We had an "employee information session" this week at work, to discuss the new rules for working from home. And it didn't go well. Basically, our company now has 2 policies. The first, as they made abundantly clear, is unchanged in that we are allowed to work from home for up to 3 days a week. The second policy, the new one, is that we have to be in the office for 3 days a week for what they are terming "collaboration days". And they said that these policies are complementary. Ermmm, no they are not - in fact they are the polar opposite of complementary, they are contradictory. One says we are allowed to WFH for 3 days a week, the other says we are only allowed to WFH for 2 days a week. It's farcical. What else did I pick up from this meeting? Well it was interesting that there wasn't a single mention of COVID, despite its continuing presence (and risk) and despite it being the cause of all these new flexible work procedures. It feels like - once again - these are the kind of decisions being made by people with offices, with little to no consideration of the increased risk and inconvenience for those of us in cubicles. I could perform my role 100% remotely - I shouldn't be required to go into the office at all. Even if I'm not a fully remote employee, most of the people I work with are based in California - so I have no necessity to go into the office. Basically, one rule for all DOES NOT WORK. And the core collaboration days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - which guarantees that everyone who doesn't have to go into the office every day will only come in on those days and not Monday and Friday. I don't even know whether we have enough spaces in the garage when everyone is there, but conversely Monday and Friday will be absolutely dead in the office. Ironically, if it wasn't for the free lunches on Tuesday and Thursday then Monday and Friday would be my preferred days for going into the office. If I have to go in at all...
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