out but it’s very old and very basic. I definitely doesn’t say those things you’ve mentioned 

Grumpy_chap

TWIGLET1234 said:

I received an email this afternoon from my boss instructing me that I have to work in the office for two days next week due to one of the staff being on holiday. Apparently it’s a Health and Safety concern to only have one person in the office (!?) 

Worth noting that last Friday, the office was manned by only one person (the opposite person to who will be alone next week) and that was absolutely fine. But suddenly it’s not? 

Lone working is a genuine matter of concern to an employer and there is a need to take proper duty of care.

It may have been done last week, but perhaps that event was what demonstrated that lone working was not suitable and the employer is now looking to do better.

BrassicWoman

So you can probably say no.

But in a small company he may decide to take you down a conduct route anyway for something like attitude, or being uncooperative, or whatever. Because where would you appeal to? the test is not absolute truth, it's "is this within the range of things a reasonable employer would do?" And in your word against his... well, it's not going far. Plus ETs are too stressful to bother with for the small stuff, IMO. So maybe avoid getting into a pointless standoff, no one will win. 

I would probably resign now so he has more of a focus on completing current tasks and handing over. It feels like that might be best for your mental health, if you loathe it that much. 

If your contract is very old does it still have the office as your workplace?

TWIGLET1234

Grumpy_chap said:

TWIGLET1234 said:

I received an email this afternoon from my boss instructing me that I have to work in the office for two days next week due to one of the staff being on holiday. Apparently it’s a Health and Safety concern to only have one person in the office (!?) 

Worth noting that last Friday, the office was manned by only one person (the opposite person to who will be alone next week) and that was absolutely fine. But suddenly it’s not? 

Lone working is a genuine matter of concern to an employer and there is a need to take proper duty of care.

It may have been done last week, but perhaps that event was what demonstrated that lone working was not suitable and the employer is now looking to do better.

Yes fair enough if that’s the case but the main reason he wants me there is so that the other person can go “out and about” so the line working is not really a good enough argument because I’d then be left “lone working”  

The office is only open 2 out of 5 days, so this person could do the “out and about” tasks on the other 3 days and schedule her office based stuff to fit around manning the office. 

But regardless of the various arguments, I’m not going in, under any circumstances so I just was wondering if this is disciplinary or gross misconduct territory. 

TWIGLET1234

BrassicWoman said:

So, does your contract say "any other reasonable tasks" or similar, and does it say "your workplace may vary from time to time, you may be asked to work at other locations"?
What do those kind of clauses say?

There’s nothing at all in the one single page of A4 about location of workplace at all or tasks etc. Just checked it 

Lomast

Every employer is different but where I work, refusal of a reasonable request by management would be gross misconduct unless there is a very compelling reason

BrassicWoman

You nay be down to custom and practice then if you've nothing in writing; debatably pandemic location doesn't impact that, it's where your permanent base was before,

But again; the only fight you win in this is the one you avoid. All the legelese "what ifs" won't lead to a happier you.