Working From Home Megathread

newuser99999

Riodej1578 wrote: »

Anyone here working in an office environment given an addiction of when they'll be back in the office?

Or anyone who is working in an urban setting but has relocated to a rural location and been advised going forward they will have the option to continue to WFH?

End of Q2 was talked about back in January but don’t see that happening now.

3 days mandatory in the office and 2 days working from home.

loyatemu

Riodej1578 wrote: »

Anyone here working in an office environment given an addiction of when they'll be back in the office?

Or anyone who is working in an urban setting but has relocated to a rural location and been advised going forward they will have the option to continue to WFH?

July was the most recent update, I think they may wait until the vaccination program is mostly complete though, which will probably be September. I've no great wish to spend 2 hours on the train in a mask, followed by 8 hours in the office in a mask.

ILikeBoats

September was our latest update

September for my office also.

Looking at a 3/2 or 2/3 split depending on the role. I guess you could commute up a couple of days a week from rural Ireland if you wanted too, but we will definitely require everyone to have some presence in the office throughout the week.

FastFullBack

Riodej1578 wrote: »

Anyone here working in an office environment given an addiction of when they'll be back in the office?

Or anyone who is working in an urban setting but has relocated to a rural location and been advised going forward they will have the option to continue to WFH?

Working for a large US multinational who always had WFH options and we've been given no date for return. It'll be late summer at earliest when vaccinations are complete.
When we do return, people won't have designated seats anymore. Company moving heavily to WFH model.

I've decided to move to rural location and will primarily WFH and come into office once every 2-3 weeks. Its about a hour drive.

An Ri rua

loyatemu wrote: »

July was the most recent update, I think they may wait until the vaccination program is mostly complete though, which will probably be September. I've no great wish to spend 2 hours on the train in a mask, followed by 8 hours in the office in a mask.

Absolutely. A right Bane in the ass.

Working for a large multinational, essential industry

We had approx 2,000 office staff prior to covid, with only a handful WFH

During the first lockdown they came up with 3 tier's
Tier 1 - Role requires 100% onsite - permanent desk
Tier 2 - Role is flexible - 2 days onsite, 3 days off. 1 desk shared between 2 (mon+Tue & wed+Thu)
Tier 3 - Role is not required onsite - Hot desking if onsite

Flexibility with regards to personal circumstances in the above, so someone tier 3 could work fully onsite if they were unable to do WFH and so on.

They have since adopted this fully and will maintain this going forward.

Once social distancing is no longer required they are looking to remove a boatload of office space and convert it to manufacturing space as that is much more valuable. In addition, as office space was one of the biggest constraints but will no longer be, they are looking at a large expansion of the workforce.

Its likely that once this is all over, say by 2024, there will be an additional 1-1.5k working for my employer with the majority WFH.

Batattackrat

Riodej1578 wrote: »

Anyone here working in an office environment given an addiction of when they'll be back in the office?

Or anyone who is working in an urban setting but has relocated to a rural location and been advised going forward they will have the option to continue to WFH?

No panic whatsoever from my employers and not giving any unrealistic dates, we employ 10,000 globally.

We have been told after Covid that we will have a hybrid model where we are required in the office two days a week and can work three days from a home.

Also we can pick our hours within reason, if we want to start at 10 and finish at six we can or start at 8 and finish at four. Depends on the size of the team really cover and some people prefer to start at at 10 and others prefer to start at 8.
Starting at 9 is fine as well.

Also getting a 500 euro voucher to kip out our homes but only when we are back in office two days a week for some reason.

I presume they want the equipment back first we took from the office.

Riodej1578

That's interesting, it appears that large multinationals seem quite open to WFH. It'll make a huge difference to employees if they can living in rural locations and commute to work 2 days in the week.

FastFullBack

Riodej1578 wrote: »

That's interesting, it appears that large multinationals seem quite open to WFH. It'll make a huge difference to employees if they can living in rural locations and commute to work 2 days in the week.

Apple seem to be the only large multinational that isn't changing. They really don't seem to like widespread WFH there

strandroad

Riodej1578 wrote: »

That's interesting, it appears that large multinationals seem quite open to WFH. It'll make a huge difference to employees if they can living in rural locations and commute to work 2 days in the week.

Large multinationals compete for employees... they can see the writing on the wall. Where flexibility is valued it will be provided.

strandroad

FastFullBack wrote: »

Apple seem to be the only large multinational that isn't changing. They really don't seem to like widespread WFH there

Isn't their workforce in Ireland mostly in CS and they've been WFH as standard already? Or do you mean globally?

kippy

Yep, a lot of the apple support side of things are "remote".

strandroad

strandroad wrote: »

Large multinationals compete for employees... they can see the writing on the wall. Where flexibility is valued it will be provided.

100%

I've already decided this is a red line for me. I don't intend on working in an office for the remaining 20+ years of my career.

If I need to move employer, not a problem. I won't even look back

FastFullBack

strandroad wrote: »

Isn't their workforce in Ireland mostly in CS and they've been WFH as standard already? Or do you mean globally?

Maybe but alot of their finance and IT teams that previously would have been on site and still going to be on site post covid and they have been aggressively aiming to get them back on site. A friend works there and the latest they were told it they were aiming for April.

They also just took new office space in Cork City: https://www.irishexaminer.com/property/commercial/arid-40240229.html

Chris_5339762

One employer I know only allowed WFH after a full year of pandemic when they were inspected.

Staff were pushed onto a 4 day week contract with one of those four days from home.

Management are really pushing to get everyone back 5 days now.

Sheep Shagger

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

One employer I know only allowed WFH after a full year of pandemic when they were inspected.

Staff were pushed onto a 4 day week contract with one of those four days from home.

Management are really pushing to get everyone back 5 days now.

Sounds archaic....What sector as a matter of interest?

Antares35

OHs company have proposed a 60percent office/ 40percent home hybrid model. Many people unhappy with this and already looking elsewhere. OH can't really until we draw down mortgage as he needs the permanency but once we do that he will be looking elsewhere too. They're set to lose a lot of talent in one go.

We're never going back to office full time. Will be a hybrid model going forward but also with the option off fulltime WFH for anyone who wants it. Plan is to downsize office as well, will take a bit of organization in terms of leases etc.

Xenji

The company I work for are being cautious about giving any definitive date to return to the office as they are worried about uptake among under 40s to take the vaccine.

jrosen

Hybrid approach with my husbands company. Us multi national.
The ratio will depend on role. Possible 3 days home 2 days office. The likelihood is a lot of staff could very well stay home full time with only coming to the office on a need basis.

They have made redundancies already this year and more to come. They are looking to move higher cost positions to lower cost locations.

jrosen

jrosen wrote: »

They have made redundancies already this year and more to come. They are looking to move higher cost positions to lower cost locations.

This is the big danger, our company are already looking to start to employ on a worldwide basis rather than just people who are physically present in Ireland. Obviously there are tax implications but these will probably be ironed out long term. It will drive down wages and job opportunities in Ireland if it ever gets off the ground, for now they are just looking into the viability of it

Quin_Dub

In my company (Large MNC , 160k+ staff worldwide , ~6k Ireland) there are no current targets set for a return to the office , personally can't see them making any announcement until all restrictions are fully removed - So probably late autumn at the earliest.

They've always had WFH but similar to what another posted mentioned they have now classified all staff into several tiers ranging from those that need to be 100% on-site due to their role to those that have no requirement to be in a company facility to do their job along with those that need to be onsite a certain percentage of the time (intermittent access to physical resources etc.)

Everyone but those in the 100% onsite roles will have the opportunity to work from home according to the tier they are in and also to decide to work more in the office according to their personal circumstances/preference.

Personally - I've been pretty much 100% remote for many years - I go to the local office maybe 6-8 times a year under normal conditions along with maybe 50-60 nights travel overseas to other company locations.

Obviously I haven't travelled anywhere in the last 12 months.

I do expect a glut of travel once restrictions finally lift, if for no other reason than just to meet everyone again and re-establish relationships etc. but once that settles I can't see me ever getting back to the same level of regular travel , the last year has shown that a lot of those activities can be successfully completed remotely.

Quin_Dub

Quin_Dub wrote: »

I do expect a glut of travel once restrictions finally lift, if for no other reason than just to meet everyone again and re-establish relationships etc. but once that settles I can't see me ever getting back to the same level of regular travel , the last year has shown that a lot of those activities can be successfully completed remotely.

I know this has been a big change for many of the directors/VP's I work with. These people were used to being in a different country every 3 days for weeks and weeks, sometimes only getting home once a month but they were paid well for it.

Now everything is done on Teams/Zoom

From speaking with some of them, their biggest complaint is the sound quality of calls using those apps. It can really start to wear on you when you are listening to it for 5,6,7,8 hours a day, otherwise they are loving not having to travel.

Same as you mentioned, there will be a spurt of travel again once things calm down, but after that I would say the trips will be reduced by a heck of a lot. Its obvious to everyone now that they are not needed

jester77

1 year ago today we got sent to home office. Not missing the office or commute but missing the banter, going for lunch and the afternoon beers. The lack of direct contact makes it tough, but on the other hand productivity is much higher.

Mrs OBumble

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Its obvious to everyone now that they are not needed

The trips, or the managers?

Batattackrat

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

The trips, or the managers?

Depends really, most managers I know let the staff get on with their day to day work and just do the one to one's and have plenty of other work to get on with themselves

The days of micro managing are long gone and people will move jobs now if they are in that scenario.

Sheep Shagger

jester77 wrote: »

1 year ago today we got sent to home office. Not missing the office or commute but missing the banter, going for lunch and the afternoon beers. The lack of direct contact makes it tough, but on the other hand productivity is much higher.

100% this.

That and bloody zoom calls dropping all the time.

Cluedo Monopoly

My wife was told no return to office until September to line up with new school year to help with childcare arrangements. They fully expect to be offered fulltime or partial WFH. They have really embraced the Teams/Webex culture and she reckons they are more collaborative and productive.

Backstreet Moyes

We are September also but possibly extending to next year

In a meeting with my manager I mentioned how much I love working from home and he listened to me at the start talking about how much I didn't like it

I just listed out why I want to wfh as much as possible

Getting extra sleep
Getting more time to exercise
Getting more time to do work around the house instead of having to do it all on weekends
Spending more time with my kid

All the above combined with less distractions in the office have made me enjoy work more and become more productive

He commented how last year was my best year ever performance wise and put it down to an extra years experience

I said the main reasons for improvements are mentally I am enjoying life more and in turn enjoying work more as I have a better work and life balance and also having less distractions at home

It was a positive meeting, in reality my manager wont be making company decisions but if people talk about positive experiences they pass it on to their manager and so on