Standing my ground on going back to the office
I guess this is a correct community to post about this? If not let me know.
My company finally is asking politely that we have to go to the office twice a week. Or else. That else is not yet defined, but obviously there will be consequences of not going to the office.
I have been at this company for 15 years, from junior dev to manager.
I did a daily commute of about 40 mins in the morning, 40 to an hour back, never gave a second thought about that. That was normal.
After pandemics, I found out all I have been missing on my kids growing up. My second kid is much more attached to me since she saw me daily, even if I was in my office room at home, she got to see me more often.
So I found out how much my life improved by doing working at home. Hell in the middle of this sentence my kid just showed me some thing she drew.
I stood my ground, I basically politely told HR that I am not going back. And actually my reasons make sense, I work with people in other countries, they don't care where I am.
And it will affect my performance, driving to the office, moving all my equipment, and having people around trying to talk to me will take a toll.
So yeah, I am polishing my resume, because there is no turning back now. I will be shunted if I ask for a raise, they can easily say "hey but you are not coming to the office, how come you want a raise if you are not part of the team", never mind that I do everything that is expected and more.
Just off my chest I guess, and anxious about the future.
Once it is clearly proven you can work remotely, a commute to the office should be viewed as a site visit with the travel time being on the clock and travel costs reimbursed. If they do that, then yeah sure I'll listen to podcasts for an hour a day, anything else should be looked at as the pay cut it actually is. ((Travel time x hourly wage)+travel costs).
Yeah I thought about this, we (or I) never considered all the time wasted in commute.
In that case I should leave at 9 am, and return around 4:20 since I make 40 mins commute.
Either that or get paid the extra time, which honestly I don't think it's going to happen.
Or compensate it yourself. I have to come in the office twice a week, but I have to meet actual customers, so that's fair. However, friday afternoon drinks start at 3 (until 8 or 9 usually), so that hansomly compensates for my 1 hour to and 1 hour back for that day. The other day's commute I'll compensate by starting late when I work from home. My employer doesn't care about my hours as long as the work gets done.
This, for me, it’s essentially as good as it gets in the current landscape.