Remote Working & Commute

Whiterose23

sheramber said:

You have to put forward what spouts you, not what suits other 

Everybody has their own position of what would be  reasonable  in their opinion, which is all they can give you. 

You don’t like these opinions so go ahead with what suits you and open negotiations with your employer, if necessary. 

It isn’t that I don’t like the opinions, it’s that the opinions aren’t on topic that’s all - some of the responses are hung up on the fact I’m going to be working remotely and how bad that is for the company etc, which isn’t really what I’m asking.

Grumpy_chap

Whiterose23 said:

currently one or two days a week in the office 

I want to return to my home town 280 miles away 

Whiterose23 said:

I’ve been asked to put forward my views on what would work for me. I think a 5/6 hour journey there and back twice a month would be too much/too expensive for myself (fuel) and probably the company (hotel) as well. 

Whiterose23 said:

I think every two weeks would be a bit much for a 5/6 hour drive plus the cost of fuel but it would work once a month for sure 

I know this won't be what you want to hear but, from anywhere that I have worked, what you are requesting would be too far from the current / typical arrangements to reach a viable compromise.  Any company would go through the motions of hearing the employee's viewpoint / request as they have to be seen to be properly considering the flexible working request but would almost certainly be looking at managing the employee out from behind the scenes.

You are fortunate, though, in that you indicated that the employer has similar "once-a-month" arrangements in place for other employees.  What I have experienced as more typical is therefore less relevant other than to give the context of your workplace versus more typical workplaces. 

If the "once-a-month" is viable with your employer, you probably need to put some flesh to the bones of how that would work, how any challenges / negatives to the employer will be overcome by advantages in another way.  How many days would the "once-a-month" attendances be?  One week, so a five-day block.  With the travel time, that will really amount to four days in the office as half day each way is lost to travel.

In considering this, do not under estimate the personal burden of that long trip.  I am, but I had a contract in Sheffield for a few months earlier this year and did three days each week (from London) in the office.  I have to say I found it quite exhausting - and it was not the first go or the second go, but it slowly crept up to the exhausted state.  I was quite relieved when that ceased.

Whiterose23

Grumpy_chap said:

Whiterose23 said:

currently one or two days a week in the office 

I want to return to my home town 280 miles away 

Whiterose23 said:

I’ve been asked to put forward my views on what would work for me. I think a 5/6 hour journey there and back twice a month would be too much/too expensive for myself (fuel) and probably the company (hotel) as well. 

Whiterose23 said:

I think every two weeks would be a bit much for a 5/6 hour drive plus the cost of fuel but it would work once a month for sure 

I know this won't be what you want to hear but, from anywhere that I have worked, what you are requesting would be too far from the current / typical arrangements to reach a viable compromise.  Any company would go through the motions of hearing the employee's viewpoint / request as they have to be seen to be properly considering the flexible working request but would almost certainly be looking at managing the employee out from behind the scenes.

You are fortunate, though, in that you indicated that the employer has similar "once-a-month" arrangements in place for other employees.  What I have experienced as more typical is therefore less relevant other than to give the context of your workplace versus more typical workplaces. 

If the "once-a-month" is viable with your employer, you probably need to put some flesh to the bones of how that would work, how any challenges / negatives to the employer will be overcome by advantages in another way.  How many days would the "once-a-month" attendances be?  One week, so a five-day block.  With the travel time, that will really amount to four days in the office as half day each way is lost to travel.

In considering this, do not under estimate the personal burden of that long trip.  I am, but I had a contract in Sheffield for a few months earlier this year and did three days each week (from London) in the office.  I have to say I found it quite exhausting - and it was not the first go or the second go, but it slowly crept up to the exhausted state.  I was quite relieved when that ceased.

Thanks for your response. I do feel daunted by the prospect of this arrangement I won’t deny it. I’m a long term commuter - my current drive is 1 hour ten mins each way and I used to do this four times a week for years. 

After Covid however, the company were happy with most people just working one or two days in the office so that’s what I do now. The situation I’m in is a difficult one as it involves sharing/providing care for an elderly parent. I’m currently driving there every two or three weekends and it’s expensive and tiring.
My company employs a lady who has only attended the office two or three times in two years due to anxiety; plus two employees who live in Sheffield and Derbyshire - they travel down for key meetings only a couple of times a year, so it’s not that unusual. Then we have external Sales people who work mostly remotely.

I’m not that far away from retirement so if Im
managed out of the business at some point, it wouldn’t be the end of the world but currently, I’m needed but that could change.
My thought is that once a month I would travel to the office in my own time (Sunday afternoon) and then work in the office for three days Monday-Weds then drive back on Weds after work. I could then either take the next day or morning off to rest from the journey if needed.
I think it’s doable but it’s an unusual situation for sure, certainly for me.

gm0

I think a lot of responses are missing the point.

As someone who commuted to "away" projects a great deal I am used to the tradeoffs of low cost and high cost trains and how busy they are (and flexing work time/my free time) to make things less miserable. The misery of crowded motorways at peak times is worse now than when I was doing it and the speed lower.  

I was working with groups with a mix of (earlier) collab tools, conference calls and face to face.  Just mostly before ubiquitous video calling.  I tried driving a 280 mile cross country trip on Monday mornings (0320 start to miss rush hour a few times - 8am onsite.  When you hear world service fold into farming today - you are doing it wrong.  So I mostly drove Sunday night. For reduced misery.  Sacrificed Sunday evening.  On fridays I'd skip off early to get home middle of the evening - Having done more than the work and the outputs - Mon-Thu.

But the lens I would use to work this out is actually the other way up - starting with your team.  People's growth.  Team efffectiveness to a lesser extent.

There are aspects of working with your team and its upstream input providers, and customers - which are routinely done remotely.  And can be.  And there is little value in F2F.  And other aspects where face to face is helpful - and some would argue - necessary to achieve a good result OVERALL i.e. not just helpful - essential.  

Not everyone agrees with this POV as with anything. But the people who don't see a role for F2F interaction for new (and young/inexperienced - joiners of larger organisations - in coaching, mentoring, norming and culture, (x)team relationship building - are just sat in their I like my personal flexibility and preferred channels box pretending that these other things don't exist.  But they do.  The remote is enough and can be everything approach is - on its face - incomplete.  Plenty of us have seen this.  Generational expectations shift of course.  

But I know plenty of 20somethings who will simultaneously hold the thought that 1) they hate phone calls  2) phone calls are better than messaging to resolve certain things/misunderstandings - yet there is a reluctance to make or accept them - and this remains a strong impulse despite rationally agreeing that the effective channel for the specific problem (and its urgency) should be applied.

So the question becomes - what activities focused on the recruiting, coaching/mentoring, performance management, innovation, team improvement etc. are enhanced by face to face. Answer that and map it onto your own and your teams work patterns and flexibilty.  Then you have the version that adds value to those people and their growth and perhaps team output.  

Moulding that to avoid lots of tiny trips for short periods.  

I used to hate going that far for "the day".   Night before - 3 day trip, maybe 2. Leaving off peak.  Was the best balance "for me".  Whatever it is for you and your other (e.g. care) responsibilities when remote.  

I doubt it's a whole week or a single day though.

It may require flex from (some of) your team - and from you - to do the best version.  The organisation may be culturally happy with something less.

You need to do you.

feynman33

If you want an almost fully remote role and the precident has been set, just ask for that. It should be a question of how many times you need to come to the office, not how many times you can. I'm sure they don't want to pay hotel bills for you to unnessesarily show face every month.