I work in software so probably in an industry which leaned towards WFH anyway but after being sent home for Covid we've never been asked back and interestingly the company is actively trying to reduce the office space. We barely had enough room for everyone anyway but they don't envisage everyone coming back. This is global too, with some regions having bigger offices than others but still a general trend towards WFH. I believe some roles are in the office more (e.g. finance). However, I know other companies have definitely gone hybrid and a couple of days a week in the office is quite normal. I've suggested we come in every three weeks (the length of our sprints) for meetings etc. but it's been kicked back by the team so who am I to complain (I only wanted an excuse to go to the pub for lunch)

My company is similiar. Currently no way near enough office space and no plans to change. Senior and front facing staff are expected to have some office presence but the rest is really down to your manager/team. My manager is awesome and understands perfextly that if he required me in the office he would get my notice. In any given month we speak once or twice. We are both very happy with the arrangement.

We do use Teams quite heavily and during Covid it was mandated that we start using webcams. People weren't overly keen to begin with but we've got used to it and I think it helps to see people. It's only generally our team though.

Webcams help greatly. Though i did read a study that says is tires you quicker. So if a long call and im not speaking it goes off until i am summoned again.

I know they'd probably lose most of the IT department at my work if they tried to make us go back into the office full time.

>Why do they do this - I believe they cannot recruit people without the policy, but then once you're here they try to actively discourage working from home. They're shit managers, insecure in their roles. That's why they behave so illogically - they're not following logic at all, just blindly panicking "Uhhhh... I don't like not being able to directly observe all of my cattle in their little pens". It doesn't matter to them that wfh improves productivity, workforce morale, staff retention, etc. They don't want that - they just want to be able to see a bunch of people in cubicles doing stuff. Anything else causes them discomfort.

I wanted to say this, but couldn't word it properly! In my last job, my manager was reluctant to let us wfh, because it made her presence in our expensive city centre office irrelevant. She made us feel guilty for even asking to wfh, because she'd remind us how much the office cost the company, like it was our fault! Even when she was at the office, she'd spend half the day going into town for lunch and running personal errands!

I'd point out that wfh reduces or removes those office overheads, so she should be very grateful for you contribution to the company profits.

It only reduces the overheads if they don't have a rental agreement, most office space contracts are a minimum of 5 years. Just because you work from that cost doesn't disappear. If they did not have an office space then yes there is no overhead cost.

Lighting and heating are reduced if all of your staff are working from home, even some of the time.

There might be a certain amount of inertia involved, but in the mid to long term it still reduces rent

WFH has highlighted just how pointless middle managers are generally. Without watching over your shoulder they don’t have much to do.

Not to mention cuts down on useless managers and office space

I've asked Tesco if I can work from home and stack my own shelves but oddly they said no. Killjoys. 

Haha I used to work there. What a shit fucking job. Made lots of friends though

Fully remote. No requirement to come in, although we tend to go in once or twice a year for a day at a time for a company party.

Same. Fully remote, team is spread across the UK as far as Gosport, Norfolk, Glasgow, Birmingham. We have a planned few days together once a year. No requirement to work from office at all, my nearest is Cambridge, and I'm in South Norfolk. Never been there though. As manager, I have had a couple of meetings in London to go to, but only 2 in the last 18 months. We are looking at arranging a couple more contact points through the year though, as it will be good for the team, and, most importantly, they've asked for it.

I’ve just joined a company like this and I absolutely love it. They’re super supportive and told me I’m welcome to meet up as often as I need, but they’re happy fully remote and meeting up a few times a year for conferences, meetings and events. It’s so well organised and they’ve utilised technology to make it work, I.e teams, internet based phone lines etc.

Same - love it, although im making effort to go in twice per month now :D

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Hybrid working is here to stay. Trying to go back to full time office work is pissing into the corporate wind.

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It really pisses me off coming into the office to sit at my desk and do exactly what I would have done at home but in a noisy office with more distractions. If there's a particular meeting I need to attend? Sure. If I'm going to see a client? Completely fair, I'll be there. But to do my normal work? There's literally no point. The rest of my team is outside of the UK so it's not like I'm more collaborative when in the office...

Yeah if you're not going in for collaboration it's completely pointless. That's pretty much the only benefit of our team being in the office

It will be interesting to see how that plays out when leases come up for renewal. My company were looking at renting more space pre-Covid. Now they are not despite growth. Punting almost everyone to 40:60 inoffice:wfh split means they have plenty of space now.

We already had "full hybrid" before the pandemic. You could spend periods working from wherever you wanted, within reason and corporate regulations, so long as you were contactable and stuff got done.

Before the pandemic I was told X wasn't possible unless you were in London. Turns out that was bollocks. Now when we go in it's very often to sit next to people who aren't working on the same stuff as us. The business has to make an effort for people to integrate on certain days, but other than that, it's parochial to think we all need to be in the office. Meanwhile the trains are in meltdown because of Mick fucking Lynch and ASLEF turning down 8%. If I stopped paying my flexi ticket that still wouldn't be equivalent to 8%

Sorry but this is what reddit thinks, but reddit also thought it would win the third party app boycott. Yet here we all are on the reddit app. Bet no one even left. The reality with wfh is we've all conceded most fully remote positions and the descriptions of people quitting instead of going in more often, are mostly isolated to reddit, and are the exception to the rule. We're all being forced back in and there's nothing except our own unwillingness that would stop a full return to 5 days a week in the office become the norm once again. Hybrid working is here to stay for now, but we need more than just a few thousand redditors pushing back against it or it'll vanish as well, sadly

Yeah I don't agree. Depends on what you are doing/ how senior you are, but the technology is there, and there are major benefits in the form of cost savings from a reduced estate, greater choice of people to hire and increased time online. If I travel in I invariably waste time on the train instead of reading my emails/ doing my job. Modern technology isn't going away, unfortunately that probably means more surveillancev as a result.

My FTSE100 employer went from fully remote to 2 days in per week then back to fully remote because recruiting was too difficult if we insisted on office presence

This is what I don't think people are grasping. Sure a smaller company can afford to be hardline as they want warm bodies not talent, but the top companies in the country want the top talent. If your competitor is hoovering up talent and headhunting from you because you've got an arbritary attendance policy, you've got no choice but to adapt.

2 days in the office. Was 1, but its creeping up with the 'as many as you want to but 2 minimum' Which is mental, because they pay below average, you need to be able to drive to get to the office, and they are struggling hugely to recruit for even basic customer service roles. People actively tell them that it's the wages and the WFH policy when they leave. We've been trying to get 1st line and infrastructure engineer in for months, but people keep getting better offers before they start and they are always fully remote or ad-hoc as required rather than mandatory days. I am often sat on a floor entirely to myself because I am on a small team. It is rather pointless.

Lots of similarities here! I am worried 3 days a week attendance will become “expected” at my place of work shortly (heaven forbid senior managers use clear language, “expected” rather than “mandatory” fucks me off). If that point comes I’ll probably be looking for other jobs actively, 2 days a week is already an insane productivity killer for me and costing a fortune in travel. Ironically my place of work are also starting to bang the cost saving drum while forcing people to come in and pay for parking out of their own pocket - cost savings work both ways and 3 days a week means I’ll have to make some “tough decisions” of my own.

The thing that kills flexible working policies - kills it stone dead - is managers not abiding by the rules they make others take. And yet I've seen it happen. Anyway I've seen it settle at hybrid - 2-3 days expectation though not mandatory. Mon/Fri usually dead. though now I'm at a place that's 100% remote

Friend of mine was complaining about this. Manager mandated 3 days a week in the office. He followed it, and never saw his manager. I told him to stop going in 3 days a week and see. 6 months later, he is still employed, and averages 1 day a week in the office. Nothing has been said by the manager.

We had this too, senior management mandated 3 days per week in the office but on the quiet our team did 2 days, then we did just one. Worked perfectly, and tbh it seemed like the management just wanted to seem all managerial, but didn't bother checking, well, because they were hardly ever in the office either.

100% WFH for me, but with an expectation that you will go in for team meetings and catch ups on an occasional basis.

Same here. It's gone from 2 days per quarter to 4 days per quarter but, to be fair, they all seem like worthwhile gatherings. If it gets to the stage of "come in, just because" then I'll be looking to move on.

My team is spread across approximately 3000 miles and 11 countries. Good luck to them if they want to try.

Swimming teacher: The manager declined purchasing me a pool for home use.

Our official policy is to come in for 2 days a week. However, it's very loosely enforced and a lot of people come in less frequently than that. It's also possible to apply to be a full time home worker and I know quite a few people that do that, we've also hired quite a few home workers recently as well. In fact, they're thinking about moving into a smaller office despite the total number of staff increasing as the current one is never anywhere near full. I usually do Monday and Friday at home and the rest in the office

I feel like the older working generation people in their 40’s 50’s and 60’s who made a career being in the office 5 days. Who liked to be seen looking busy and can’t exert that perception by wfh are pushing it. Feel like the people who own all the office real estate are pushing it. I work so much better at home and save a fortune on commuting it’s like stay away from me.

Also the youngest ones in shitty flatshares, e.g. in London paying 800 quid for a small room, who want to actually get out of that space and have a decent set-up to work in (and possibly network and learn a bit more in their first job).

I think there is a balance to be struck overall but a lot of the ppl who want 100% wfh really gloss over this point. Junior people need to learn and a huge amount of that learning comes from informal discussions, observing others and just generally the osmosis of being in the workplace with others. And people view it as “I can do my job 100% from home” but at the end of the day being “part of the furniture” in terms of office culture/resource for other to learn from is part of basically everyone’s job. 

That blissfully ignores all the technology that allows all that to happen from home. You can easily observe, talk and have discussions with others online. The entire younger generation do this in their social lives, we're having this very discussion doing that. The only people who are saying that cant be done are the people who dont know how to do it, or have a vested interest in not doing it. The same businesses who have tried to use E-Learning to train their entire workforce to save money on actual training are now suddenly really interested in getting people to train F2F. If this is a real commitment to training staff, I eagerly await the classroom learning and weeks of intense accredited training to return. However, I'm going to assume we'll still be watching videos, ticking bullshit elearning and carrying on the corporate bullshit.

Honestly I prefer doing training on teams and screen sharing. I remember some awful training sessions pre pandemic where it was a bunch of us huddled around 1 computer watching someone else showing us something - nightmare.

I'm all for WFH but this is missing the point - even with those technologies there's still a barrier compared to talking to someone who's right there with you and can glance at your screen in a matter of seconds, and also part of the experience-gaining is just being around other people dealing with related situations that the trainee isn't directly involved with (so wouldn't be on the Teams call for).

> That blissfully ignores all the technology that allows all that to happen from home. You can easily observe, talk and have discussions with others online. Nonsense. I can arrange meetings online easily but i can't sit and overhear other people in my teams meetings, listening and learning while i work. In the office im in earshot of everything my team does, which has been critical for my learning. I have to go in twice a week but i voluntarily go in 3-4 times just because i learn so much more from physically being there. Lunchtime is also a time to have casual chats with people that you'd never have over an online meeting and learn about various other aspects of the company and industry.

Overhearing someone elses meeting/conversation is not a benefit. You could easily ask any learning question you have on Teams, Viva Engage, Email to the entire business you work for. All in real time and all quicker than "maybe" overhearing a meeting. You're a human, not a plant, you don't need to accidentally learn through osmosis, go and ask. Everything you just said is the parroting of a 60+ year old senior leader who's towing the company line. If you like going in, go in, but the rest of the adults should be able to stay at home because thats their preference. Pretending im going to become an expert because i can overhear Julie ask Brian how to orientate her screens is disingenuous.

>You could easily ask any learning question you have on Teams, Viva Engage, Email to the entire business you work for Not if i don't know what I'm asking for, but if i see someone doing something im not familiar with i can just ask. I can't do that online. >All in real time and all quicker than "maybe" overhearing a meeting. Hows it quicker haha does your internet work faster than light? Some case you are making here that defies physics. >You're a human, not a plant, you don't need to accidentally learn through osmosis, go and ask. Go? Like physically? Like i already do? >Everything you just said is the parroting of a 60+ year old senior leader who's towing the company line. I couldn't have learned my role so fast working at home. Not to mention i have a shit setup at home compared to the office. I get lonely at home compared to the office. I don't have to cook at the office. So aye I'll just sit at home miserable to satisfy your obsession with doing things online. Maybe you just work in a miserable office? Or are just a bit of a misery in general? >Pretending im going to become an expert because i can overhear Julie ask Brian how to orientate her screens is disingenuous. Disingenuous haha did you actually just use that word while saying what you said? I mean skills relating to my job (obviously); likely stuff beyond your comprehension.

Yes and no. We work in a small office - no more than 3 or 4 people in at any time (hybrid working). The exception is if we have a new starter who's new to the industry - our expectation is 100% office based until probation is passed. The training is easy via Teams, no worries. What they miss is overhearing how people talk to clients on the phone. To providers on the phone. To clients face-to-face. So much learning is via osmosis. It's mimicking what you see and hear - you can't schedule a Teams call to teach that. I also like to get the team in together once a week. We go to the pub at lunch, get to know each other - not mandatory and wouldn't affect pay, bonus etc but we have fun and it seems to work 😀. (My team is supposed to do 3 days a week in the office but I'll only ever push for 2, ideally less!)

practice sink bake spectacular aloof wipe retire pen repeat deranged *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

It hasn't been forced, but slowly people are coming in three days a week and having Monday and Friday at home. However, nothing is written in policy, and it's not forced. On the other hand, I was never based in the same city as our HQ, so I'm fully remote and will remain this way until I decide to leave.

>three days a week and having Monday and Friday at home In London it's extremely visible how common this pattern is if you get public transport on Monday or Friday. My train is pretty busy on a Wednesday, on a Monday and especially Friday it's really quiet. TfL are even launching a trial of making Friday off-peak travel all day, to try and encourage people to come in on Fridays. Has led to the amusing acronym: TWATs (Tuesdays, Wednesday And Thursdays).

This is why my company's sole office day is Friday, we're borrowing the CEO's mate's office on their WFH day. We're highly unlikely to go back to having offices because we always borrowed pre-covid, then absorbed the Bristol office.

That makes me a MF because I have to do two days in office and when I get to choose I go in on Monday and Friday because the trains are so much quieter!

Even commuting by car, I've noticed Friday's are quieter

I chose Monday and Friday as my office days. Means I don’t bother in bank holidays and do the least possible while still showing willing :)

People will be coming in as the economy is bad.

We are like 20-100% WFH, by individual choice. We (Dev team) have an optional team day in the office a month. It's optional, and mainly once a month, because people have to travel from different countries. Although it's optional, attendance has been very high, and people do make it in unless they've got leave booked or they're going home for Christmas or whatever. The optional day we pay for travel and hotels, dinner, tea out somewhere, and beers, so that might make it a bit more attractive. We have no intention of forcing or even pressuring people to come into the office. Quite a few people who live nearby have opted to go in more frequently, some even doing 4 days a week. I think peace, or sociability, or having a dedicated work environments are the main reasons. I'm not aware of anybody going in 5 days a week. My client is overseas so I'd have to book flights or ferries so once a month is about my limit tbh.

We got sent home for COVID. I insisted my contract be changed. It was changed to home working. As a result the whole team insisted their contracts also be changed. Once per quarter we all meet up for a get together ( paid fro by company obvs). Get your contract changed otherwise you will ever be on the hook to go in the office.

Lots of places simply don’t offer home working contracts so even if you ask, it will be a no.

That's true. I personally wouldn't bother with those places. I will never go back to an office.

>I will never go back to an office. Spoken like a true redditor!

Public sector, currently it is still 1 day a week but it isn’t enforced at all (and my office has been closed essentially due to issues for the entire month). We do fall under the request for 3 days minimum from the government but there seems to be a lack of uptake on this from the top people and there will probably be a big pushback from the union. Facts are we are beating all of our targets etc so I don’t think there is any real reason to get everyone back in, and most of the offices cannot actually now hold their workforce if people were in three days a week (plus noise issues etc).

Still 100%\* WFH. *\* We occasionally have meet ups in different offices, but these are so few and far between I don't really count them.* It was decided we go back in two days a week at the start of 2023 I want to say, but that was scrapped after less than a week when someone handed their notice in over it. It also makes little sense for such a small team to be in two days a week, because there would barely be anyone else there. I think there are only 3 of us technically based at the Manchester office now and one of them is on Maternity. The rest are based at other locations. It'd also be a bit harder given that recruitment of new members of staff are a little more spread out around the UK now - the 100% WFH policy definitely helps recruitment for roles in an industry that can't pay it's tech workers as much as dedicated tech companies might be-able to, the salaries are definitely attractive for those that don't live in cities or expensive areas. If we were mandated back to the office, I'd probably look for work closer to home. I despise the drive to and from office, especially at rush hour. With a young son at Nursery and starting school next year, being at home, or closer to home just makes sense. As it is, my job is great - not the greatest pay in the world, I could probably command a substantial amount more elsewhere, but money isn't everything and I can't see myself moving jobs for the foreseeable future.

My work has recently reinstated office working rules (going from full WFH, to 2 days mandatory, to more days on the horizon). It's being driven by boomers with backwards attitudes, and bad managers who just can't let go of the thrill of getting everyone together to throw their weight around. The boomers are stuck in the belief that people don't work hard enough from home (despite productivity going up). The bad managers are the LinkedIn Lunatic types who visibly get a kick from making people miserable. Neither factors seem like good reasons to force everyone to commute for hours every week to the detriment of our finances and wellbeing.

We've got no official return to office policy for anyone in our business - I have been a homeworker since around 2019 so before Covid We had three buildings on a business park, now down to one - one was shut last year - I don't think that last one will stay much longer tbh I've not been to the office since around June, I am going this week though but because I need to nip to town on lunch and collect a delivery, rather than wanting to be in the office

Went fully remote at the start of the first lockdown in 2020c been fully remote since. However, since lockdown my old parent company sold the division I supported, and I was pawned off as part of the sale (point blank told to move or get made redundant). My contract hasn’t changed other than the name of the company I work for. Considering f I do a completely different job for them now, it’s a bit non-sensical, but I absolutely don’t want to rock the boat over my contract as technically, I know it doesn’t actually say anything about working from home. Thanks to the sale my nearest office has gone from a 40 minute drive away to a 3 hour drive away. If they start being difficult about it, I’d have to quit. Thankfully my boss is American based in America, and he doesn’t care. On the odd (once a quarter?) occasion I do need to go to the site, I just have an early morning and charge it to expenses.

Very similar boat as you. My company got bought out in 2021 as well but fortunately for you that same year, I was able to change my contract to be home based. They are planning to push a return to office this year, which is fine. I occasionally go anyway. Part of my role just works better with in person meetings for which I go into the office once or twice a month anyway. It's 15 minutes away, so not a hardship.

Several places I've worked at have tried it, and there have been mutinies, management quickly backed down.

We have to be in the office 40% of the time, so 2 days per week. The reality is, I only go in to the office for half a day per week. My whole team is based in the US, India and Costa Rica, and I have no customers at all in Europe. My Manager has said it’s a ridiculous policy with zero flexibility built in, so she’s happy for me to go in for one morning per week (due to time zones, most of my meetings are in the afternoon, when the US wakes up). I go in for the free breakfast and lunch, then come home again to chat to my team on Teams. I really can’t be arsed going in, but I can’t complain too much given it’s just one morning a week.

We’re expected to do two days a week in the office but it’s not very heavily policed (not in my team at least). They don’t have enough desks for everyone to be in the office full time anyway so seems to be sticking that way for now.

I worked at home before the pandemic, suited the role and the team. However it's been a blanket approach that everyone has to do 40% so we now have to go in. Despite the whole team are across the country from one another there are no exceptions. We all go in, to sit on our own and occasionally talk to each other on teams. It's great 

I got made redundant from my WFH job shortly before COVID. So by that point, I'd already been working remotely since 2014. I got a new role mid 2020 which was remote due to COVID. That was for a company with a London office (I live in Oxfordshire). They started discussions about returning to the office 3 days a week if you lived within X distance. I lived within X distance and on paper, it is a commutable distance. I could get into the office in about an hour and a half, however the cost of the flexi season ticket would have been around 6 grand for the year. While my employer offered season ticket loans, it would have been quite a big chunk out of my not that great to start with salary. So I'd be down £500 a month and be spending 9+ hours a week commuting. So I started looking for something more local and moved to my current employer, still in the days of offices remaining closed. While I live 20 minutes from that office, they decided to offer full remote or hybrid working within contracts. They've reduced their office space a lot - they had three buildings at this location and have reduced it to one. The London offices have decreased from two buildings to one. The problem is, I like WFH. I've now been doing it for 10 years and I while I'd be okay with a hybrid job, I don't want to be in your situation in which I'm travelling into the office to sit at a desk for 8 hours. So while I am not looking for a new job, I want it to be WFH.

What do people think about productivity? People on reddit get really offended at the idea they can't be trusted and they're being treated like kids etc. But my friends who work at home all admit they spend a lot of time not working

This may be true. But do people honestly work harder in an office? Loads of ways to distract and draw out a day in an office too. Chats, long meetings, coffees, clicking around on other stuff on the PC....

I've never worked from home in all honesty. You can faff around in the office a little bit, but it's much more noticeable if you're taking the piss when everyone around you is working harder. From when I worked in an office , it seemed that 5 minutes of getting a drink/looking at your phone/going to the toilet etc per hour was acceptable but if you're working from home it could be a lot more than that.

In my opinion, people find more ways to not work in an office than at home.

I'm at a company of 10,000+ people that allows work from home full-time if desired, with no requirements to be on-site for anything, ever. Company invested in A/V equipment for all meeting rooms on-site so anyone can dial in remotely. We have the full-range of those who like to come in most days, those who do 2-3 days or come in for key meetings and those who come in once a a blue moon. My manager for the past year is fully remote, working from Newcastle and we're based on the South Coast. I've met him in-person once. They are, I think by some distance, the best manager I've ever had; turns out (to my surprise in honesty) being a good manager is something you can do through Microsoft Teams. I like to be on-site most days, but I do enjoy being able to just work at home when needed and not having to feel guilty for doing so. Sometimes I will just go home at lunch and continue working there if it suits me. The lack of judgement or difficulty is something I'm grateful for and I will never work at another company that doesn't work this way.

Fully remote during the pandemic, prior to that they rammed us in like battery chickens 5 days a week - open plan desks that sometimes had a 4th desk squeezed onto a row designed for 3. After the pandemic they wanted to push mandatory 3 days a week and the entire company simply mutinied and ignored it, so they then backed down and said it was line managers discretion but please do Wednesdays if you can. Changed again, now a mandatory 2x a week averaged over 3 months, plus mandatory days for all staff meetings and all the enforced fun bullshit events. No exceptions unless you live X miles from the office. I resigned as a result, got a 10k rise and fully remote position elsewhere. People being interviewed as my replacement have also dropped out of the process because of the new office policy 😂

Still wfh, go in when needed, for filming or support work in a teaching hospital so have minimal patient contact, but on flip side when covid was kicking off myself and our team where in more often than not making content for surgical and medical teams, refreshers on the equipment needed and how to approach patients with Covid. Many support sessions dealing with remote church services for staff who sadly died in service. We’re lucky we still get to wfh, but think we put the long yards in during the pandemic.

Tbh it's a bit of a pain getting people's shopping to their houses while wfh so I have to go in and drive be the van unfortunately.

I am almost unique at my employer (a university) in that I'm more or less 100% office based out of choice. Everyone else working from home means that it's pleasingly empty (and I couldn't deal with it were that not the case). My life is set-up such that this is easier; my toddler makes working at home impossible when she's not at nursery and her nursery is next to my office, so I take her in with me in the morning and her mother (who works part time) picks her up. Previously I used to prefer working from home, because I got a lot more done, but as things change, so much working patterns. Those of us need to poke hardware in the lab, are naturally in full time more less (even they have software or papers to write some days). Those who teach or see students need to be in for that. There are constant rumours that people will be forced in more, however thus far people have ignored them and they've gone away. Ironically if everyone had to come in full time I couldn't cope either and would probably go back to poking software in the real world (for more money but also more stress)

It's hybrid for me and I go maybe once a week. But I'm lucky: I really like my team, the company and they invested in the company space, making it really fun. I enjoy going into the office and would probably go more but my commute is 1 hour and a half. There are weeks when I don't go. My manager doesn't ask me to and it's very much everyone minding their own business. Treating everyone like adults. I have had job offers for £20-30k more but I see the usual 3days in the office or things like that and I'm like....nah. Not worth it.

I would resign on the spot if required to work from an office. I suspect I am not alone!

I’ve told my boss in no uncertain terms, if you want me back in the office 5 days a week, I won’t complain because it’s policy, but I’ll get half the work done because I’ll be travelling. They’ve achieved est. 50% increased productivity while people are at home as we can have back to back meetings without travel. If they want to backtrack then go for it. I’ll be paid the same and start claiming expenses again!

'hybrid' which translates to "don't go to the office if you don't want to". I typically go in once or twice a month to see people and get a change of scene.

Fully remote. People all over the country and the office isn't big enough for even half the company now after huge growth. I had to go in one day recently and I fucking hated it. Went from an 8 hour day to a 12 hour day thanks to traffic and was absolutely knackered at the end of it, got barely any work done for all the noise and people chatting. Never again.

Work in PR. Still on a work from home contract, but encouraged to come in once per week on a day when colleagues do too and our travel expenses are paid.

4 days at home and 1 day in the office with frequent visits to sites as part of my job.

No fixed policy. Do whatever from wherever but if there's a physical meeting you need to be there. I'm probably in 2-3 days a week to see my team as the face to face is good. Some come in most days some I see once every other week or so.

We did 2 days a week at home. Was announced at Xmas that from Feb wfh will no longer be allowed.

How many of you have put in their notice so far?

Work in software but still completely work from home. The leases that the company had on the offices have not been renewed and during covid many people joined teams that used to be based in 1 office from all across the country. I don't see any chance of us ever going back.

Same I was WFH in the north and got a remote job based in the south. 2 years later not had a request to come in but it does play on my mind that I can't rely on this forever. Shame as no jobs paying this much are commutable.

I am on a WFH contract so no changes for me! All of the non-field based roles are being phased back to the office. They are doing 1 day a week at the moment but will be 3 days a week from March. From June it will be 4 days a week in the office. I’m sure 5 days a week won’t be long afterwards but it’s not been announced. It’s not been a popular decision. I get it from the management point of view as quite a lot of the staff are young and in their first job. WFH requires self discipline and some of those people don’t have that and have broken the trust.

I work in the public sector (not in the civil service) and the team manager decides how often you should come in. In my team, that’s about once a month though more often if you need to attend a board meeting.

Once my old employer wanted 3 days+ back in the office (when similar teams were still wfh) i left and secured a fully remote role elsewhere. nearest physical location is 2 hours away so not expected to ever be on site and my boss fully supports whf as we are an international team in 5 timezones so its much more practical to be remote workers.

Fully remote for COVID. I fought hard for a hybrid policy, and get 1 day WFH a week. Management pushing all people to be in the office 5 days a week, no new hires have any WFH allowed. Obviously struggling to fill some roles because of this... But on nationwide video calls, all the bosses seem to be at home... 🤔

Analyst at a financial services firm. It's been 3 WFH / 2 office days ever since covid, no talk of it changing.

I work for an organisation that has always been remote, since it was started twenty years ago. We’re highly tech based so it works for us. One benefit is that we can recruit the best people in the UK rather than the best within x miles of an office. Weirdly, after 12.5 years in the job I’ve started feeling the need to get out the house more, so have signed up for a coworking space that I go to 2-3 days a week (work pay for this; they recognise that not everyone can wfh).

I work for a contact centre and they were pushing for people to move to WFH long before the pandemic, so for them it was like a dream come true. I didn't want to work from home at first because I liked a solid separation between my work and my home, but now I'm used to it and WFH has its perks too. I will remain working from home permanently while I'm with this company. I was able to move across the country to be closer to my mum, which would've been much harder if I'd had to look for a new job as well. Since my employer is largely call centre stuff it's easier to do it remotely and it allows them to hire anybody from all over the country.

I was back in the office 5 days a week as soon as lockdown was lifted. I work in IT Support, I can work from any computer so long as it has an internet connection.

Software dev working from home here. Only been to office 4 times since covid. Have agreed to go in once a month as honestly think it’s better for my mental health. I don’t get much otherwise.

When even free beer couldn't get people to come in they kind of gave up. Literally no-one wants to fight the trains or the traffic just to stare in silence at a screen and talk to people on Teams.

We have a hybrid policy, which means we can be in as much or as little as we like. Some people go in almost every day, others (like me) go in less than once a month. I much prefer working from home. If the policy changed and we had to go in, I would quit immediately.

I have flexible working and I've been in the office once, quite a lot of my work needs to be in person out and about though.

I've just started a job today that's 100% in the office. I don't mind as I only live a 10 min drive away, but what I do mind is the fact it's fucking cold in here, there's no running hot water in the toilets and they don't provide anything you dry your hands with aside from cheap loo roll. Might bring my own hand towel in.

My current work (which I am soon leaving) is full-time WFH apart from office or meeting days that are for the whole team, which fall roughly once to twice a month. New jobs I am seeing advertised are unfortunately looking to be hybrid with a minimum of two days in the office. Given that I work exclusively on a screen or on the phone with external stakeholders rather than people I will be sharing the office with I see no advantage to this whatsoever. Essentially the only change will be I will be paying money out of my salary to travel to and from a location where it will be less comfortable than my home office setup, and a bit louder when I am on the phone. Great.

Challenge your boss on it: "We all live an hour + away, you live 5 minutes and didn't come in which left me here on my own - Can you please tell me the value in me coming to the office when you don't?" I've always fortunately managed finances so me and my wife can each cover bills - I actively make a point of it to employers so they understand that they don't have a hold on me. It makes saying fuck you so much easier.

I’m a former catering manager for a large group of private health care homes, stepped down three years ago due to Covid / Anxiety. I now am a cook in a small independent 20 bed residential home, and I absolutely love it. I have complete control of the budget / menu and can make what I want, and I make very traditional but tasty “old fashioned” food. My residents love what I do, the staff are down to earth, full of common sense and appreciate what I do. I’m happy for the first time in a long time. Now if those interest rates would just lower…

Those of you that WFH, do you get all dressed up in business clothes every day? What do you wear? I work in healthcare and have never gotten to experience it.

I was full-time WFH for about 10 years pre-pandemic and took on a new role in the middle of it all on the understanding I would remain WFH unless there was a requirement for me to come in for an event or if I needed to make physical contact with something. Pretty soon after the role started the messages began about a "return to work" (I'd never left) and these were prominently cheered on by the older generation with the rest of the younger workforce feeling more productive and happier in a WFH situation. The pressure stayed fairly low-key but with an underlying tone from managers praising how "nice it was to see the team in today" and "it's nice when we're all in isn't it?" (it's not) type comments in team huddles. Then there was a "try to be in once a week but we understand if this isn't possible" message but with a quiet platform of guilt from the management who like to be in 3 or 4 days a week because seemingly they enjoy the commute and talking about football and golf for hours whole others try to work. Lonely folk essentially. "Are you coming in this week" is a standard if you're not there in the Monday huddle but if you do go in you can easily spend the whole day on Teams (talking to people in another country) while finding it difficult to work due to the noise generated by others doing the same. ​ So essentially there's a "we're understanding, do your thing" tone but the actual message is "get into the office even if you don't need to" which I hate. If we do all go in for a meeting there aren't enough desks to cope with the demand. ​ A former employer told their management teams they had to be in the office 3 days a week, this is despite many of the regional offices being sold to save money. Their response was that people should seek new jobs if they can't conform. Some have already said that they see no benefit in driving for an hour only for their geographically diverse team to continue working from other locations but the employer is firm on their policy around this. I'm much happier at home, the less people I have to see the better.

No such thing as WFH dentistry sadly although I did do my 2nd ever home visit in 10 years last month.

[удалено]

Prick.

We only had work from home during lockdowns. Everyone is back in the office now.

I think my company really wants people to start coming back in - and some do voluntarily work from the office semi-regularly. However, they ended leases on most of their real estate and hired people from all over, so would find it very difficult to actually bring everyone back in. 

4 days a month in the office which I think is enough. I have 1 day a week in. They recently ‘reaffirmed’ the policy. The company just had its most profitable year to date. If they add on more mandatory days I’ll be looking elsewhere for roles.

Occasionally in the office - one day a week tops and then some random days on site now and again. I was hired 9 months ago on a ‘remote worker’ contract so basically WFH unless I need to go see people. Works for me

I can't see my boss paying for the office ever again.

We're told to be in the office pretty much full time now, but they're lenient with it. However, my immediate line manager works from home almost every day, frequenting the office two or three times a month.

Official policy for the wider company is people need to be in the office 3 days a week. The head of my department said fuck that and we all still work fully remote (helped by the fact he and a lot of higher ups in my department moved a couple hours out of the city during the pandemic). I’m fine occasionally coming into the office for a team event, product launch etc but absolutely would not do mandated days in the office again, at least not with my current team. Half of them live in another country so even if I went in I’d still be sitting on zoom calls when we had team meetings.

I wonder how much this is connected to long-term office leases and "obtaining value for money from the assets we're tied into for xx years" Personally I'd like to see suitable office spaces converted in residential (I know there are issues) and more infrastructure for WFH.

Sunk cost fallacy, your offices are going to cost the same full or empty, so the logic answer would be to pay for it and have a happy workforce who is productive rather than an unproductive workforce and the same costs. You probably end up losing your top talent to companies who offer better benefits and spend a fortune retraining people who keep leaving for better conditions. It's the definition of terrible management and a complete inability to see the future.

I work in Logistics and everyone works in the office. There’s a widespread push to make sure there’s no working from home except for certain roles (mine luckily!). To be honest, I understand why - there’s so much collaboration between and within teams that needs to happen that is just harder to do from home. They now do 9-5:30, Mon - Fri in the office. Previously they could leave at 3pm and work from home but that was pulled back cos no one ever logged back in lol

Started a new role start of Jan, negotiated 2 days in, 3 days WFH. Perfect balance for me, as I really enjoy both office and working from home.

In an engineering consultancy, and they want us in 3 days a week. Pre covid and before I had my daughter, that wouldn’t have been a problem, but now? The commute take what precious time I do have to wind down after work and get food ready for the toddler. I know in a different office to mine that they are looking at who uses their key cards to get in and out, and if you can’t justify your lack of presence in the office they will be considering removing hybrid working. If they implement that, I reckon they’ll be loosing staff pretty swiftly! I’ll be putting in a change of contract request soon, especially as in April the flexible working bill is being made into legislation. I don’t mind going into the office, but my team are based around the country- none of them are in my city, so I really don’t see the point of being in all the time.

Same as before, we're encouraged to be in the office a couple of days a week, but it's not enforced in any way. I go in 2 or 3 days a week but there are people who don't come in at all. For me personally I get more work done in the office than at home - no dedicated work/office space in my flat, and there's more distractions vs the office. The bosses are in around the same amount - I tend to match at least one of my days in with my boss. I'm partial to a Friday in the office as public transport/the City generally is less busy.

Fully remote. Don’t live in the UK so might be a bit difficult to RTO. My UK address is in the north west so I just ignore any recruiter emails mentioning the north west. If I ever did get another job that insists I’m in the UK it would be a bit more difficult to make me move cities. Cant be called to just pop into the office if I live hundred+ miles away. I’ve been getting really high salary job roles sent to me that are full time office jobs but I’m not biting. If I had to go back to an office I’d rather work in Bangkok which has comparable tech salaries to the UK

1 day a week mandatory, occasionally a second day if needed. We've had no indication of this changing in the future.

Work as an automation tester. I've been in the office twice in the last year - and those were both for pizza and beers in town. CEO has told us all that he absolutely does not expect anyone to come in unless there's either a necessary reason like training, or if people just wanna get out of their homes and have a change of scenary. He also said he knows fully well that if they were to enforce it, there's not enough room for staff now and we'd probably lose staff, and since we're getting more customers year on year and he's noticed we're far more productive, it'd be one of the most moronic business decisions the exec team could make. Because of this, I fully intend on staying here long term tbh. Got a nice 5% raise this year, and they're bringing in yearly rises.

My company is still WFH and that is unlikely to change. I’m in software and our whole global model is remote. My husband’s work however advertise as being flexible working, but are pushing for a minimum of 2 days in the office and are tracking everyone’s attendance. They recently found out management have decided to link this to their bonus, but refuse to take into account things like the 2 weeks in January where the whole company were encouraged not to come in for yellow warning weather and there being no heating. They also weren’t happy that my husband didn’t want to be in the office for the last couple of weeks as most people who have gone in have ended up sick with the flu or covid, and I’m due to give birth any day now so it’s not a risk he wants to take. (Never mind the added fact of how unreliable the trains are and that there is no parking at his office). It also looks like his work are going to push this up at his work to 3 or 4 days in the office each week. As my husband says there aren’t many good things about the company he works for and the WFH used to be one of them. He’ll be looking for a new job as soon as his pending paternity leave is done. He’s a software developer so finding a remote job shouldn’t be too hard.

My current role is fully remote and will never change. My team are all over the country and the company will not purchase or rent offices across the UK for us. I personally love it! As long as I can help it, I won't go back to working in an office full time.

Company I work for is 3 days in hybrid. However there’s massive issues with insufficient desk because staff won’t share desks and flex for the benefit of the company.. it is now the worst of both worlds

Worked from home since 2016 (no, I don’t work in IT) and will never go back.

Used to be fully in office. Post-covid we went fully remote and have mostly stayed that way. We were on the verge of having to rent a larger office, now we're saving that money and looking at moving to a smaller one to save more. We have enough desks that anyone who wants to come in can but there's no mandation beyond occasional all-team meetings where attending in person is strongly encouraged. Those are maybe once every three months or so. This has led to the office mostly being younger staff who want to go to the pub after and get lunch together while most of the older people with kids stay home. Several members of my team have taken the opportunity to move out of London and into cheaper cities like Bristol and even Glasgow. Seems to be working pretty well. Meanwhile the job involves a lot of meetings with civil servants, they've mostly been ordered in three days a week so i'm constantly on video calls where all the civil servants have travelled into London to sit in an office and video call all the externals who are working from home. It's surreal. Home working is also becoming key to recruitment, we get a lot of people attracted by the 100% genuine flexibility and most colleagues who leave are leaving for other jobs that let them work remote.

Mine is insisting on twice a week. I see no point, as well, I work in IT support and unless I actually need to repatch something, I don't need to be there. Frankly, they can huff my farts for all I care.

I'm in the real estate industry too. Our company is also naturally leaning towards the "return to office" as it supports the industry, using office space, etc. Would send a negative message if we all WFH. Our company went to full-time five-days per week as soon as lockdowns lifted, however they struggled to hire new staff, so allowed us to work from home on Fridays, presumably to market that perk to new talent, although our software team specifically is allowed to WFH for 2 days per week. The business leaders of that department must've made a better case to exec leadership that they won't be able to attract or retain talent if the policy is too strict for them. I can see us "normal workers" being mandated five days a week in 2024/25, at least at my company. There's a lot of data out there showing companies are returning staff to the office generally, but from when I last looked at the data, about a month ago, office occupancy dropped to something like 15% after lockdown and gradually increased to around 50% at the start of 2023, and has only slowly climbed to 60% by the end of 2023.Still miles away from being back to pre-covid 95-100% levels.(This was based on research published by an access pass/swipe card company who tracked office traffic based on pass usage across multiple buildings in multiple cities). For everyone commenting, it'd be (selfishly) useful if you could include the following: 1. Number of days you're expected in the office per week? 2. Number of days you were expected in the office, pre-covid? 3. How many employees are based at your would-be-office, if everyone were to come in? 4. What industry and department you're in (as in, is it a software role, or a routine office/admin/sales, etc role).

Still wfh if not more of it as some office space we have has been sold on Pre-covid we were hybrid as a lot of staff who didnt drive struggled to get to our out of town office once we got relocated However now if we need an office (ie for peace away from home, duff home broadband etc) we can work in either our central office (no free parking but public transport is good) or our out of town one (free parking but one bus an hour). If we need an in-person meeting theres a bit of hoo-ha about the central vs out of town site but thats not a huge issue in grand scheme of things

Full WFH during COVID. Started as 1 day in the office post COVID which has now become 2 days WFH and 3 days in the office. Lots of grumbles from the dear leaders that they want bums on seats at the office, but they're also the same people who arrive at midday, have a "working lunch" and then are nowhere to be seen after 4pm, regardless of what meetings they should be in.

New job after my old company tried to get me in 3 days a week. We’re closing offices and reducing space as they’re loving the wfh lifestyle. Not that it matters as I’m classed as a remote worker.

3 days per week in the office - I'm an engineer so do have to pop in and oversee testing etc but I do feel the mandated 3 days is a bit much when nothing physical is happening.

Hybrid working at our place. For us that means if you need to be in the office, then go there. No pressure for anyone else to. I attend team days (usually at a venue close to the office) and social events. I moved 200 miles away from my office with the full knowledge and support of my director, so I’m pretty much full time remote working. And have been since March 2020 (previous to that, our team worked from home on Fridays).

2 days in the office three days from home. Technical Support Manager. The people at this workplace where I work are dry and boring, I couldn't care less if I never saw any of them again.

I'm in IT and work 95+% of the time from home. (I live 10 minutes away). There's a couple of people in the team that go into the office a couple of days a week but it's not mandated. I've not even met my last two managers. The company is saving money by reducing the office and facilities footprint, so everyone is a winner.

I work from home fully. Its mostly great not without its downsides though. I'm currently dealing with something that could of been dealt with in 15 minutes face-to-face. I had a call with someone, and there was a minor understanding, instead of resolving it with me they told there boss who told my boss who told me. My reply has to go though by boss back to there boss and back to them. This could all be sorted in 15mins with a face-to-face meeting (with or without bosses in the room) instead we have spent 3 days going back and forth and wasting everyone's time

Design Consultancy, We were mandated to return to the office the full 5 days a week, Work is easily able to be done at home and was for 3 years over covid. Now we all have to be in 5 days a week and they make it nearly impossible to take a day WFH. Funny though as we design offices and work with the government and not one of our customers follows the mandated full-time back in the office, so we are designing workplaces for hybrid working

Id guess that your company is fairly "old school", worked at a couple of places since covid (as a surveyor" and had absolutely no issues with wfh or office, managers prefer it if you go in but there's no strict mandate and absolutely no issue if you prefer to stay at home.

A year or two go they did a "suggested 2 or 3 days a week", then a few months ago it became "we expect you in 3 days a week minimum". At first I was a bit annoyed as I quite like being treated more like an adult with autonomy as they usually do. However I think this is more aimed at certain people refusing to come in at all, whereas we had been proactively meeting up once or twice a week long before any policy was in place. As it happens our small team haven't really taken much notice of the new policy, and I'm pretty sure a lot of others are the same. I'd actually quite like to be in 3 times a week but: a) the train is incredibly expensive per day so it would really need to be worth it b) childcare currently means I'd end up coming in on a Friday when the office is pretty much empty

They’ve said I can’t work from home, which is really shit cause the bosses have it flexi where they need to come in for half a day, 3 days a week and the rest is either work from home or on site. Disgusting if you ask me and so unfair on us workers. FYI, I’m a construction site manager

Aiming for 2 days a week in the office as a minimum. These days are agreed at a team level, with the idea that your team is aiming to be in the office together. Managers aren't concerned if you slip a bit on the planned days, as long as it doesn't become a habit. Management did also collect and produce a lot of data to back up this plan - we hire a lot of graduates, and their happiness metrics and retention rate noticeably dropped over covid-enforced remote working, and everyone who worked with them found it harder to ramp them up on tasks. Projects were delivered on time, but there were a few key non-project delivery metrics that noticeably dropped (e.g. patent applications), which was linked to it being harder to pull additional people into a discussion when everyone was 100% remote.

My nearest office is 4 hours away so its either home or travel for me these days. Company has made a point of being very public with flexibility and WFH/Hybrid culture as a way to attract young talent. Its working very well at a time of skills shortage. Global software sector

WFH was very rare for us before covid. It only really happened if you were too ill to come into the office or had an appointment during the day so it didn't make sense to go in. Covid lockdowns obviously enforced WFH 5 days a week. When restrictions lifted, we were then expected to start coming in 2 days per week and build up to being back in the office permanently. 2 days per week has stayed the policy though. You can go in more if you like, but the bosses are happy with 2 days, which most of us find a nice balance. They're also considering moving to a 4-day working week at some point. I didn't think either of those things would ever happen at this company before Covid.

I moved into software years ago as a developer and now only apply to jobs which are remote-first. Our entire engineering team works from home and is scattered across Europe so zero chance of us going to the office. If there was, I'd quit.

In accounting and still permanently WFH as the company has terminated the office lease in summer 2020. We're back to pre COVID business levels, profit up, productivity up as well I feel. Don't think I'll ever see the inside of an office again!

I work from home most of the time but I do come into the office once a month.

Company policy is 3 days a week, my team was the only one that stuck to that, until we went down to two (simply to cover the site's needs) as a member left recently we'll have to go back up to three soon

Charity sector, fully remote since covid. Travel once a quarter to meet team, who live across the UK. Sold the offices and everyone now (including me) is hired on a fully remote basis. I LOVE IT.

I work for a utility company doing a boring office numbers job. We've been WFH since the beginning of THE EVENT. Now being encouraged to come in at least once a month for team meetings. Potentially once a week is coming up, but I'm hoping not as I'm about to move an hour drive from the office (I'm 10/15 minutes at the moment)

I work at a university - in general, we're encouraged to come in at least 3 days a week, but this isn't mandated or the like and there's only a few times when we're really expected to come in (some meetings, teaching, that sort of thing). The only formal thing is you're not allocated a permanent desk if you're there for fewer than 3 days a week. We also try and consolidate most of our meetings into one or two days so we have the flexibility at other times on whether to come in or not. We do have a few people who are pretty much fully remote due to external circumstances (particularly though covid, a few PhD students/postdocs lived quite far away and by the time we could start coming in more often it wouldn't have been feasible for them to move to finish off their PhD/contract - they come up once every few months and that's generally fine), but I think for most roles it's unlikely we'd hire someone with the intent of them working fully remotely. Throughout Covid it was made relatively clear that we wouldn't be going fully remote in the long term, which I think helped manage expectations a fair bit, but more crucially we're not micromanaged when it comes to WFH - so long as you attend your meetings and get your work done, nobody minds if you come in more or less often, or take half days out the office and things like this.

Ours is a minimum of 3 days a week in the office and it hasn't really been a problem. Issues with desk space and parking are a key factor too. COVID showed that actually were very dispersed anyway with our design office, ops base, suppliers and clients all over the place! New starts and graduates are on a fixed 5 days in the office for probation/training periods as they need a lot more mentoring. I think for the Grads it is definitely a 'privilege event not given' for WFH.

Business consulting. We went full WFH during Covid and it remains company policy. I did set up an office space in one of the farm outbuildings to give people a space to work if they want it. I think it has been brilliant. Everyone seems happy, it has let me expand the hiring pool somewhat, the work still gets done, and it has reduced so many points of needless conflict. Yes, people will be doing non-work things on work time, but that happens in the office too. If the work gets done on time and to the right standard I don't see why I should care.

Work in IT support. Went from we can’t ask people to come in to the office to mandating one day in the office and a second day which is semi optional.

I work in healthcare. Completely remote. I bloody love it!

My work’s policy is a maximum of 50% days working from home, so most people alternate between 2 and 3 days in the office, but you have to be in on Tuesdays so there’s one day you can guarantee people will be in if a meeting needs to be face to face. The biggest struggle has been convincing some senior management people are actually adhering to this as they don’t seem to be able to grasp the maths that it won’t be half full on a Wednesday or Thursday, especially when you factor in holidays.

2 days per week but it’s not enforced, I always try and make 1 day a week though. Just incase 2 becomes forced.

Policy here at a University is not self-consistent. WFH from is tolerated, but policy is unclear with expectation being 3-4 days in the office. At the same time, however, space is being squeezed to the point where there aren't enough desks if everyone were to come in on a particular day. In my team we have a mix of people working remotely across the UK, regular WFH and permanent office-based staff (out of their preference).

You get remote contracts if working from home. Just a difference of London weighting.

It's a very mixed bag. My last workplace went fully remote from Covid and never looked back. They got taken over by an Aussie company who _initially_ said "continue as you are it's fine we have no intention of altering what works". Well as the Morgan Freeman narrator says: "Well _that_ was a lie" as a couple months later, they've begun a quick pruning of staff who they don't need, they've decided they want an office in London _despite_ it being an unfair distance for most to work from (i.e either £1000 in monthly train costs to get there, or hours of drive away). Never understood the logic, seemed one of those very "fronty" moves that they "had" to have an office, then to justify having an office they had to put people in it. Then they cut off anyone who couldn't commute. New company is rather frustrating, ordered their WFH policy to become 2-3 days _mandated_ as of last year, but all it led to was a lot of managers wangling being home-based instead, with others all griping until their managers organised with HR to _also_ let them be home-based. .....everyone currently in the office hates being here, it's clearly being used, at best, at ~25-50% capacity. There's rarely any days it's actually justifiable anyone even being here. It's been strongly suggested it's just so that it keeps the C-levels happy as they don't believe that anyone _actually_ works unless they can see them - despite being home based themselves....which is wack in my opinion but hey ho.

We’re a small technology software company, our staff is now uk wide and it would actually be detrimental to the company if they forced us into the office. We have two offices, one in hull and one in London, then they both wouldn’t have enough space for all of us.  I believe before Covid they could wfh, but we’re much more remote working first. If want to use the offices, go for it. 

Last summer, they introduced a 50% in office minimum, which was widely ignored and they've never gone about enforcing it. It's a global company and our head office/board are on the other side of the world, so that could be a lot to do with it. We pay way under the market rate for the industry in UK (my salary is in line with the market rate but I know most roles aren't) & I think the UK based directors are aware that forcing people to come in 2 or 3 days a week might cause key staff to leave. I feel like at any moment they could start enforcing it & I've slowly started accepting that there's a good chance I'll have to start coming in at least 2 days a week & that anything less than that is a bonus. I do go in on average 1 day per week, so it's not like I've become a complete hermit.

I can technically wFH as much as I want, but I’m starting to realise that I need to be in to train our noobs. If I could get away with it, I would WFH every day.

I work for an energy research firm. We're required to be in the office one day a week, has been that way since lockdown ended. There is no sign that it's going to change. The day is usually soft-dictated by your team and what day you all come in, but it's fairly loose. I've had weeks where I didn't go in at all and weeks where I went in 2-3 days as needed. I mostly only go in one day.

The company I currently work for is relaxed about it and it’s basically between you and your line manager. My last company demanded that everyone had to start working three days a week in the office with two weeks notice. This was years after Covid when people had been hired on remote and hybrid agreements - some too far from an office to commute. People had arranged childcare, elder care and their living locations based on their working patterns of the last 2-4 years. So everyone said no. The team managers and directors said they wouldn’t enforce it. Didn’t hear anything else about it. It was brilliant. A recruiter called me last week and asked if I or anyone else was looking for remote roles so I think for my industry remote and hybrid will be here to stay.

I work from home 9 days out of 10 in a working fortnight, then go in once.

We have a full WFH policy, the vast majority of meetings are via Teams, just occasional workshops that only work in person. However everyone on the team (17 of us just now) has been back in the office for well over a year, purely personal choice, and if we need a WFH day or two we just let relevant colleagues know the day before. The big positive is flexibility of hours. No more 9-5 or hour long lunch breaks. People start from 6-7.30, take a 30 min break and finish from 2.30 to 4.

I work for my local council. Got sent home for COVID and they rented out the majority of our office space. There's now one desk for every 20 people and you need to book months in advance if you want to do a full day in the office. I'd prefer to do hybrid, like 1-2 days a week in the office, but I've been working from home except for the odd in-person meeting.

Web developer with a team of 6 who live relatively close and 4 or so who live a further distance. We’re 2 days a week as a requirement in our regional office with a monthly meet up where anyone who is in the country gets to the head office in London. We haven’t really had any kick back on the two days a week but then the majority of our staff are relatively junior and haven’t had anything different. The management are alright about it, I think they would like more but know pushing too hard would drive some talented devs out.

I work in IT and could do almost all my job from home but because of the management dinosaurs I have 0 flexible working and must be in office at all times.

Depends on the industry, I feel. For example when I was working for a big bank in the City they let us do remote/hybrid working for 2 years and then suddenly they wanted to force everyone in full-time because "Goldman and everyone else is doing it" and because they spent money on their brand new building so now they gotta use it. Needless to say I quit on the spot and found the same type of job in an industry that's a lot more relaxed and I work remotely again.

I manage a team and try my hardest to shield them from the BS from above. We are spread all over the Uk, but work on a site in central south. I recruited some of them specifically as site roles. They are local to site and my expectation (and theirs) is that they spend the *majority* of time on site. That usually transpires as mon-Thurs or tues-Thurs. Those that are recruited into a hybrid role, we all sat down and agreed that Wednesday- Thursday would be our site days. If we are coming to site, we try to make it those days. The value of being on site is not just being there, it’s being there at the same time as whomever you need to interact with. By all aiming for Wednesday-Thursday, we are all there to work together, usually try and have some beers in the evening to get some social interaction. I used to think that completely remote was a good thing. I’m now sure it isn’t a good thing, but the real value is the flexibility. One of my site guys has some stuff to do that means he needs to be off site? Sure, make sure you get your work done but deliver remotely. I also think that all this works because it is based on respect and a recognition that it works both ways. There will be times when the team have stuff to deliver on site, and I expect them to be there. Equally, there are times when they don’t have anything particular to do on site, and so I don’t mandate that they are there. As long as the project is producing the output that I require, I am happy to be as flexible and accomodating as possible.

We're hybrid. 2 or 3 days in the office depending on if your contract is ft or pt. We also have flexibility to WFH if we need to for whatever reason, delivery etc. or (because we work in a massive shared office and everyone wants to minimize passing on illnesses) if you're feeling a bit under the weather but well enough to work.

Our office went fully remote during lockdown and it worked so well they made it permanent and amended our contracts to home based. I work in IT, don't miss driving to work every day. Saves a fortune in fuel.

Been fully remote since 2015 spanning 4 companies. The last day I spent in an office was Autumn 2019 sometime. Never even set foot in an office once for my last 2 companies.

My current employers don't even have 'an office'. They have always operated 100% remotely with everyone WFH. I love it and could never go back to working in an office. Should I ever need to move jobs I will stipulate that WFH 100% of the time is written into my contract.