Workplaces and employer attitudes Megathread

I completely agree with you and I hope you find a way to continue to work from home. Employers shouldn't be putting our health at risk here.

Only issue I see for employer would be if they facilitate 100% working from home for you and then later down the line you decide for whatever reason that you can't work from home it shouldn't be expected that you would be then accommodated with a desk in the office. I think that's fair enough from both points of view, could lead to you possibly having to resign as you won't be able to fulfil duties.

When people return to work, will they continue to wear masks in offices? When will that end?

also for employers asking employees to come back, is it possible to request to continue working from home? I know there’s no legislation around it yet

Employment law and the right of a company to impose a requirement on employees differ greatly between the USA and Ireland.

It's nothing to do with unvaccinated people being less dangerous anywhere. It's the politicisation of mandates and the lack of employment protection and personal rights across USA v Ireland and the majority of Europe.

But a spectacularly shít hot take there, that raised a chuckle so there's that.

I'm sure there are plenty. My employer has restricted who can and can't go to the office .. the last thing they want is to have a number of employees out at the same time with covid

Does that make sense with Nightclubs open to full capacity ?

I know the less interaction we have the better but whats the point !

I'm guessing OP has a reason for preferring to be in the office, perhaps because of limited work space at home?

We're all back WFH apart from a handful of people who are needed on site. They're staggering the days so that they don't meet.

It seems daft I guess but people who go to nightclubs are doing it voluntarily. They're also being asked to be more careful about who they meet in the days after they go (i.e. grandparents). It's harder to avoid going to work or to be near Mary and John who were out clubbing two nights ago.

A significant proportion of people of working age never go to nightclubs.

Yes, because nightclubs are not viable unless they are busy and people in the hospitality and entertainment industries don't have the luxury of being able to work from home. It's about getting as many people back to work as possible, while mitigating where possible. If you have the option of working from home, it's probably no harm to help reduce spread. However, there's not much you can do with nightclubs etc. apart from shutting them down completely, which wouldn't look great, especially since they've been closed for so long.

Office has space for 400 people, 20 or so staff would like to go back to the office for various reasons so there would be plenty of room for safe distance between all of them. Government guidelines say return to the workplace should continue on a phased and staggered basis but employer has refused to allow return to office based on the recent spikes. I was just wondering if there were similar cases out there. I have only heard the opposite where employers are insisting staff return.

These are all unique but valid issues but rather than coming up with what if situations, try to provide a solution.

1: Call the guards & see the following link https://www.garda.ie/en/crime/domestic-abuse/domestic-abuse.html

2: Where would the children be if you weren't at work? Can you send them to day care? Is there any camps or after school. Also could you go to a library and work there for a bit? https://www.dublincity.ie/library/blog/computer-access-and-study-space-browse-and-borrow-libraries

3: Talk to someone, if your not comfortable to talk to your employer about it, talk to a friend or another colleague, see if someone could help with a space your could work from. Unfortunately now, it might be time to speak up. Also would working from a library work?

If you need a dedicated workspace and can't find any at home, would you consider renting some office space like a desk in a shared office. Everyone is saving money from not driving into work every day, could this be put towards this?

Individual, but not at all unique: I've had 4 colleagues (that I know of) with these or similar since March 2020. Three found their own solutions not involving the office. One wasn't able to: the ONLY way she can work is in the office. Thankfully her employer is smart enough to realise this, and hasn't unilaterally closed the building. Two are using solutions similar to what you suggest, which are acceptable now in a health emergency, but which won't meet the recently announced Home Working policy

You are horrendously naive if you think that "call the guards" is the answer to domestic violence. It's maybe the answer to an active crime being committed right now - if they actually answer the phone! But Women's Aid is a better starting place for the overall situation. Except if the victim is male, of course, in which case there's the occasional lower profile community support group, and no funded emergency accommodation options.

Where would children / elder be, if you were at work? Easy, in their own home, being cared for by the same caregivers. The difference is, they wouldn't have a grumpy relative there saying "you NEED to be quiet, I'm on a call".

And just imagine a housing officer, credit controller, mortgage broker - anyone who needs to be making lots of calls working from the library? They'd be kicked out with 10 minutes. Even in a shared office, many would not be happy discussing people's details out loud in front of strangers.