Working from home

skm1981

Since the pandemic, I have been working from home.  I'm part-time and the working from home has gone smoothly.  Since the pandemic though, I have moved away and so I can't commute to the office.  The plan was that I will just resign when it's time to go back, but my friend has said maybe I don't need to do that.  She said I have proved that my role can be done from home and I should ask whether I can remain working from home on my working days, or if they would consider voluntary redundancy. So I'm just wondering, if they were to say no to me working from home all the time, what would happen if I refused to resign?  

JamoLew

They would terminate your employment

Grumpy_chap

You can ask to continue working from home. 
You can even ask as a formal flexible working request, which may force a bit more consideration by the employer.
Do you expect that the employer will require an attendance at the office to resume?
How far from the office have you moved away?  Is it possible that you can work some of your hours from home and some from the office?

General_Grant

skm1981 said:

Since the pandemic, I have been working from home.  I'm part-time and the working from home has gone smoothly.  Since the pandemic though, I have moved away and so I can't commute to the office.  The plan was that I will just resign when it's time to go back, but my friend has said maybe I don't need to do that.  She said I have proved that my role can be done from home and I should ask whether I can remain working from home on my working days, or if they would consider voluntary redundancy. So I'm just wondering, if they were to say no to me working from home all the time, what would happen if I refused to resign?  

No.  Redundancy is for when the job is no longer required to be done.  So they could terminate your employment, giving and paying whatever notice is required but that would be a fair dismissal and not on the grounds of redundancy.  If required by your employer you would also need to attend in person during your notice period (or, with their agreement, take paid or unpaid leave for some or all of it).

skm1981

Grumpy_chap said:

You can ask to continue working from home. 
You can even ask as a formal flexible working request, which may force a bit more consideration by the employer.
Do you expect that the employer will require an attendance at the office to resume?
How far from the office have you moved away?  Is it possible that you can work some of your hours from home and some from the office?

I think they would be flexible to my working request and I know that they are planning to allow people more freedom to work from home, just not on a full-time basis generally (as far as I know anyway).  I don't need to be in the office to do my job, but I think the plan is to have 60% of your working week in the office and 40% from home.  I couldn't commute into the office, it would take 5 hours by train, and that's just one way, so definitely not feasible.

Barny1979

I would expect that they'd get some kick-back from other colleagues, as if they allowed you 100% WFH, they should be fair and equitable to their requests if similar roles.

skm1981

Barny1979 said:

I would expect that they'd get some kick-back from other colleagues, as if they allowed you 100% WFH, they should be fair and equitable to their requests if similar roles.

These are my thoughts.  I mean I'm happy to just resign if that's what they want, but it was my friend who just said it may be worth asking if they'd consider voluntary redundancy.  My role isn't particularly busy mostly anyway, so I guess it could be worth asking.

Barny1979

skm1981 said:

Barny1979 said:

I would expect that they'd get some kick-back from other colleagues, as if they allowed you 100% WFH, they should be fair and equitable to their requests if similar roles.

These are my thoughts.  I mean I'm happy to just resign if that's what they want, but it was my friend who just said it may be worth asking if they'd consider voluntary redundancy.  My role isn't particularly busy mostly anyway, so I guess it could be worth asking.

I also couldn't imagine they'd want to consider VR, have you been at the company long?

Undervalued

Barny1979 said:

I would expect that they'd get some kick-back from other colleagues, as if they allowed you 100% WFH, they should be fair and equitable to their requests if similar roles.

Why so?

There is no legal obligation to treat staff equally providing that the employer isn't discriminating of one of the handful of legally protected grounds (e.g race, gender, sexual orientation etc).

Barny1979

Undervalued said:

Barny1979 said:

I would expect that they'd get some kick-back from other colleagues, as if they allowed you 100% WFH, they should be fair and equitable to their requests if similar roles.

Why so?

There is no legal obligation to treat staff equally providing that the employer isn't discriminating of one of the handful of legally protected grounds (e.g race, gender, sexual orientation etc).

It may not be discriminating, but I wouldn't be happy being told to come into the office if I didn't see the benefit, whereas the OP isn't asked as they've located themselves miles away from the job.

Thrugelmir

skm1981 said:

So I'm just wondering, if they were to say no to me working from home all the time, what would happen if I refused to resign?  

Presumably you'd commute to your place of work as specified in your contract of employment. Otherwise your employer would take the necessary steps to dismiss you. 

Have you informed your line manager/employer of your move?