Working From Home Megathread

That list is terrible. If I think about all of the people I've known who've been working effectively from home, every one of them could be "gotten at" for several of those reasons.

Concerns regarding this and that being valid reasons to refuse remote working - this gives so much scope for an employer. If I was a dinosaur senior manager dead set against WFH, it would take very little effort to come up with a narrative on which to refuse WFH.

Also, inordinate distance between location and the office as a reason for refusal - so people with small commutes are more likely to be granted WFH than those with long commutes. People with long commutes continue to do them or else move closer to the office. Yeah, that'll help with climate change, traffic congestion, family life and the housing crisis.

My thoughts exactly. But I did sense this would be ultimately up to the employers to decide. The rest is just government window dressing to look as if they give a shite about employees (they don’t, all the state cares about is raiding our pay packets at the end of each month)

It remains to be seen what "inordinate" means, and that might depend on the employer. Do they have a lot of hastily arranged meetings with clients that can't be done remotely? Then you living in Kerry and having an office in Dublin might not be a goer. But living in Meath/Kildare might. Does your employer sometimes need you to come in the next day for a team collaboration session? Then WFH from London might not be a goer, but WFH from Kerry might.

It will all depend on how "friendly" the WRC is to the employee. There's lots of scope for interpretation here. And I think a middle manager who says "I cannot possibly allocate work unless everybody is in the office every day" might get short shrift from the WRC. But an employer who says that their employee is working in a flat with five others might reasonably say that they are concerned with confidentiality.

are masks mandatory in work now, not with public ?

Email received today from HR confirming return to office over the next month with hybrid options only upon approval from management so open season for any anti-WFH managers to refuse continuation of WFH. Staff with medical conditions, vulnerable family members and childcare challenges who have been WFH since 2020 have nothing guaranteed now and not happy with the email today

Then in some contrast another employer in a similar industry today confirmed voluntary return to the office until the end of March which will be reviewed that month depending on the covid situation and emphasised no staff WFH should be under any obligation to return in the short term

If only there has been some non-solicitors pointing out all these points as significant over the past two years....

The employer has a legal obligation to ensure that your workplace is safe, even with WFH.

They really can’t decide where people chose to live, can they?

I have to go back working in the office 3 days a week and 2 at home. I’ve been fully remote for over a year and I really love it. I’d much rather it than commuting an hour to and from the office. My boss wants us back in for “team morale” even though there’s not many of us at all in the department. Only for the fact I live so far from the office is why my boss agreed to 2 days from home, otherwise it’d be 5 full days in the office. I’ll miss full time wfh if I’m honest.

Team morale! Puke

is this thread full of people who hate their workplace or something? i can only assume thats it. Team morale is very important, nothing worse than an unhappy working enironment.

Can't see Governments exposing large numbers to musculo-skeletal injuries, which the health service will have to pay to treat. Employers will still need to ensure that workplaces are safe. It's a bit trickier and more expensive to do it with WFH, but employers will be creaming it on office cost savings in the long term.

Full of people who have experienced a much greater quality of life as a result of working from home. People who for the first time got to see loved ones more than work colleagues. People who don't have to spend hours in the car/bus/train to do what they can do from home.

if your morale is based on being tied to a physical workplace the man I think that’s a problem

Yeah the team morale thing is a nonsense.

I love my job, and I can genuinely say that my team are some of the nicest people I have come across. I've been to their weddings and family funerals, and we have chosen to socialise outside of work. In the first few weeks of lockdown, I really missed being in the office (though that might have been because I was trying to childmind and work and be teacher all the same time). We've made the effort though and have zoom coffee once a week. I still feel like they're my friends.

As time has gone on I've realised that, despite the close bond with my workmates, the many benefits of WFH has simply made me a happier, less stressed, healthier person. I still produce the same amount of work, and although I don't have as many insights into what everyone else is working on, I know that being in the office once or twice a week will remediate that.

Like i said, no one will miss that sneering. No matter how clever you think you are.

Some of you appear to mistakenly thing im advocating a 5 day a week return to the office, im not, a couple of days from home would suit me fine, i have a purpose built home office outside the main house and all the equipment i could need, but most people dont. I also believe people work better collaboratively and team morale is important, some of you have different experiences but that doesnt make mine wrong, i am probably coming at it from a different angle as well. But ill leave it at that.

If thats what you took from that then the problem is your ability to comprehend and articulate yourself.

It has zero to do with morale. If the productivity element of all of this is at the same levels or higher than working in an office then the boss should be listening to their team members and facilitating remote working.

Some bosses will use morale as and excuse but it's a power thing on their behalf more often than not. Or else they aren't able to manage remote staff.

That's what YOU want. That's not what everyone wants or needs. The specific team that I work in, is a technology team that's a mixture of engineers and project managers. We've settled into a groove that's highly collaborative, open and friendly but also non-disruptive. There is a daily team meeting that starts on time whether everyone is there or not, gets everyone's input and then ends. It's scheduled for 30 minutes but usually finishes in 15. It's not hijacked by people chatting or going off topic. Throughout the day if anyone needs to speak to someone else, they can - but in their own time. If someone wants to ask me a question I can tell them I'll be available in ten minutes. Or an hour. Or tomorrow.

On-site, this is a much more chaotic day. Meetings start late, they finish late and have a pile of nonsense chat that is only of interest to two attendees. Throughout the working day, if you don't have people coming to your desk and imposing themselves on you to ask questions every 30 minutes, you still have the background noise of other people talking and asking eachother questions. This kind of environment probably suits some individuals and some roles. There are other people and other roles where it provides basically no value. You don't need to be standing in the same room to be collaborative.

We've all expressed the desire to do on-site days, but in a way that's not a regular day. Because for a "regular day", you'll get better work done at home. Instead, everyone comes on site, we run through a few meetings, workshops and planning, and then we go out on the piss. Social cohesion is a great way to grease the wheels to ensure that when working remotely everyone gets along. But just being onsite on a regular working day, is not conducive to building social cohesion.

99% of bosses who want people back on site are either control freaks who cannot figure out how to measure productivity without breathing down peoples' necks, or they're complete extroverts for whom going to work is a social event more than a way to earn a living.

Leo Varadkar: “We’d intend to have this legislated before the summer recess and certainly in place this year.”

I'm pretty sure this was originally to be in place by April? Any guesses as to when it will actually be in place?

Am told (more speculation than official) that we'll be brought back in full time by March. When legislation is in they'll review.

Surprised that no one of has commented on the right to request remote work only applying after you have worked in a place for six months.