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You know they can't do that, yes? If your request is reasonable then they can only reject it for specific, defined reasons. If it's not feasible to do your job from home - say, you were a bus driver - then that is a valid reason, but if you've doing it quite successfully for the last two years then unless your role has changed that's going to be hard for them to argue against. Just going "well, we don't want you to" isn't good enough.
Weeeeell, they can. They can refuse it for any of the following reasons:
- extra costs that will damage the business
- the work cannot be reorganised among other staff
- people cannot be recruited to do the work
- flexible working will affect quality
- flexible working will affect performance
- the business will not be able to meet customer demand
- there’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times
- the business is planning changes to the workforce
The ones that the employer is likely to apply are the quality/performance ones. If it's a new role he's in (and it sounds like it is), he can't really say "I've been doing the job from home successfully for the last two years" cos he wasn't, he was doing a different job. And if the rest of the team are in the office and he's the only one at home, it's not hard for them to say that it'll create obstacles to communication/teamwork etc.
I'm not saying it's right, and a more flexible employer may well grant the request, but if the employer wants to refuse it they can do so on demonstrable reasonable grounds.
Yeah… I’ve done the role for ten years. Been away two doing something else kind of related but wfh. So that’s part of my argument.
Ah back when you originally posted this I was doing 2 a day at home, now down to 1, different company, different role and a physical device to work on (well my team do, I don't).
I miss being at home more and miss spending more time with my dog napping behind me in the 'office'/adapted spare room. But my wife's job has changed and is 3 days at home so we share the desk/office.
I still do Friday's at home each week and try to not have meetings so I can do a small percentage of my todo list in the afternoon.
*This is new... though I am tempted to bin it!
What. On. Earth....😂
That would be filed under D, for don't be ****ing stupid......
*This is new... though I am tempted to bin it!
What. On. Earth....😂
That would be filed under D, for don't be ****ing stupid......
I would report that to HR and ask what pro-actiove steps they are taking to cope withthe mental heath of their staff as this is a clear example of it failing.
Well, seems my pessimism wasn't justified*. I've been approved for a 3-month trial of 1 day per week WFH, with some not at all arduous conditions.
I'm happy with that for now.
*Don't worry I know that's not an excuse to stop being pessimistic about everything else that relates to work.
As said above, a dedicated space helps. I am lucky and we were able to have a small porch built on front of house in 2024 and I specced it to be super insulated and with Morley integral blinds in all the windows (including the sliding door to enter from the house). Its effectively a tiny space I can completely shut myself off from the house to work in. A decent USB hub and monitors help and are not expensive. I have an HP powered hub that was about £100 and two £60 17 inch monitors and its a brilliant set up.
I have lots of plants in the porch too, basically making it a “nice place to be”.
I find having a strict start time helps me, I tend to be on early and finish early. MrsHB has started walking into her work (3 miles each way) so ofteb on a morning I will do the first mile with her then loop back to get some steps in.
Overall I prefer being in the actual office for the real people side of things, but mostly my team and colleagues are scattered all over UK and London so the people I speak to are rarely in Leeds anyway.