Employer Insisting we return to the Office

LegacyUser

Hi going Anon for this.

I work for a company in the West that has been impacted severely by Covid-19. We are still open and operational but we have seen a lot of cancellations of work from customers and very few new orders coming in to replace them. We are basically going from month to month and just keeping the lights on. All staff have taken a minimum of a 20% pay cut even when you include the governments subsidy. We are all still expected to work full time hours.

We are divided into warehouse and office/admin staff. Most of the office admin work can be done remotely however there are several admin staff who only have desktop computers and they have been asked to continue to come into the office.

Anyone that can work remotely has been doing so since the government announced the lock-down. However, in the past two weeks those working remotely have been put under increasing pressure to return to working from the office. The only reason given is that senior management expect to see them and the impressing will be that they are not working if not in the office.

Due to the lay out of the office I imagine that social distancing will be nearly impossible. The contract with the Cleaning company has been reduced to save money so it will be down to staff to clean and disinfect the office, canteen and toilet areas for the most part.

I am not comfortable returning to the office in those conditions but I feel I may lose my job if I refuse and state my desire only to return to working in the office per the government guidelines. (Those that can work from home should work from home).

There is no issue with performance and productivity from anyone in my department but we now have to take the risk and return to the office or lose our jobs.

Just to show how precarious things are we had an operator confirm they have tested positive for Covid-19 but there has been no formal communications on this from Management.

With Job prospects the way they are and the need to pay bills and mortgage on an already reduced salary I feel I am stuck between a rock and a hard place and will need to risk my health to stay in a job.

Is there anything I can do or is there any where I can reach out to for advice?

Thanks.

Make It Real

Difficult spot to be in and I feel for you.

I don't have any real answers, but I think I'd be wary of risking my health or going too far out of my way for a company that behaves like that and may not be round for too long. But at the same time, you don't want to be out of a job.

Is there a timeframe when things may become a bit clearer or less critical in your job? Like, that they have proper precautions in the workplace or accept home working has to be allowed or something else external happens, like falling infection rate, something like that.

Like maybe take a 4-6 week view and see how you can survive that long, getting away with as limited time in the office as possible and take all possible precautions of your own when you do.

So a mixture of carrot (doing a great job from home, pointing it out, going out of your way to help, be contactable, taking up slack and cooperate etc) and stick (sickies not Covid related, supporting vulnerable relatives can't come in, would love to etc). I know it isn't ideal, but just to avoid conflict and hang in there a bit, see what happens...

I'm sure Citizens Information or one of the Govt. bodies will give you advice on this, if you think that's the best way to go. Only you can decide that I think.

Best of luck with it.

Strumms

so they want you to return to work, risk your health as they won’t be able or even attempt to facilitate you in office space where social distancing can be achieved to any degree. Take on additional work which is not related to the job which you successfully applied for ie. cleaner..

Can I ask how the request to return to the office was made ? A phone call ? Or was it done via email... ?

The advice above to contact Citizens Advice is a good one. If they cannot advise you directly, they will steer you in the most appropriate direction. Remember though, with employers, words over phone calls blow away on the wind, try and get everything in writing even if it means not answering the phone (you are in a bad area)...