Working From Home Megathread

I see Independent.ie are reporting that NPHET don't want any restrictions lifted until some time in October.

So we have NPHET wanting WFH advise retained for now, many companies by their actions delaying reopening clearly think WFH is the safe option for their staff for now and most people I speak too want WFH advise retained with anxiety about going into an indoor office without masks at desks during a Delta wave high.

I find it hard to see how the government can go against NPHET, go against what many companies are doing and want many employers think is right. Especially with the Green Party in government who should be pushing WFH as another way to reduce carbon emissions.

i.e. surely the government will retain WFH advise until October at a minimum. And when October rocks around, no doubt it will get extended.

This is what I can't understand with my employer.

Our CEO has us coming back on 7th September for one day a week.

There are a number of staff who want to come back and I've no problem with that, everyone's dynamic is different.

But why drag everyone back?

If people want to work from home, just let them. If people want to work from the office, let them too.

My crystal ball on how this will play out:

(1) Government announce on 31st August that WFH guidance will be lifted around September 27th. (NPHET want sometime in October, government will compromise with end of September).

(2) Colleges and schools return. Cases soar. Hospital numbers tick up over September.

(3) Before the end of September, the government puts plans for the roadmap on ice.

(4) Offices allowed reopen in Spring 2022. Maybe.

Anyways, Delta is just too prevalent for offices to reopen. You would want to be one hell of a cold hearted company to put your staff in indoor often poorly ventilated offices and risk outbreaks. It is not just about the risk of letting unvaccinated in offices, there is enough evidence about waning and lower than expected efficacy to Delta not to risk putting even vaccinated staff in enclosed offices.

Unfortunately I think some employers will try and force through a reopening of offices in October - completely unnecessary and causing a lot of stress for a lot of people with justifiable concerns about public transport, office safety and also the point that remote work should now become the norm for a vast majority of roles.

You've no idea the amount of moronic companies she knows or worked for.

It's staggering.

Have the same. I was surprised at how early in all this she decided that she was never going back to the office.

How are they going to force someone in? Everyone can refuse to go in even in the private sector, it then comes down to whether or not the business feels like they can replace your skill set cheaply enough or indeed if there is enough benefit to forcing someone back into the office for the company/public sector.

Generally it should be advised to have a back up plan when doing this but the way to insist is to tell you are not coming back into the office! Nothing else to it. I presume her plan was to retire early if her job threatened to fire her over it. Generally for most people if they want either WFH or partial WFH then it will be onto the job market if their employer doesn't agree. Essentially your boss tells you to come in and you say no. Or more intelligently if you are not going to retire you say yes and contact recruiters for more flexible employers.

People believe they can insist because they feel they are employable and employers will face a choice of how much they want to insist on people coming into the office vs the potential of losing employees to competitors. Hiring is expensive so to risk having to pay to hire a person worse at the job than someone already there because of something that makes little difference to their productivity would be the height of stupidity. Of course this will depend on how important a company feels being in the office is to each role and how much they value high skill employees.

Someone close to retirement age is going to find it alot more difficult to find new employment though so don't know if they'll have that ammunition. I really hope anyone who simply refuses to go into office gets what they want. During covid they've a really good chance so here's hoping

The antigen testing of staff who go into the office is interesting. It will add costs and logistics for companies to sort out.

Keeping offices closed makes most sense right now but if people really have to go into the office antigen testing makes a lot of sense. It is one way to help prevent outbreaks. My UK teacher friend has to do a weekly antigen test.

It will also depend on the type of work and how digital it is. I think that whatever legislation ends up in place will be relatively weak and there will be lots of valid reasons why WFH may not work in certain situations. For staff, the best course of action will be voting with their feet.

Here is an example from 6 months into the pandemic:

We don't know the entire picture across the PS of course, but this information was requested in the Dail.

I wish my employer had these same views 😥