Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We were ordered back every day, all day, full staff, absolutely no exceptions/compromises in April of 2021 with just one week's notice after recently having been reassured we could continue to WFH indefinitely. As of this date, NO other agency in town is recalled full-time yet; all are still doing hybrid or total WFH with no end in sight.
It all seems so arbitrary for some of us!
And I, for one, feel for the parents and kids being jerked around on that stupid timeline.
Well it's official. As of August 1 we will be required to return to the office 4 days a week. Pretty crappy of them to do it right during the middle of summer when kids are out of school. Now parents have to scramble to rearrange childcare.
Even worse, our remote day must remain the same and we aren't allowed to switch it if we are sick or have an appointment. So let's say my remote day is Friday and I'm sick on Monday, I'm not allowed to say "I'm feeling well enough to work but not come into the office, so I'll work remotely today and come in Friday".
This announcement is probably the most insulting and micro-managing memo I've ever received from an employer.
Guess I should start preparing my CV.
Just to be clear OP, were you fully remote until this notice? To force the workforce from fully remote to four days in the office without any flexibility is indeed very crappy. I wish you luck in any job search you initiate.
I keep reading more and more that places forcing people back are losing far more people than they expected. And are not able to fill those positions like they thought.
And the people that stay are not happy or as productive.
These places with old school thinking better catch up with the smart modern ways of thinking and allow people to stay home. Or they will be left in the dust!
I know it is happening where I am. They are trying to force people back and people are fighting it or leaving, and now the bosses are worried and not finding replacements.
In fact, I am about to move on to a place that is fully remote and i am very happy about it!
Rearrange childcare? Remote work is not supposed to be used as a replacement for childcare. Though some people do it anyway. And who knows, maybe people taking care of kids while on the clock were the reason they pulled everyone back.
Those who want to have remote work should advocate for doing it responsibly, not as a means to try to take time back from your employer undetected.
I may not always agree with you, but on this one I do wholeheartedly!
Not a replacement for childcare, or dog care, or laundry care, or exercise care.
I do/did appreciate greatly the flexibility WFH gave me in some respects, but never to the extent where I stole time. And not so much from my employer...I could always tell who was taking excessive time to do personal things. How? Batches of emails coming in before/after work hours, for one.
Rearrange childcare? Remote work is not supposed to be used as a replacement for childcare. Though some people do it anyway. And who knows, maybe people taking care of kids while on the clock were the reason they pulled everyone back.
Those who want to have remote work should advocate for doing it responsibly, not as a means to try to take time back from your employer undetected.
I agree that you shouldn't be at home all day taking care of a baby but there are some scenarios where it's fine to watch your kids. One of my coworkers is a single mom and has kids who are 10 and 12. They are old enough to manage themselves and not interrupt her work but not old enough to be left home alone. So now she has to scramble to find someone or someplace to watch her kids two days a week with barely any notice. It's really hard to find childcare for older children apparently.
One thing I like about WFH is the ability to get some small things done around the house without needing to take half a day off work. I can toss in a load of laundry before work starts and then unload the machine and hang the clothes to dry during my lunch. It takes 10min and is no different than me standing in the hallway chatting with a coworker about irrelevant gossip in the office building.
For another scenario: if the landlord or handyman is coming, it's nice to be home to answer the door. The worst are the cable guys who say "I'll be there any time from 12 to 5pm." So now I have to take a half day of PTO so the cable guy can come here for 30min and literally all I need to do is open the door for him and close it when he leaves. And that's if they actually show up. I've had them cancel last minute before and I was already at home waiting and wasting my PTO.
I agree that you shouldn't be at home all day taking care of a baby but there are some scenarios where it's fine to watch your kids. One of my coworkers is a single mom and has kids who are 10 and 12. They are old enough to manage themselves and not interrupt her work but not old enough to be left home alone. So now she has to scramble to find someone or someplace to watch her kids two days a week with barely any notice. It's really hard to find childcare for older children apparently.
One thing I like about WFH is the ability to get some small things done around the house without needing to take half a day off work. I can toss in a load of laundry before work starts and then unload the machine and hang the clothes to dry during my lunch. It takes 10min and is no different than me standing in the hallway chatting with a coworker about irrelevant gossip in the office building.
For another scenario: if the landlord or handyman is coming, it's nice to be home to answer the door. The worst are the cable guys who say "I'll be there any time from 12 to 5pm." So now I have to take a half day of PTO so the cable guy can come here for 30min and literally all I need to do is open the door for him and close it when he leaves. And that's if they actually show up. I've had them cancel last minute before and I was already at home waiting and wasting my PTO.
In my industry you are not allowed to do personal tasks on the clock as it is considered time theft. Some companies in some industries may not care, but in government contracting you are legally required to omit from your timesheet any time you are not working and not available to work. You could, of course, stretch out the workday a bit in order to insert these personal tasks into what would normally be your workday, but then you end up just letting work ruin your evening. I suppose if that is what you prefer, or if it fits your specific parenting dynamic, then go for it. But it isn't just a matter of WFH = free to do personal tasks.
For another scenario: if the landlord or handyman is coming, it's nice to be home to answer the door. The worst are the cable guys who say "I'll be there any time from 12 to 5pm." So now I have to take a half day of PTO so the cable guy can come here for 30min and literally all I need to do is open the door for him and close it when he leaves. And that's if they actually show up. I've had them cancel last minute before and I was already at home waiting and wasting my PTO.
Rearrange childcare? Remote work is not supposed to be used as a replacement for childcare. Though some people do it anyway. And who knows, maybe people taking care of kids while on the clock were the reason they pulled everyone back.
Those who want to have remote work should advocate for doing it responsibly, not as a means to try to take time back from your employer undetected.
I would think it would affect drop-off and pickup time. After all, when you have to factor in a commute, now you need to find childcare that will let you drop off the kid earlier and pick them up later. Or, if you had arranged for someone to be in your home with the kid while you're working, now you have to either find a place to take them to or make new arrangements with the person who's coming to your home, who may have accepted an agreement of you being present (after all, among other reasons, it's possible you could hire a local young teen or elderly person to come keep your kid occupied while you're just in the other room, but maybe you wouldn't leave them home alone all day with the kid).
In my industry you are not allowed to do personal tasks on the clock as it is considered time theft. Some companies in some industries may not care, but in government contracting you are legally required to omit from your timesheet any time you are not working and not available to work. You could, of course, stretch out the workday a bit in order to insert these personal tasks into what would normally be your workday, but then you end up just letting work ruin your evening. I suppose if that is what you prefer, or if it fits your specific parenting dynamic, then go for it. But it isn't just a matter of WFH = free to do personal tasks.
Companies don't want us doing laundry for 30min because it's "time theft" but are more than happy to ask us to come in early, stay late, or check email after hours. I have been asked to do all of these things over the past year. And because I'm salaried and not hourly, I don't get paid for any of it. I wish we could be more like French people who will protest over a 10min break at work.
You're not a parent, I take it? "Childcare" could mean infants (in which case I agree with what you've said) but it could also mean tweens; children who are too young to be left alone all day, but are old enough to occupy themselves for solid chunks of time. Previously, two-income parents of such children would have to line up a bunch of summer camps. But with work from home, the kids can stay home (thus saving parents a ton of money) and play in the yard (or, let's be honest here, sit around playing video games) and the parent is home for when they're needed, like to run them to a friend's house or something.
Now, with having to return to the office, such parents are suddenly going to have to arrange to find some camps at the last minute. Good luck with that! Waiting just one more month, until school starts back up, would have been far less disruptive. It's obvious to me that whoever instituted the OP's return to work policy does not have children and has absolutely no conception of what modern parenting is like. If I were the OP, I'd be looking for another job.
Are you accounting for all those little interruptions on your time sheet? That can add up to a lot more time than you think. They are super strict about this in my industry. They even fired someone because he took too many smoke breaks which collectively added up to a significant amount of time. That employee was not WFH. But do you think WFH means you are suddenly allowed to slip in all sorts of extra breaks unaccounted for? Some people seem to think that that is the case.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
