The Returning to the Office Thread

[Incandenza]

Fully realizing that this may not apply to everyone here based on your type of employment, but for those who had a typical office job without remote work prior to the pandemic, what are things looking like for you now? Back in the office already? Never going back in again?

Our office never offered remote work prior to the pandemic. Our office director was hired towards the end of last year and is actually living on the other side of the country and has told us that she has long been a believer in remote work. She has told us that there's no way that we would all be able to return to the office any time soon and polled the office--apparently over 80% said they want to be fully remote permanently. I have said that I wouldn't mind going in one or two days a week starting in the fall.

However, our organization director is very much an old school manager who has talked about "office culture" and being able to walk into someone's office to talk to them. The issue of remote work came up on a big conference call that we and others from outside offices were on, and she went on about "I don't understand why people want to stay at home" and still thinks that people working remotely aren't as productive as people in an office.

California is already removing mask requirements and apparently the governor is about to sign OSHA guidance saying that physical distance requirements in workplaces can be eliminated. Given that a lot of people in my office worked in offices that had 3 desks in a single room, I'm kind of freaking out thinking that our org director will be telling people that they need to start going into the office.

[caja-dglh]

My lot started building a new tower heading into COVID. I expect someone has been very busy reworking all the floor plans for moving in 2022.

I doubt I will ever be in the office more than three days a week - there doesn't seem to be any institutional appetite for it. These are the benefits for working for a company with a strong influence from a more benevolent culture that isn't ignored in its international offices (unlike, say, the US arms of French banks).

I am keen to get in to the office - having moved jobs during the pandemic I am very aware of the value being in the office for interactions and a sense of how to move your career forward. Though I can say that with the knowledge that there is no suggestion that it will be 100%, five days a week. With the new building I expect that might actually be impossible.

[S. aureus]

My company is irritating the crap out of me by tying returning to the office to mask removal. Otherwise I don't think they've decided how much flexibility they want people to have in working remotely, my guess is that it will be quite a lot until somebody flagrantly abuses this and also causes some sort of large delay in a project, then it will be clamped down on.
As for me, I have no intention of going back in until the kids are back in school, by which time I doubt that I'll be working for the same company (if at all). So I suppose there'll likely be one day before then when I do have to go in and collect my stuff, drop off my computer and have my exit interview.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Out lot are being shit, as always. Useless fuckers.

They are currently making three plans, they say - one for a return in July (lol), one for September, and one for "later on in the year", which is sometimes explained as December and sometimes January.

The desk to person ratio is likely to be around 4:10. They say that 5-days-a-week office-bound needs a ratio of 8:10, if you manage hot-desking well (lol).

The pussyfooting around Finance director, who as per Office Annoyances is one of my biggest pains in the arse, just says random stuff that doesn't hang together. So really I've no idea what they are going to want. But one day a week in is ok with me, with the odd two now and again, and more isn't. So we'll see.

[Ginger Yellow]

My company has always been very conservative about the pandemic - early to institute travel bans and "quarantine" for personal travel, and then closing the office from mid-March 2020. They very briefly re-opened the London in I think September last year, but it was very much on a voluntary basis, and basically nobody went in. They were planning to re-open again on 17 June, for fully vaccinated staff only, and on a somewhat voluntary basis, but it has been postponed to July, or whenever the government guidance chagnes. Confusingly, they now seem to have shifted from very flexible to a policy of full back to the office, at least after a transition period, but are also talking about hotdesking. Not sure how that's going to work.

[lambers]

I've been in the office five times in the past two months, the first three times I only went in for half days, the second two times were full days. I appear to be the only person in my team actually concerned about how Covid could spread in an office environment, and as a consequence have been given my choice of seats and/or a more isolated desk. The last two times I nabbed a side-office, sat in the far corner of it, but in deference to team work, left the door open so anyone could wander in to ask me questions. Only once did someone come in and approach me within the 2m zone, I gave them a very withering look. I'm sure that I'm gathering a lovely reputation now...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

They'll have to drag me there behind a horse.

[Paul S]

I live on my own and I'm on the autistic spectrum and my mental health deteriorated quite alarmingly during the first lockdown. In August of last year I found out I could go back to the office for mental health reasons and initially did one day a week but soon built that up to two then three days a week which I still do. There are about 25 people on the other half of the office taking calls from the general public but currently on my half we average around 5 people a day. I know them all by name, I know the cleaners, the canteen which has reopened, the security staff and the reception staff and I am on first name terms with a very important and high up manager. So far no-one else from my team of 45 has returned to the office and I still sit there alone along most days but the odd person is now returning. However, the discipline of getting up, getting dressed, breakfast, out of the flat to the station and everything else helps keep me going and has saved my mental health.

I can't imagine working from home more than two days a week ever again.

[Lang Spoon]

I think (hope) I'll be working from home at least 4 days a week, preferably 5, only having to turn up in the office once in a while. I can do my job more efficiently from the kitchen, no open plan hell of fighting over the AC/heat/general hum of shite disrupting my flow/distracting gossip however entertaining/people suddenly standing over my desk with a random question about something that's nothing to do with me or my job but who were told "oh Lang Spoon will know that"/folk eating hard boiled eggs at their desk.

Teams means we can still have the conspiratorial moaning and bitching about half the useless bastards we have to work with, it's just done on an (unrecorded) call. Meetings are much more efficient and the usual suspects less likely to turn up half an hour late when on Teams then in real life I find as well.

Herself is actually looking forward to going in twice a week or so once she's fully vaxxed, but I'm anti social enuf not to really get cabin fever especially with the beach 5 minutes from the door. Her commute is also much shorter than my 90 minute cramped stinking train hell each day.

[elguapo4]

I'm the opposite to Spoony, in that I volunteered to stay in the office.

When Covid hit, there were 18 of us in the office. As there are some parts of our job that couldn't be done from home, two people stayed in the office ,four of us were moved to a separate building on half days, and the rest worked from home. Last July, when cases eased, we were moved back to head office, and there's been seven of us in there since. The thought of sitting at home all day would be hell.

[Balderdasha]

I started a full-time job in September 2020 and have not been into the office yet. I went to a pub garden once to meet three colleagues outdoors before the second lockdown started. Personally, I would happily work from home permanently. My organisation is currently asking us to start going into the office one day a week from mid-September, but with the expectation that "most roles" will end up with people going in 2-4 days a week. My outgoing male senior manager was quite old school and of the opinion that my job was done better in the office with all the interaction and brainstorming, but my incoming female senior manager is a new mum and of the opinion that "maybe she might manage one day a week in the office" which is much more aligned with my thoughts. If I ever had to do five days a week in the office, I would have to drop to part-time as the commute would kill me and I'd never see my kids. I'm more productive at home, more sane, more punctual, less exposed to office colds, can manage all my home demands more easily, can balance my family life, and don't waste time and money stuck on public transport. My husband thinks I could get away with demanding to stay at home permanently as a reasonable adjustment to my disability (which the company knew about when they employed me). It might not be viewed favourably but it's certainly under consideration.

[Incandenza]

I suppose I want to have my cake and eat it too--I prefer remote all things considered, but I need to get out of the house, and when the kids are back in school I'd like to go in at least a day a week. My kids got back in school in-person for about 5 weeks before the summer break, I started taking long walks and going on bike rides on my lunch break, which I couldn't do when they were doing school at home. Now they're off and they are doing some summer activities, but all at different times and at different locations, so I can't just get out out of the house and be alone for an hour in the middle of the day.

[jdsx]

The orchestra I work for closed down in mid-March 2020 and we were working from home from then until August. I work in the office, so we were constantly trying to prepare for things a few weeks away which then got cancelled.... The players did a few 'remote recodings' in which the players recorded their part to a click track. It's ok for 'non-classical' stuff but just doesn't really work for our normal type of repertoire. (This was probably the best remote recording if you haven't seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4MBbnQXyZ4)
In August, we started going back in, beginning with an octet and working up to roughly a half-size orchestra for a BBC Prom in early September. Since then, I've been pretty much working normally - we're deemed broadcast-critical by the BBC, somewhat astonishingly. The orchestra now usually now consists of 30-40 players (socially distanced at 2.5 meters) instead of 70-80, so it's been challenging trying to find repertoire which works. We've also only been playing in our own hall in Glasgow - usually we play in a lot of other towns/cities across Scotland but obviously we haven't been able to do that.
We had another few weeks cancelled in January during the second lockdown, but other than that, I've been working pretty much normally. I could do a certain amount of work from home, but actually I prefer to be in - quite often there are a few of us in the office. Pre-Covid there would be about 10-12 office staff including marketing people, but we're obviously not allowed to do any concerts in front of an audience yet, so they're working remotely still.
Hoping to do an Edinburgh Festival concert in a large tent and three Proms from the Royal Albert Hall this summer if there's no (well, not much of a) third wave...

[ursus arctos]

With 16 offices around the world, our situation differs by location, but New York was closed entirely (except for a skeletal technical and administrative staff) for most of 2020. Towards the end of last year, we began to allow up to five percent of the professional staff back in on an as needed appointment basis, increasing that to ten percent earlier this year. Masks and social distancing are required in all public areas (one can remove a mask within one's private office).

I have never needed to avail myself of the possibility of going in.

We are still deciding exactly when to "return to the office", but it will be sometime after 15 September and also linked to an enhanced "work from home" policy that will afford everyone the possibility of working form a "secure, private location" at least two days a week. We expect that policy to be permanent, and that we will also reconfigure our offices so as to reduce the amount of space we occupy.

With many of our largest clients already starting the return process, I expect that we will begin going back no later than 1 October.

Pretty much everyone agrees that we will never fully return to working exactly as we did in the "Before Times", but we are all equally unsure of just how things will work in 2022.

[caja-dglh]

There are so many Real Estate Czar's about to get a kick in the teeth. It is going to be delightful.

[Jimski]

The company I work for has said they're going to move to greater remote working, with flexibility around how often one is in the office, but basically nobody expected to be in more than twice a week (coordinated within individual teams). Also nobody expected to return until January at the earliest. They've taken Covid pretty seriously. Last summer they didn't even think about plans to return to the office, saying that scientists were predicting another peak in the winter, and that this wasn't over by a long shot, so they're fairly wised up really.

[ursus arctos]

There are so many Real Estate Czar's about to get a kick in the teeth. It is going to be delightful.

This is absolutely true. It is going to be carnage.

[Snake Plissken]

My current client is looking at potentially opening a couple of offices up at the end of September. I'm working on a room/desk booking system targeted to deliver then. It's clear that there isn't much appetite for everyone to return to offices, indeed I've just been offered a six month extension to end of January and it was made clear that I don't have to travel down to Bromley on any regular or semi-regular basis.

Its clear that they will be downsizing the many offices and call centres around the country and moving to flexible working all round, especially as they've spent a lot of time and money switching from a wholly internal Citrix system to homeworking laptops for staff and cloud based Office 365. It sometimes feel like incredibly slow going but they are actually quite nimble for someone this size and in the insurance sector.

[elguapo4]

There are so many Real Estate Czar's about to get a kick in the teeth. It is going to be delightful.

And loads of people who work servicing those buildings, and who work in bars, restaurants coffee shops and other companies that depend on office workers are going to lose their jobs as well.

[Lang Spoon]

Maybe we can look to have a proper density of folk actually living in the inner city then, which will still provide demand for shops, restaurants and bars. Value engineered Lego blocks of sub-par mid rise too shit for Salford Quays drek or money laundering developers who should have been jailed rather than NAMA'd raising phallic statements on the quays or docklands is no way to organise a city.

[San Bernardhinault]

The missus had noted an interesting thing - while people will probably be going back for only two or three days a week at her place there’s going to be very limited opportunity for cost cutting. Everyone will be in on the same days because that’s when all the meetings will happen so the buildings will either be near empty or near full capacity.

[caja-dglh]

And loads of people who work servicing those buildings, and who work in bars, restaurants coffee shops and other companies that depend on office workers are going to lose their jobs as well.

You should buy some cigarettes for the welfare of the workers at Philip Morris.

[ursus arctos]

The missus had noted an interesting thing - while people will probably be going back for only two or three days a week at her place there’s going to be very limited opportunity for cost cutting. Everyone will be in on the same days because that’s when all the meetings will happen so the buildings will either be near empty or near full capacity.

We must work in a very different manner, because I don't see this being the case at all.

[Balderdasha]

I can see it being a concern. Nobody wants to work on Monday or Friday. Everyone quite fancies the "day in the office" being maybe a Wednesday.

[ursus arctos]

Our overseas clients love to meet on Mondays and Fridays, as it gives them a chance to spend the weekend in town