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Forced to work from home

Padre_Pio

Just got word today that work is downsizing their offices and the COVID work from home policy is going to be a near-permanent WHF policy.

Basically, the new office will only have hot desks, maybe half as many as there are staff. Employees have to book a desk in advance if they need to come into the office, but your permanent desk is expected to be in your own home.

There's uproar from certain people, but the response is basically put up and shut up.
Personally, there's no mention of home working in my contract. I was looking forward to getting back into the office and I barely have the space for a desk where I'm living at the moment, never mind a full setup.

Anyone have any experience of this? Places like Google and Facebook have said they're looking at similar policies. Any ideas how that went down with staff?

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Bass Reeves

ineedeuro wrote: »

Google do free food but....
you get breakfast at 7 or something crazy like that and dinner at 7 that night. So in other words to get the free food you have to stay in the office all day long

So yes you save a few quid on food but you have no life outside work.

As the saying goes there is no such thing as a free lunch

Mic 1972

ineedeuro wrote: »

No
As above google and other companies use it to keep employees in the office.
Someone thinks getting a "free" breakfast and dinner is worth it, in reality it costs them maybe a euro to feed the employee but they have them in the office 12 hours a day.
They of course are only paying for them to work 9-5.
I had friends who went to google, said it was hilarious that even after been told it was a scam the place was full every morning & evening. People ended up chained to work as no social life outside of work.

from what I heard, you could bag your food and take it home too

[Deleted User]

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Free or subsidised is common in places where there are few local alternatives which would be able to feed the number of people eg a local lunchbox would be overwhelmed by 500 people at lunchtime.

Jaysis. Whatever happened to bringing your lunch in with you?

Closest place to buy a sandwich or a coffee from my office is ten minutes walk away. Most people bring their lunch in with them. Nobody moans about it.

Can't get over those now whining about having to pay for their own meals.

Mic 1972

Deleted User wrote: »

Jaysis. Whatever happened to bringing your lunch in with you?

Closest place to buy a sandwich or a coffee from my office is ten minutes walk away. Most people bring their lunch in with them. Nobody moans about it.

Can't get over those now whining about having to pay for their own meals.

and still you are the one doing the whining all along

givyjoe

Mic 1972 wrote: »

from what I heard, you could bag your food and take it home too

Frowned upon, sort of, until everyone had eaten, i.e. the rush was over and go ahead and take the leftovers. Course you'd still have the odd plank filling a suitcase full of food mid lunchtime. Same at the end of the day with snacks, the odd brain donor would be loading a bag full of treats, often on a Friday evening.

[Deleted User]

Mic 1972 wrote: »

and still you are the one doing the whining all along

What, whining about having to pay to fill my own stomach out of my own pocket?

Why would I whine about that when its something I've always done!

Reality check needed for some of you, I think.

I certainly wouldn't be bothered going into an office to save myself the price of a dinner.

Mrs OBumble

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Jaysis. Whatever happened to bringing your lunch in with you?

Closest place to buy a sandwich or a coffee from my office is ten minutes walk away. Most people bring their lunch in with them. Nobody moans about it.

Can't get over those now whining about having to pay for their own meals.

I do that too.

I actually eat nicer food and spend more when WFH, because the office is an cafe-free business park, whereas home is a cafe rich city-centre.

But that is by-the-by.

I was responding to an employer who expressed surprise that some places provide free or subsidised food. Fact is, some do. Some even have a policy of not providing/allowing fridges or kettles for non-company food.

Flinty997

Depends if you want people to move to location where there is no easy access to lunch options.
Or you want people not to leave the building but spend as much time as possible working.

That's why tech companies do it. They don't want you to leave, for anything.

Mic 1972

Deleted User wrote: »

Can't get over those now whining about having to pay for their own meals.

Deleted User wrote: »

You just want an argument for the sake of it.
Time to apply the ignore button.

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm honestly getting fed up with these threads now.

why so pressed?

[Deleted User]

Mic 1972 wrote: »

why so pressed?

I'm not pressed.

I'm actually laughing incredulously that anyone could be such a total cheapskate, (to say it politely) that anyone would complain about having to pay for their own food.

And then waits to take home the leftovers!

I honestly would have found it hard to believe, but it's here right in front of my eyes!

GreeBo

Deleted User wrote: »

What, whining about having to pay to fill my own stomach out of my own pocket?

Why would I whine about that when its something I've always done!

Reality check needed for some of you, I think.

I certainly wouldn't be bothered going into an office to save myself the price of a dinner.

For others the thing we have always done is now changing.
This is a reality, whether you check, accept it or otherwise.

[Deleted User]

GreeBo wrote: »

For others the thing we have always done is now changing.

Such is life

GreeBo

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm not pressed.

I'm actually laughing incredulously that anyone could be such a total cheapskate, (to say it politely) that anyone would complain about having to pay for their own food.

And then waits to take home the leftovers!

I honestly would have found it hard to believe, but it's here right in front of my eyes!

Our facilities team frequently advertised that there was food available, mostly on a Friday or long weekend.

Breakfast, lunch, snacks + tea/coffee are saving people on average:
(€5 for breakfast, €5 for lunch and easily €10 on tea/coffee/fruit/juice/snacks)
so €100 a week or at least €4,000 a year.
That's before you add in electricity, gas and in some case fuel.

"cheapskates" indeed.

GreeBo

Deleted User wrote: »

Such is life

Which really could be applied to anything, including mandatory prostate exams on a Friday.

irelandrover

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Such is life

Would you be as accepting if your employer cut your wages, or stopped pension contributions, or increased your working hours without giving a raise?

[Deleted User]

GreeBo wrote: »

Our facilities team frequently advertised that there was food available, mostly on a Friday or long weekend.

Breakfast, lunch, snacks + tea/coffee are saving people on average:
(€5 for breakfast, €5 for lunch and easily €10 on tea/coffee/fruit/juice/snacks)
so €100 a week or at least €4,000 a year.
That's before you add in electricity, gas and in some case fuel.

"cheapskates" indeed.

You should get back to the office as soon as conditions allow

GreeBo

Deleted User wrote: »

You should get back to the office as soon as conditions allow

Hopefully I can get a seat, I might start a thread about it actually...

CramCycle

My partners place have always had it, it is just to keep staff happier but most of them pop out for lunch anyway for a break. An old flatmate turned down a job in Google and went elsewhere as the money was not good, loads of fringe benefits but he weighed up those benefits against a better work/life balance, and a better pay cheque. Some people love working for google but that work is your life culture is not for all, and is really a cost saver for them in the end.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User wrote: »

You should get back to the office as soon as conditions allow

Spoiled rotten, they are.

I wonder is any BIK due on this €4K per year free food perk?

Flinty997

haskellgeek wrote: »

That's true but it also depends on the set up required at both locations too, and also if you have a lot of equipment is a parking space given? More than a laptop I mean

The idea is not that you just come in for the sake of it and relocate your office every other day. That would make no sense.

But you come in for meetings for face to face stuff, training etc.

I'm curious what you are doing that requires a car load of equipment, for meetings etc.

Padre_Pio

Deleted User wrote: »

Spoiled rotten, they are.

I wonder is any BIK due on this €4K per year free food perk?

From Revenue:

You may provide free or subsidised meals in staff canteens for all employees. If this facility is made available to all employees, these meals are not a taxable benefit in kind (BIK). Meals must be provided in a staff canteen.

Flinty997 wrote: »

That's why tech companies do it. They don't want you to leave, for anything.

Exactly. Feed your employees. Then they don't have to worry about stopping at the shop and cooking their own dinner.
Winner winner free chicken dinner.

Flinty997

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'm not pressed.

I'm actually laughing incredulously that anyone could be such a total cheapskate, (to say it politely) that anyone would complain about having to pay for their own food.

And then waits to take home the leftovers!

I honestly would have found it hard to believe, but it's here right in front of my eyes!

All kinds of people some poor, some thrifty, some just practical. I'm not sure laughing is appropriate. I've seen places where people take the bathroom supplies home.

On the flip side I've worked in a place where there was a row when they reduced the quality of the free expensive biscuits at the tea/coffee station's. It's wasn't money related, everyone was well paid. But it's the message is was sending.

It's a bit like that baseball movie where guys on millions had to put coins in the soft drink machine.

ineedeuro

Padre_Pio wrote: »

No
From Revenue:

Exactly. Feed your employees. Then they don't have to worry about stopping at the shop and cooking their own dinner.
Winner winner free chicken dinner.

Hence why you have a lot of people saying the only reason they go to work is for social contact, they have no life outside of work.

I wouldnt care if my company gave free dinner, I have better things to do with my life than waiting around an office to save a few quid

Flinty997

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Spoiled rotten, they are.

I wonder is any BIK due on this €4K per year free food perk?

The majority of people in our office all say the one thing they miss is the interaction in the canteen and tea stations. I wouldn't underestimate the value of this to an organisation, and the employee.

[Deleted User]

Flinty997 wrote: »

The majority of people in our office all say the one thing they miss is the interaction in the canteen and tea stations. I wouldn't underestimate the value of this to an organisation, and the employee.

Curious, are you saying this as a justification for you working in an office or as a reason to not allow WFH for everyone else?

irelandrover

ineedeuro wrote: »

Hence why you have a lot of people saying the only reason they go to work is for social contact, they have no life outside of work.

I wouldnt care if my company gave free dinner, I have better things to do with my life than waiting around an office to save a few quid

I've read noone on this thread say that they had no social contact outside work.

I start work at about 7:30. If my work paid for my breakfast and lunch then I'd save about €6 a day. That's €30 a week so about €1400 a year. But since that's after tax I'd have to earn about €2700. And since I'm in the office anyway it's no effort on my part.

Padre_Pio

ineedeuro wrote: »

Hence why you have a lot of people saying the only reason they go to work is for social contact, they have no life outside of work.

I wouldnt care if my company gave free dinner, I have better things to do with my life than waiting around an office to save a few quid

You don't have to eat there.
People with families don't stay for dinner, they head home.
I only do it the odd time, when some of my friends are there, or I'm working late. The alternative is wandering around Tesco looking for something to eat, and cooking it. If I lived with my significant other, or had kids then I'm sure I would think differently.

I just don't see it as so black and white.
I have friends outside of work. I have work friends that I see outside of work, I have work friends I never see outside of work.

I was in work today, it was great catching up with people.

Whatever, I get that everyone's work experience is different. Personally, I love my job and the people I work with. I don't want to leave just because management is implementing short-sighted (IMO) policies. I love my job less when I'm working from home.

grogi

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Some even have a policy of not providing/allowing fridges or kettles for non-company food.

That is simply discrimatory and asking for trouble. People might have their own health, belief or religious reasons not to eat company food.

[Deleted User]

I do have to add though ....

If someone now working for home claims that providing their own breakfast, lunch and snacks for 5 days, is now costing them €100 a week, then they're doing something wrong! That has to be a massive overestimation.

Where are they shopping, Fallon & Byrnes?!?

I can feed two of us all three meals plus snacks for a week for €100, and still have enough left over for a nice takeaway at the weekend.

Alexa111

thanksThe office off M50 has remained open throughout and some of the guys always went in rather than WFH.

Don't think WFH would be in most people's contracts.

Most people are glad of the flexibility