Good luck Natalie getting support from the party of commercial landlords for your mayor bid.
I can tell you this much:
I’m never working for a company that refuses to allow work from home again.
An hour each way commute each day being scrubbed off is 10 hours of my life *each week* that I gain – if that becomes a requirement again, I want to be **compensated** for that.
Which will never happen.
Can’t wait for all the middle management lickspittles to come out of the woodwork like that last idiot I was replying to in this sub calling all WFH people lazy shitbags.
WFH puts more power into the hands of the employees, management fucking *hates* this with a passion, which by default means it’s fundamentally a good thing
Disempower management, empower employees.
Not just that they’ll also leave to other places that offer flexibility.
This really depends on what industry you are, I’ve always been concerned it widens the gap in lifestyle between your blue and white collar jobs.
Blue collar cannot work from home usually, and still typically do shifts of which they have to be covered.
My company is flexible, work from home. We recently advertised for a job and got 68 applicants in 24 hours. Most were brilliant. We’ve just been told we are moving to a 4 day week. The hire we made was informed of this yesterday and they were so shocked. In fact, most of the team were (I felt I had won the lottery). In return we all work seriously hard to do everything we can for this awesome place. Things can be different and better.
We have been told by our exec to be in the office at least 3 days a week and every time I bring in a contractor the first thing they do is hear that and say “nope it’s ok, I’ll take the other offer”
My company has been struggling to hire for a while due to this. CEO won’t back down though still.
Up until Christmas I worked for a company that demanded staff return to the office five days a week. About 25% of people left when that was announced coming our of Covid and it was impossible to recruit.
I actively choose to work in the office. Personal preference. But our department has struggled to recruit without offering flexible working
Currently seeing this happen in the office where I work. Their COVID restrictions mean that if you test positive, you have 5 days WFH then you are either required to be back in the office, or you accept subsequent days off as a sick period, this is regardless of whether you’re positive or not. We are also contracted to only 2 sick periods a year before disciplinary action is started. This has forced (currently) three people to be in a crowded office with positive COVID tests.
I’m off with it at the moment, managed to avoid it all this time due to my other half being immunocompromised (side effect of blood poisoning as a baby). She also works there and currently has covid, I’ve never seen her so ill. Hit me hard too but I’m spending a lot of my time making sure she’s seen to and not dying lol.
They absolutely refuse to allow WFH, good forbid people have it easy.
The last company I worked for in the UK lost quite a few employees as lockdown ended as they forced employees to come back into the office full time. Last I heard, they had invested into a nice new office with canteen and comfy break areas and stuff to try to make office work more appealing. They’re still having trouble retaining staff.
The same is happening in Europe, too. I left the UK in 2020 and found myself working for an international company in Basel. Originally, they were allowing 3 days work from home. They ended up reducing it to 1 day and lost a LOT of employees. Now they don’t allow any work from home. Colleagues left, then I left, and people have continued to pour out of the company. The number of vacancies I see on their website astounds me. They just cannot fill them when so many competitors are offering flexible working, both in terms of hours and the location where the work takes place.
When I was interviewing for my current job, I asked the hiring manager if he had an issue with me working part-time (four days a week). He told me he doesn’t and that, if he didn’t allow part-time and, additionally, remote working, his ability to attract talent would be severely reduced.
Flexible working, at least for roles where it works, is becoming the new normal, whether managers and leaders want to believe it or not.
Yep, its a genie your not putting back in the bottle. If you want the best talent its something you’re gonna have to offer it otherwise they’ll just go to another company.
Used this to my advantage last year and ended up having employers chasing me after a series of interviews. “we can see what we can do about flexible working times”, after just telling me at interview that the job was strict 9 to 5.30 with an hour unpaid lunch, and full time in the office. I made it very clear that it was the lack of flexible working (let alone homeworking) that were the reasons for turning them down.
They’re struggling now. Even before covid, I had people asking how much home working my organisation could support, expecting at least 2 days a week
Now people want 3-4 days or fully remote with occasional team meetings
Middle manager here.
WFH is awesome and my team love it. I love it. If upper management ever tried to take it away I’d fight tooth and nail to stop it and if I failed I’d help my entire team get jobs before quitting myself.
The wfh cat is out of the bag. It always was ok but everyone – including me – wasn’t convinced it would work. I was wrong. It works.
[deleted]
My firm just announced a mandatory 3 days in the office, and the days your team are set by the firm so no flexibility on the day choice either. People are kicking off.
I work in the public sector and the benefits just stack up and it sometimes feels my colleagues have forgotten what it’s like in the private sector.
We get above average holidays, flexible working, home working with no fuss, a decent albeit ever out of reach pension. Add that up and work out what that’s worth to you financially. I’d want double my salary to give up those.
[deleted]
People enjoyed being treated like adults and found working in a way that best suits them made them happier and more productive. Who would have thought?
I just went through a job hunt after being made redundant, I don’t even do anything high up or well paying, I work in software support for 30k, but even in that area I found the topic of WFH varied wildly from company to company. Some were 100% work from home, and never returned to the office post covid, some were 50/50 and a majority were very sternly against WFH and required 100% of work time be in office.
I rejected 3 offers of the 5 I received based purely on which camp the company fell into (spoilers, it was the anti WFH companies).
I, like many others don’t see the point commuting and losing 1-2 hours of our days to be in the same room as others when our jobs can be done from home.
It’s reached the point where I essentially look at WFH positions as higher paying by simply factoring in how much I’m saving in both time and money by being able to stay at home. If one job pays 28k and is fully WFH, but the other is 30k and 100% in office, I’m taking 28k, because ultimately I’m not losing money and I’m gaining time.
The struggle is honestly already here, 2 of the 3 companies I rejected countered with more money, to which I continued to insist no WFH was a deal breaker. These companies have no flexibility, and when I asked specifically why the companies had no interest in WFH it was always the same response “We feel it’s the right time to get everyone back into the office so they can do their best work together in person, since it’s been so long”.
They talk about office based work as if it’s some lovely thing we used to do that we really miss and wish we could get back to, but it’s all a boring lie.
The worst part is they are often great positions, in great companies, full of great people. It’s a shame companies are going to continue to shoot themselves in the foot because of some misguided notion that they need to be able to physically watch over you for you to work for them.
There is almost no data to backup abandoning working from home, but plenty of data showing it does not impact productivity and in many cases improves it.
WFH is great, my team all love it and I literally cannot recruit anybody without guaranteeing the right to WFH.
However, I’m already seeing that the promotions are all going to the people who come into the office. This isn’t deliberate, my firm has embraced home working and is very supportive of it. It’s definitely happening though.
Food for thought.
Saw a job working for a company in the same line as work as me. Significant salary increase. No remote working.
Fuck that shit.
Appreciate that not every job allows for WFH for obvious reasons…however, those for which it is possible should allow and encourage it.
The mental health benefits are fantastic.
The removal of traffic during the commute.
The ability of people to move out of the congested city freeing up space for those that must be close to work.
The fact that time and again the evidence is that for most employers its led to no problems.
Yes it means a shift in the economy…maybe people aren’t spending £4 on numerous coffees and £10 on a sandwich each day but these companies need to change. Its evolution.
I work hybrid (3 WFH, 2 in office) which I feel is the perfect mix for me, personally – I could never go back to full time in office.
At my old job (full time in office) when we were interviewing for new Devs you could literally see their faces drop when they were told it was 5 days a week in the office – city centre, as well, so no free parking. Eight months on they’re still trying to find someone.
All the evidence shows that allowing working from home is beneficial to both the company and the employees, yet so many companies don’t want to do it. Why? Because to the old ass CEO’s and Chairman, working from home means going to play golf for the day and fucking your mistress. They just assume that’s what everyone does. Out of touch pricks.
My industry wont ever be able to work from home (food) but i massively support the wfh movement. Its a logical shift for a fair chunk of the population. And what id give to not have my 90-120 minute commute each way would be brliant
This’ll probably get buried, but I work at a full-time, on-site business. *Applicants* for jobs aren’t hard to come by, but good ones are very few and far between.
It’s nuts, since I’ll come on reddit and see that it’s hard to find jobs in my industry. We’re literally crying out for people in some instances, but we’ve got something like 2.5 stars on Glassdoor and most good candidates go “What, full-time, in-house? Is that a joke?”
No shit so many of my friends now refuse to work somewhere in office 5 days a week, and why not!? If u can do the job just as well from home, what’s the point of going on a train/public transport or just to queue for hours in traffic. People woke up.
My employer has been struggling to hire for over a year unless it’s entry-level. We’ve got teams full of entry-level, career change young people.
I’ve been there 2 years and it was a new career to me when I joined, but I’m 25 years older than some of the newer staff. I’m considered experienced. I’ve been promoted twice.
They have been trying to hire someone for the position above me. One applicant and they were not suitable.
“Must be in the office 3 days a week. We won’t tell you the salary up front”
I wonder why it’s difficult to hire.
2 days in office is my absolute maximum. I’ve been 100% WFH since before COVID, started in 2019 and about to start my first hybrid role and slightly bricking it about how hard it’ll be to adjust. Before 2019 I was full 5 days in the office and 4 years later, I can’t even believe I ever managed that!
I think I can do 2 days but I plan to get it down to 1 or 0 since my manager is going on maternity leave a month after I start. Caretaker manager won’t care.
32 comments
Good luck Natalie getting support from the party of commercial landlords for your mayor bid.
I can tell you this much:
I’m never working for a company that refuses to allow work from home again.
An hour each way commute each day being scrubbed off is 10 hours of my life *each week* that I gain – if that becomes a requirement again, I want to be **compensated** for that.
Which will never happen.
Can’t wait for all the middle management lickspittles to come out of the woodwork like that last idiot I was replying to in this sub calling all WFH people lazy shitbags.
WFH puts more power into the hands of the employees, management fucking *hates* this with a passion, which by default means it’s fundamentally a good thing
Disempower management, empower employees.
Not just that they’ll also leave to other places that offer flexibility.
This really depends on what industry you are, I’ve always been concerned it widens the gap in lifestyle between your blue and white collar jobs.
Blue collar cannot work from home usually, and still typically do shifts of which they have to be covered.
My company is flexible, work from home. We recently advertised for a job and got 68 applicants in 24 hours. Most were brilliant. We’ve just been told we are moving to a 4 day week. The hire we made was informed of this yesterday and they were so shocked. In fact, most of the team were (I felt I had won the lottery). In return we all work seriously hard to do everything we can for this awesome place. Things can be different and better.
We have been told by our exec to be in the office at least 3 days a week and every time I bring in a contractor the first thing they do is hear that and say “nope it’s ok, I’ll take the other offer”
My company has been struggling to hire for a while due to this. CEO won’t back down though still.
Up until Christmas I worked for a company that demanded staff return to the office five days a week. About 25% of people left when that was announced coming our of Covid and it was impossible to recruit.
I actively choose to work in the office. Personal preference. But our department has struggled to recruit without offering flexible working
Currently seeing this happen in the office where I work. Their COVID restrictions mean that if you test positive, you have 5 days WFH then you are either required to be back in the office, or you accept subsequent days off as a sick period, this is regardless of whether you’re positive or not. We are also contracted to only 2 sick periods a year before disciplinary action is started. This has forced (currently) three people to be in a crowded office with positive COVID tests.
I’m off with it at the moment, managed to avoid it all this time due to my other half being immunocompromised (side effect of blood poisoning as a baby). She also works there and currently has covid, I’ve never seen her so ill. Hit me hard too but I’m spending a lot of my time making sure she’s seen to and not dying lol.
They absolutely refuse to allow WFH, good forbid people have it easy.
The last company I worked for in the UK lost quite a few employees as lockdown ended as they forced employees to come back into the office full time. Last I heard, they had invested into a nice new office with canteen and comfy break areas and stuff to try to make office work more appealing. They’re still having trouble retaining staff.
The same is happening in Europe, too. I left the UK in 2020 and found myself working for an international company in Basel. Originally, they were allowing 3 days work from home. They ended up reducing it to 1 day and lost a LOT of employees. Now they don’t allow any work from home. Colleagues left, then I left, and people have continued to pour out of the company. The number of vacancies I see on their website astounds me. They just cannot fill them when so many competitors are offering flexible working, both in terms of hours and the location where the work takes place.
When I was interviewing for my current job, I asked the hiring manager if he had an issue with me working part-time (four days a week). He told me he doesn’t and that, if he didn’t allow part-time and, additionally, remote working, his ability to attract talent would be severely reduced.
Flexible working, at least for roles where it works, is becoming the new normal, whether managers and leaders want to believe it or not.
Yep, its a genie your not putting back in the bottle. If you want the best talent its something you’re gonna have to offer it otherwise they’ll just go to another company.
Used this to my advantage last year and ended up having employers chasing me after a series of interviews. “we can see what we can do about flexible working times”, after just telling me at interview that the job was strict 9 to 5.30 with an hour unpaid lunch, and full time in the office. I made it very clear that it was the lack of flexible working (let alone homeworking) that were the reasons for turning them down.
They’re struggling now. Even before covid, I had people asking how much home working my organisation could support, expecting at least 2 days a week
Now people want 3-4 days or fully remote with occasional team meetings
Middle manager here.
WFH is awesome and my team love it. I love it. If upper management ever tried to take it away I’d fight tooth and nail to stop it and if I failed I’d help my entire team get jobs before quitting myself.
The wfh cat is out of the bag. It always was ok but everyone – including me – wasn’t convinced it would work. I was wrong. It works.
[deleted]
My firm just announced a mandatory 3 days in the office, and the days your team are set by the firm so no flexibility on the day choice either. People are kicking off.
I work in the public sector and the benefits just stack up and it sometimes feels my colleagues have forgotten what it’s like in the private sector.
We get above average holidays, flexible working, home working with no fuss, a decent albeit ever out of reach pension. Add that up and work out what that’s worth to you financially. I’d want double my salary to give up those.
[deleted]
People enjoyed being treated like adults and found working in a way that best suits them made them happier and more productive. Who would have thought?
I just went through a job hunt after being made redundant, I don’t even do anything high up or well paying, I work in software support for 30k, but even in that area I found the topic of WFH varied wildly from company to company. Some were 100% work from home, and never returned to the office post covid, some were 50/50 and a majority were very sternly against WFH and required 100% of work time be in office.
I rejected 3 offers of the 5 I received based purely on which camp the company fell into (spoilers, it was the anti WFH companies).
I, like many others don’t see the point commuting and losing 1-2 hours of our days to be in the same room as others when our jobs can be done from home.
It’s reached the point where I essentially look at WFH positions as higher paying by simply factoring in how much I’m saving in both time and money by being able to stay at home. If one job pays 28k and is fully WFH, but the other is 30k and 100% in office, I’m taking 28k, because ultimately I’m not losing money and I’m gaining time.
The struggle is honestly already here, 2 of the 3 companies I rejected countered with more money, to which I continued to insist no WFH was a deal breaker. These companies have no flexibility, and when I asked specifically why the companies had no interest in WFH it was always the same response “We feel it’s the right time to get everyone back into the office so they can do their best work together in person, since it’s been so long”.
They talk about office based work as if it’s some lovely thing we used to do that we really miss and wish we could get back to, but it’s all a boring lie.
The worst part is they are often great positions, in great companies, full of great people. It’s a shame companies are going to continue to shoot themselves in the foot because of some misguided notion that they need to be able to physically watch over you for you to work for them.
There is almost no data to backup abandoning working from home, but plenty of data showing it does not impact productivity and in many cases improves it.
WFH is great, my team all love it and I literally cannot recruit anybody without guaranteeing the right to WFH.
However, I’m already seeing that the promotions are all going to the people who come into the office. This isn’t deliberate, my firm has embraced home working and is very supportive of it. It’s definitely happening though.
Food for thought.
Saw a job working for a company in the same line as work as me. Significant salary increase. No remote working.
Fuck that shit.
Appreciate that not every job allows for WFH for obvious reasons…however, those for which it is possible should allow and encourage it.
The mental health benefits are fantastic.
The removal of traffic during the commute.
The ability of people to move out of the congested city freeing up space for those that must be close to work.
The fact that time and again the evidence is that for most employers its led to no problems.
Yes it means a shift in the economy…maybe people aren’t spending £4 on numerous coffees and £10 on a sandwich each day but these companies need to change. Its evolution.
I work hybrid (3 WFH, 2 in office) which I feel is the perfect mix for me, personally – I could never go back to full time in office.
At my old job (full time in office) when we were interviewing for new Devs you could literally see their faces drop when they were told it was 5 days a week in the office – city centre, as well, so no free parking. Eight months on they’re still trying to find someone.
All the evidence shows that allowing working from home is beneficial to both the company and the employees, yet so many companies don’t want to do it. Why? Because to the old ass CEO’s and Chairman, working from home means going to play golf for the day and fucking your mistress. They just assume that’s what everyone does. Out of touch pricks.
My industry wont ever be able to work from home (food) but i massively support the wfh movement. Its a logical shift for a fair chunk of the population. And what id give to not have my 90-120 minute commute each way would be brliant
This’ll probably get buried, but I work at a full-time, on-site business. *Applicants* for jobs aren’t hard to come by, but good ones are very few and far between.
It’s nuts, since I’ll come on reddit and see that it’s hard to find jobs in my industry. We’re literally crying out for people in some instances, but we’ve got something like 2.5 stars on Glassdoor and most good candidates go “What, full-time, in-house? Is that a joke?”
No shit so many of my friends now refuse to work somewhere in office 5 days a week, and why not!? If u can do the job just as well from home, what’s the point of going on a train/public transport or just to queue for hours in traffic. People woke up.
My employer has been struggling to hire for over a year unless it’s entry-level. We’ve got teams full of entry-level, career change young people.
I’ve been there 2 years and it was a new career to me when I joined, but I’m 25 years older than some of the newer staff. I’m considered experienced. I’ve been promoted twice.
They have been trying to hire someone for the position above me. One applicant and they were not suitable.
“Must be in the office 3 days a week. We won’t tell you the salary up front”
I wonder why it’s difficult to hire.
2 days in office is my absolute maximum. I’ve been 100% WFH since before COVID, started in 2019 and about to start my first hybrid role and slightly bricking it about how hard it’ll be to adjust. Before 2019 I was full 5 days in the office and 4 years later, I can’t even believe I ever managed that!
I think I can do 2 days but I plan to get it down to 1 or 0 since my manager is going on maternity leave a month after I start. Caretaker manager won’t care.