Return to Workplace

dannyrst

So, kind of opposite to most questions on this topic...

My workplace are saying nobody can return to the office (if they can work from home) until January next year. My question is, if the government change advice to remove the "work from home" guidance, can companies continue to (indefinitely) force people to work from home?

I'm struggling to find any information on this topic.

Thrugelmir

Circumstances differ widely. The Government cannot legislate for every conceivable permutation. Advice is only guidance. Have a conversation with your employer. You may well be not the only person who has reasons to want to return to the "office".  

GingerTim

I expect this is down to the employer and an individual's circumstances.

My employer - a big university - has told us that from September we will only be expected to be in the office a minimum of two days per week. This is for academics, with professional services staff piloting working from home the majority of the time, but with personal circumstances being taken into account in individual cases. 

This is all barring the reintroduction of restrictions in autumn/winter which - to this eternal pessimist - seems ever more likely .

Andy_L

What does your contract say about your place of work?

Any contract can be changed - suppose they'd moved to new premises 10 miles away, your place of work would have changed.

MattMattMattUK

Andy_L said:

What does your contract say about your place of work?

Any contract can be changed - suppose they'd moved to new premises 10 miles away, your place of work would have changed.

They would, but even ten miles would require them to follow the correct procedure and potentially offer redundancy if the employee had issues with travel to the new site. 

dannyrst said:

So, kind of opposite to most questions on this topic...

My workplace are saying nobody can return to the office (if they can work from home) until January next year. My question is, if the government change advice to remove the "work from home" guidance, can companies continue to (indefinitely) force people to work from home?

I'm struggling to find any information on this topic.

My advice would be that as you have worked from home so far and they have made it clear, with the potential for redundancies in most sectors of the economy still looming I would not make myself the difficult employee. 

Pennywise

GingerTim said:

I expect this is down to the employer and an individual's circumstances.

My employer - a big university - has told us that from September we will only be expected to be in the office a minimum of two days per week. This is for academics, with professional services staff piloting working from home the majority of the time, but with personal circumstances being taken into account in individual cases. 

This is all barring the reintroduction of restrictions in autumn/winter which - to this eternal pessimist - seems ever more likely .

I think it will depend on how many complaints are received from students and student satisfaction surveys etc in the longer term.  

Like all businesses/organisations, the working from home model will depend on how happy the "customers" are - if customers start complaining and taking business elsewhere, then employers have to review the situation.

Grumpy_chap

dannyrst said:

My workplace are saying nobody can return to the office (if they can work from home) until January next year. My question is, if the government change advice to remove the "work from home" guidance, can companies continue to (indefinitely) force people to work from home?

When the Government remove the "work from home" guidance, then we will be back at the position that were were pre-COVID in so far as there will be no Government advice about where to work from.  The freedom and flexibility will be with employer's to determine the most suitable work-place location for the business needs.  

That freedom and flexibility will likely have different outcomes to the situation pre-COVID.  There may be many employers that now realise the business can survive with a remote or more flexible profile and that may give opportunities to achieve improved competitiveness.

In most cases, it will be very difficult for an employee to seek to return to the office so they can be more productive, as that comes with the dangerous message that the employee was less productive over the past year or so.  Where that is the case, the employee likely already knows.

The extent of the freedom and flexibility will vary greatly in practice between businesses where attendance as a venue is paramount, for example hospitality, and wholly office-based functions, where the continuation of a high level of WFH is more likely.  Where does the OP's company sit on that spectrum?

Brie

At the start of the lockdown last year we were all told to WFH but some employees said this was impossible. 

One colleague was sharing a bedroom with her sister in their parents 2 bedroom flat.  No space to work, no garden to sit in.  

Others didn't have the right equipment (no pc at home or a Mac instead of a windows based system) or didn't have wifi.  Or they knew that for their mental health it wasn't a viable option.

It was considered that to be told NOT to come into the office when one had no where to work would mean that either people would be paid for not working at all or they would need to be made redundant.  The decision was made that where people could not work at home then they would need to come to the office.

Most people were happy to WFH so net result was we only had about 25% of our dept in the office and our building had about 5% of its normal population.  

I think a lot of employers are realising that they may be able to get away with having much less office space which is a potential big saving - after the initial costs of the last year have been absorbed.  As a result there will be lots who consider that the best business plan.

But IMHO if you cannot continue to WFH for whatever reason and your employer insists on a permanent basis then they will be effectively forcing you to quit.

GingerTim

Pennywise said:

GingerTim said:

I expect this is down to the employer and an individual's circumstances.

My employer - a big university - has told us that from September we will only be expected to be in the office a minimum of two days per week. This is for academics, with professional services staff piloting working from home the majority of the time, but with personal circumstances being taken into account in individual cases. 

This is all barring the reintroduction of restrictions in autumn/winter which - to this eternal pessimist - seems ever more likely .

I think it will depend on how many complaints are received from students and student satisfaction surveys etc in the longer term.  

Like all businesses/organisations, the working from home model will depend on how happy the "customers" are - if customers start complaining and taking business elsewhere, then employers have to review the

situation.

Not really in the case of academics - the typical working pattern would be 40% in the office, 60% WFH/libraries, and some only come in on teaching days. This policy is just codifying what have been decades-long working practices. Slightly differen for researchers who are generally on site a lot more.

I take your point about professional services staff though, this is very much an experiment. If students (and staff!) can't find someone to help with, say, assessments or accommodation, things may change. That said, unis have long been looking for ways to rationalise on PS staff, and not having to provide desk-space for them is what they've been trying to do for some time. Covid is just the opportunity.

tooldle

I’m also in a Uni. We have business critical staff on site,  very few of these are academics. Anyone who is struggling to work from home for any reason (mental health, lack of space, domestic situation etc) can ask to work from the office. It is not a huge number asking but people are definitely taking up the offer. 
We are told continue as we are until the end of the year. The next 6 months will be used how best to reconfigure operations for the future. It has already been stated very clearly staff will not be expected to attend everyday and will be on campus only when required. We are expecting office space to be reduced and replaced with hot desking. Free sapce will be remodelled for teaching / research. Pre Covid i went in 4 days per week and worked from home on the 5th. From January i am expecting to go in 1 or 2 days a week, and this might well turn into 3 days per fortnight. 

Nebulous2

A relative works for a large company, in a big building with around 500 employees. They intend reopening with 100 on site at most in the first instance, and have been asked to express an interest in being one of those 100 via their line manager. I thought that was quite an enlightened approach. It allows people who prefer the office to go for it, whilst allowing those with the space / facilities to stay at home. 

It might be worth making an approach: 

"I'd like to go back to the office and would be willing to pilot a new approach if you want to test out the facilities and spacing. Is there any way I can be involved?" 

Possible solutions and being willing to help is generally a good angle.