Working from home

skm1981

Where I work is a bit 'luck of the draw' depending on what team you're in.  There will be management in different teams that just will not want any of their team to work from home regardless because they're a lot less flexible, but then you have teams like mine that are generally of the view that as long as you get your job done, they don't really care where you are.  I only work 2 days a week anyway.  

I do see the other side though.  While I can obviously do my job permanently from home, I'm still going to be earning a London salary without the expense and faff of commuting.  I have spoken to the other girls on my team who do the same role as me and they have said that it doesn't bother them as they will be doing a hybrid of office/home-based working anyway (I think the plan is potentially 60% office-based, 40% home-based).

I've been there for nearly 7 years, so not long, but long enough I suppose.  I have informed my direct line management of my move and I spoke to her yesterday about whether any decision had been made about this and she said everything is still all up in the air at the moment, so no decisions have been made.

JamoLew

skm1981 said:

Where I work is a bit 'luck of the draw' depending on what team you're in.  There will be management in different teams that just will not want any of their team to work from home regardless because they're a lot less flexible, but then you have teams like mine that are generally of the view that as long as you get your job done, they don't really care where you are.  I only work 2 days a week anyway.  

I do see the other side though.  While I can obviously do my job permanently from home, I'm still going to be earning a London salary without the expense and faff of commuting.  I have spoken to the other girls on my team who do the same role as me and they have said that it doesn't bother them as they will be doing a hybrid of office/home-based working anyway (I think the plan is potentially 60% office-based, 40% home-based).

I've been there for nearly 7 years, so not long, but long enough I suppose.  I have informed my direct line management of my move and I spoke to her yesterday about whether any decision had been made about this and she said everything is still all up in the air at the moment, so no decisions have been made.

so you would probably be asked to do 1 day office - 1 day home (or an equivalent)

That's not an unreasonable request

It was your choice to move away and make yourself unavailable to attend the workplace and as you say are fully taking "advantage" of that socially and financially and gaining an advantage over other workers. They might not realise how much of an advantage you are gaining over them and their "don't really care" attitude may rapidly change once realisation sets in.

This may make management more stubborn to enforce their will and make sure arrangements are more fair and equatable between their employees

skm1981

JamoLew said:

skm1981 said:

Where I work is a bit 'luck of the draw' depending on what team you're in.  There will be management in different teams that just will not want any of their team to work from home regardless because they're a lot less flexible, but then you have teams like mine that are generally of the view that as long as you get your job done, they don't really care where you are.  I only work 2 days a week anyway.  

I do see the other side though.  While I can obviously do my job permanently from home, I'm still going to be earning a London salary without the expense and faff of commuting.  I have spoken to the other girls on my team who do the same role as me and they have said that it doesn't bother them as they will be doing a hybrid of office/home-based working anyway (I think the plan is potentially 60% office-based, 40% home-based).

I've been there for nearly 7 years, so not long, but long enough I suppose.  I have informed my direct line management of my move and I spoke to her yesterday about whether any decision had been made about this and she said everything is still all up in the air at the moment, so no decisions have been made.

so you would probably be asked to do 1 day office - 1 day home (or an equivalent)

That's not an unreasonable request

It was your choice to move away and make yourself unavailable to attend the workplace and as you say are fully taking "advantage" of that socially and financially and gaining an advantage over other workers. They might not realise how much of an advantage you are gaining over them and their "don't really care" attitude may rapidly change once realisation sets in.

This may make management more stubborn to enforce their will and make sure arrangements are more fair and equatable between their employees

No, it's not an unreasonable request for them to ask, but it would be unreasonable of them to expect me to spend 5 hours in the morning commuting to work and 5 hours in the evening commuting home, so they will either need to let me work from home or let me go.  And I'm not taking issue with that. As you say, it was my decision to move.  That's not even relevant to what I've asked anyway.

You seem to be suggesting that I'm trying to take advantage over my colleagues by working from home permanently when that is not the case.  It was always my intention that when we move, I will continue to work from home until my workplace requires people to return to the office, and when that time comes, that would be when I would hand my notice in.  However, I have been told by my line manager that it may be the case that they will just let me continue to work from home permanently, given that it's only 2 days, and given that I already do the job, it means they don't need to go to the expense of recruiting someone else to fill my role (if they did indeed replace me).

There are 3 other girls that do the same job as I do, all of which are fully supportive of me permanently working from home.   

unforeseen

No, it's not an unreasonable request for them to ask, but it would be unreasonable of them to expect me to spend 5 hours in the morning commuting to work and 5 hours in the evening commuting home, 

Not unreasonable at all. The have no reason to consider YOUR choice of moving so far away from the workplace when there was always the expectation of returning to the office. 

The other option is that you stay overnight for your 2 days. 

skm1981

I don't earn enough to make it worth me staying in London for 2 nights, it would probably cost me more than I earn when combined with the travel. 

I'm not saying and have never said they would be unreasonable to not let me continue working from home permanently.  I was asking what would happen if I refused to resign, that question has been answered.

lincroft1710

If you refuse to resign, they just dismiss you on the grounds of absenting yourself from the workplace without permission

Carrot007

skm1981 said:

I don't earn enough to make it worth me staying in London for 2 nights, it would probably cost me more than I earn when combined with the travel. 

I'm not saying and have never said they would be unreasonable to not let me continue working from home permanently.  I was asking what would happen if I refused to resign, that question has been answered.

Gross misconduct and being fired. And horrible references shoudl you need them (or more likely none, which amounts to the same).

Barny1979

You cannot be given defamatory references nowadays, it'll just be a standard, they worked here between X and Y, or more telling, no reference?

General_Grant

Barny1979 said:

You cannot be given defamatory references nowadays, it'll just be a standard, they worked here between X and Y, or more telling, no reference?

"Defamatory"? 

But to tell the truth it could say,
"skm1981 was employed by us as an X [role] from Y [date] until dismissed on z [date] because they refused to come to the office to perform their contracted duties."

JamoLew

Barny1979 said:

You cannot be given defamatory references nowadays, it'll just be a standard, they worked here between X and Y, or more telling, no reference?

You can truthfully answer any question that the reference asks