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Employer changing the boundaries

NAS75504

The office I work at started operating an ‘agile’ working policy last month, whereby employees work a couple of pre-agreed days in the office, a couple at home. Working only a 4-day week means I only need to go in on Thursday. Though as you can imagine, after working from home since March 2020, this transition was tough for me, but I’ve started to get used it. But now things appear to have changed...

When agile working was first floated, my boss at the time said it would be very flexible, and even though it was important to show your face now and again, you could work some weeks solely from home if you needed to focus on a particularly demanding or time-precious job. One such job has just appeared in my schedule for Thursday. But after asking my current boss (the boss of my previous boss, who’s since left), he says I have to come in the office, stipulating that I must attend at least one day a week, no exceptions. Though I don’t like switching my Thursday routine, I would do it, but it’s now Wednesday and I don’t work Friday!

 I’ve tried to make the case that working in the office on this particular job would be harder and probably result in a poor result, because of the noise and distractions. He knows about my diagnosis, so why is he suddenly being so inflexible? Is there anything I can say or do about it? It’s not just the immediate situation I’m concerned about, it’s the ongoing uncertainty and inflexibility.

Sorry about the length of the post! Any advice welcome. By the way, I’m a copywriter at an advertising agency - probably why it’s so wordy :-)

Parents

  • I would arrange for a meeting to discuss your concerns and added key points regarding reliability, accountability and negotiations. I don't mind renegotiating but it's difficult for anyone to do a good job if the company is going to create a disabling situation and do it on little notice. Are they changing the standard of operation/expectation? 

    They can't have it both ways. You may need to bring up analogies such as, "can you do your job in a child care facility? Could you do it in the middle of a building site? On a dance floor? Whatever you could do well in these situations, that's what you can expect from me." Explain that you're happy to show up for camaraderie. But not for a focused day delivering product.

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  • I would arrange for a meeting to discuss your concerns and added key points regarding reliability, accountability and negotiations. I don't mind renegotiating but it's difficult for anyone to do a good job if the company is going to create a disabling situation and do it on little notice. Are they changing the standard of operation/expectation? 

    They can't have it both ways. You may need to bring up analogies such as, "can you do your job in a child care facility? Could you do it in the middle of a building site? On a dance floor? Whatever you could do well in these situations, that's what you can expect from me." Explain that you're happy to show up for camaraderie. But not for a focused day delivering product.

Children