Working From Home Megathread

Just been advised today that our planned return to the office has been put back from September 7th to at least October 5th.

Public sector and pro work from office CEO.

Irish Times have reported ( https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/office-working-and-confirmations-set-to-resume-within-weeks-1.4657671 ):

• Return to Office is "not going to happen straight away" but will happen "within weeks" in "September".
• Eamon Ryan said "return to offices needs to start in September". (Why?)
• Date to be confirmed next Tuesday.

Looks like office returns will be allowed from mid to end of September. No covid criteria to be applied after all.

I think this is totally unnecessary. The work can be done from home in most cases. Why rush this when Delta is rampant. Why not wait and see where we are at, at the end of September? With unvaccinated primary schools reopening, part vaccinated secondary schools reopening and in-person colleges resuming in September and the weather getting worse ... why add putting people in enclosed indoor offices often without masks to this risk pile?

Seems to me like we are adding unnecessary fuel to a fire when we don't need too right now.

And where’s Leo’s famous right to ask to WFH in the midst of all of this?

Unless they are planning a full lockdown, once we're at the 90% vaccinated level, what other things are we waiting for? It's either open up or stay with restrictions forever, there will always be a reason not to open.

My office are on about a phased return end of sept, maybe once a week or once every second week to get ppl used to coming back in again. TBF they sent anyone the could home around March 10 last year and have always taken a wait and see approach to office return but it looks like ill be going in maybe 3 per month oct - dec.

Its a big company that would be worried about reputational damage a lot so id say if they are starting a phased return late sept, many others are doing similar.

once a week in the office would be my preference going forward anyway

Nphet to disband in October as employees expected to return to office from September

Offices back from 13th Sept. March 2022 was wishful thinking unfortunately

Any thoughts on how the public sector might manage this. In a body that will probably just follow what the parent department does. Will all departments approach this the same?

Yes and lots of covid north of the wall!

My wife is being forced to return to office from 1st September!!! It’s an aircraft leasing company which is very well known and they are not entertaining anyone to wfh even though all have done so from March 2020 with high productivity. The double kicker is that they are not making masks in the office mandatory!!!! This has to be unsafe especially as all staff returning same day. The c suite managers must have no cop on at all. She’s only on a 12 month contract and so far has wfh for 99% it’s totally not logical to just let contract finish out remotely. HSA should be involved for the safety issues.

Work on legislation will be in the next Dail session apparently and before you go nuclear on that, parties agree on what can be done in a Dail session beforehand. They have to because of all stages a bill needs to become law and any other work that is going on in committee or in the chamber itself.

Newstalk link on it

Crappy sandwich shops employ people and customer feedback makes them less crappy! Not everyone is so efficient at home and long term it's hard to maintain if you have nothing else to compare it with.

No Gdpr issues in this section, it’s micromanaging on a stupid level. They have been taking this line with no regard to employees safety or wants. They are ignoring current government guidelines to remain working from home until later in month and additionally bringing all staff in same day and same day as all primary schools go back says a lot for the companies culture.