WFH job status update thread

[Velar Fricative]

Now that my job has been sharing more detailed updates regarding shifting back to the office, I'm curious what the landscape looks like for everyone else. You can share about yourself and/or your partner (and anyone else with an interesting case lol). Please avoid child-related mentions here (school talk as it pertains to staff requirements is fine).

DH's is easy since he's a teacher. He's been back in the building about half the year. There are a lot of teachers with medical accommodations so he's not sure yet how they're going to handle that next year. He expects a more normal return to work will push a lot of teachers to retire, as there is unlikely to be a remote option for learning after this year (unless offered through the state or something). He's not sure yet whether central DOE staff will be required to report back onsite full-time - his brother would be one such worker but he doesn't have updates yet.

For me, I've been able to return to the office since June 29th and do go there to work as much as I can, which ends up being maybe once a week when averaged over the last 10ish months. I can do about 95% of my job from home, I just hate it so much. We have a workforce of about 2500 staff spread throughout most of the city, with some that really do have to be on-site full-time while others can WFH 100% of the time. But leadership has talked about perceived inequities (staff who could do more of their jobs from home make more money, work more consistent hours and are not as diverse as front-facing staff) so they've informed everyone that the expectation after June 30th is that everyone will report back on-site full-time if distancing mandates are dropped; if not, everyone shows up as often as possible. If anyone requires some kind of flexible scheduling accommodation, that is still possible and likely to be granted unless terribly unreasonable. 

Basically, we are both happy to get back to working outside of the house full-time. 

Neither of our employers intends to mandate vaccinations. HR did share that a majority of our workforce is now partially vaccinated, but we don't have breakdowns regarding site locations (I know most of the regional staff I oversee is vaccinated as they've been open about it). The DOE's overall number look good but DH believes they're on the low end in his school and in our borough, sigh.  

[macmars45]

The company my H works for went fully remote. Eventually they'll meet quarterly or something similar but there is no start date for that.

[breezy8407]

I am still WFH full time. There has been some rumblings of returning June 1, but they have no plan in place. I've mentioned this before, but mask wearing is not 100% compliant by some departments on the same floor. I see them in video conferences, not wearing masks. There have also been people test positive in the office, so yeah. I am not jumping to go back. I am thinking they will still allow for some flexibility, since we were always allowed to WFH occasionally pre-Covid.

H is a teacher and has been back full time in person since February.

[Poppy]

Office of 7 + 1 who has been remote since being hired. Only the remote guy has declined the vax.

My boss asked us all what we'd like, and hasn't made an official policy yet, but seems like he will ask for minimum one day per week all in the office. Which is going to be a pain technology-wise. I'd much rather be all remote. We'll see what he officially decides.

[laurack]

HR just sent an email saying they want everyone in five days a week by June 7th. Kind of abrupt! There is a buzz of discontent now. I suspect some may begin or pick up the pace on job hunting efforts.

I’ve been back half-time for months and sent my manager an email saying I’d prefer to retain some flexibility with 1-2 days per week of working from home. They have no cause for concern with this as I am not customer facing (I am a software developer), I have performed well throughout the pandemic and I received an exceeds expectations annual review. If my request for 1-2x week wfh is denied it’s possible I’ll start brushing up my resume as I feel they are being unreasonable in their rigidity.

[ssmjlm]

Our FT WFH exception expires June 30 and basically everyone has said it won't be extended. It's not great timing wise, but I'm betting no one looked at a calendar. It's the middle of the pay period and when a lot of people take vacation.

That said, my boss can approve up to 3 days a week and we currently have construction both getting onto post and the bridge for the main entrance, so he is thinking 3 days a week for all through the end of August. Then start looking at actual telework schedules September 1.

My plan is 2x a week WFH once we return. I think it will be a good balance for me.

DH will be FT WFH until at least end of August when his boss said she would "reassess" because that's what the company says she has to do. He's offered to do hybrid and go in 1x a week.

[kershnic]

I’ve been 2 days in person and 3 at home since last June. Rumor is we go back to 3 days in person in June and FT in person likely sometime later in summer. But it largely depends on what the state does with telehealth rules... I love WFH and am going to be sad to see it go.

DW is currently 1.5 days/week in office on a college campus. They’re letting people ease back in for June and July with everyone FT in person by August 1.

[rupertpenny]

I've also been back in the office since last summer, I was able to come back because I work with physical materials. The majority of people in the library have been fully remote but will be allowed to start coming back over the summer with the expectation that everyone will be back by September.

H's law firm is still 100% remote and will remain so until September at least. I honestly think the partners just want to live at their vacation homes all summer, there isn't any reason they couldn't at least let people make the choice to return to the office.

[pixy0stix]

Still WFH, but managers are supposed to be finalizing a hybrid plan by the end of this month.

[picksthemusic]

DH's office will be relocated to a smaller location and they will be back in the office on a rotational basis for now. He only goes twice a month as it is, and it's only for things he can't do from home, like set up people's computers and equipment.

[raangoli]

I am still home as is MH - he got the notification that return is in September, after Labor Day. I am allowed to volunteer my vax status and if capacity allows, I can go in starting mid-June. Otherwise its strongly indicated that the return will be in September, depending on where we are with cases per 100k.

[StrawberryBlondie]

I'm still WFH full time and will be for the foreseeable future. My office is starting to bring back vaccinated volunteers in really small numbers (apparently they aren't going to require the vaccine generally but are if you're wanting to go back "early").

As far as a plan to return everyone, it's really up in the air, but we're eventually going to shift to a hybrid WFH/office style for basically everyone. I think the plan is that when they start bringing people back, it'll be a relatively small percentage employees at a time, very gradually, and those people will do a combo of WFH and office. Pre-covid I worked from home usually twice a week and post-covid I think most weeks I'll probably be home 3-4 days and in the office 1-2 days.

I don't know what to think, TBH. I'm vaccinated, so I'm not super concerned about getting covid at work, but at the same time, there's like 6,000 people in my building and we predominantly work in cubicles. Also, I really don't want to have to mask all day to sit at cubicle to do the exact same work I could do mask free in my basement.

Plus conference rooms... I have a lot of meetings and most of our conference rooms are designed to fit like 8 people pre-covid.

[tealblue]

My global company has had all people WFH who are able (we have several factories who obviously work in person). My job is 100% able to be done from home, so I have not been in the office since Mar 2020.

They have globally released that we will be a hybrid company but no guidance from my group on what that will look like for us. My boss and most of my team are overseas anyway, so me in an office is no different than me at home for the Most part. I will likely work in the office 1 day a week (if it’s up to me) depending on meetings, etc. just to get out and see new faces. I don’t think my manager will have any issues since we are already an ocean away.

[lilypad1126]

I changed jobs a couple months ago to a fully remote position with (eventually) lots of travel. Our travel won't resume until at least September, but for my position/team, more likely October. And, because I'll be traveling to college campuses, this will be dependant less on my own company and more on what my colleges decide to do.

My H is semi-retired, and has worked from home as a consultant since 2010. No change for him.

[secretagent]

I've been mostly in my office since early last summer. I work for a university in a unit that has a significant on campus presence due to the hands on nature of the curriculum and reopened in a socially distanced manner as soon as the heaviest restrictions ended locally. I WFH 1 day most weeks but it's kind of frowned upon. I WFH whenever I have more than 4 hrs of remote meetings, and no one has argued this with me so far. To be honest while the drive is annoying traffic is still light and I very much prefer being in my office. Ideally, I would WFH 40%.  Vaccines are currently mandated for students for the fall but not for faculty or staff. We are being asked to submit vaccination records (employees) though so I think that may change.

My spouse is still fully remote but goes to "work" 1-2x a month to get out. There are rumblings about going back hybrid, we think for fall, and expect it will be mandated for most roles.

[eddy]

H and I work for the same department at a university. Professional level, healthcare students.

We have been back in person since last June. Everything is very hands on. Obviously with healthcare it wasn't an option for our students to totally learn online. So in turn employees have been here as well, which goes along with healthcare in general.

It has been hard to adjust, but now it is no big deal. And I am grateful to have all of that behind me. I am glad I am no longer going through transition. 

[formerlyak]

I’ve been wfh for the past four years. I’m in the process of making a lateral move to a position that is traditionally on campus (higher Ed) but they e agreed to allow me to continue to wfh. I am not student facing; I’m alumni/donor facing, so really no need to be on campus.

DH works in national security so he cannot wfh and has been going in this whole time.

My university will require vaccines. DH’s company will not.

[holly116]

We've been notified that we're all expected back on 8/2 with officers going back earlier, starting in June.

There's a lot of worry within my team. Our roles are very meeting based, and if we're going to continue meetings over MS Teams to avoid conference rooms, and not everyone will be vaccinated and we're all masked, then why are we even going in? It would be much easier for us to all remain remote, having teams meetings unmasked at home. Our divisional management has followed up in recent communications stating that a hybrid model will be tested through the end of the year. It's all changing so quickly, I'm not going to think much about it till it actually happens. We can absolutely do our jobs from home, but my employer is a very visible presence in our city with a LOT of real estate. They will bring us all back eventually, no question.  I think some on my team are holding out for permanent WFH and that's not a realistic hope in my opinion.  So we'll see. 

I also have one coworker that's trying a very troublesome strategy of telling everyone that she's not getting vaccinated and will expose us all unless she's able to WFH, so there's that.  I don't think that's going to end well for her.  Our boss is VERY pro vaccine and very risk adverse, so she's freaking out about being around unvaccinated people at all, even while fully vaccinated.  

DH went back to the office as soon as he was fully vaccinated. He manages engineers and most never WFH through the worst of it, and, most got Covid. Those that were still WFH got notice on a Thursday a few weeks back that they were expected to be back in the office the next Monday. The company qualified for vaccines very early on and felt that everyone had been given ample opportunity to get one and that was that. DH has one employee that refused to get vaccinated that is currently out of the office with a fever. He has to test negative to come back and they're going to make him use PTO/STD for the quarantine if he's positive. I'm not sure if that's the right strategy, I could see people just not being forthcoming with their potential exposure/symptoms in the future if they believe they'll have to take PTO. It's a company with a relatively small US operation and their HR decisions are pretty much at the whim of the company president = not ideal.

[eponinepontmercy]

Our return to the office date got pushed to no earlier than 9/1. I think the plan is still a staggered return, starting with people whose work requires them to be there. We were also asked to send in any requests for a more permanent WFH split if we wanted, and I asked for two days in the office and three days at home.

To complicate things, my company is moving to a building on our larger corporate campus so we need to coordinate that, too. I have to go into the office next week to pack up my stuff.

[hocus2]

I was WAH before COVID but DH's company has some folks back in and will continue to add more back in. DH is not looking forward to it but I think it will start as part time this summer with possibly more full time in fall. I do wonder they consider a different floor layout though. The one time I saw the office it seems like an airborne virus could move easily around. That is likely true in many more open set up offices.

Cases are falling quickly here which makes me feel better about it. We're both vaccinated but I still wasn't feel great even 2-3 weeks back.

[wawa]

I've been full time remote this whole time. I've been back to the office two times in the past year to pick up stuff I left, and borrow field equipment. We're making plans now for a partial return in September under the assumption that things will be approaching normal by then (@ i.e. schools being back in session full time). Company ownership has been LOVING working remotely, so based on that and the results of a company survey that 85% of us want to keep working from home at least part time, we're looking at doing some sort of partial WFH schedule details currently being worked out on an office by office or department by department basis. I'm planning on a 2/3 schedule with my team - aiming for one day a week where we're all in the office. Right now my boss and her two counterparts for our other local departments are figuring out what the heck this might look like with hoteling - do you have to reserve a desk? is there just a set schedule? What about if there's a department meeting and everybody comes in at once? no clue right now on those logistics - but leadership does not seem to intend to maintain our office space the way it used to be with a one to one desk to person ratio. But we're also the headquarters office, with by far the most humans assigned to it so I thnk it'll play out differently with us than it will with say, our closest office which had been renting dedicated space in a we-work type facility and currently is using the office head's home address as the mailing address for the office. (I really hope they go back to having a central space though - I worked out of that office a few times a month and liked it there) Once distancing is not a thing I expect we'll keep a partial WFH expectation as a default if it works ok in the fall. It'll be expensive though because we're all spoiled with our full docking workstations at home, and nobody is going to want to not have their double screens and real keyboards in the office.


H on the other hand has been full time in the office since the first hint of opening up from lockdown happened for absolutely bullshit reasons. When the state tells them they don't have to wear masks indoors, they'll likely asking employees to wear masks indoors. Half his team, including him, has had covid already. It sucks, but he likes the job so....

amusingly, we're in the same industry and both work for local companies. The differences are entirely due to the mind set of the owners.

[Scout'sHonor]

Still completely WFH and no idea on when that will change. Gov building currently capped at 10% occupancy and the lab and animal people are pretty much the only ones there. I think I'll even be one of the last to go back. H is going to start doing a few days a week in office now that he and his team are vaccinated.

[juliej]

I'm self-employed and worked from home before COVID, so I will continue doing that. Although I've got some workspace needs that might involve me moving into an office space I rent, but it would be me, my husband, and maybe a couple of friends that do similar things.

Speaking of my husband - he works for a global telecom that rhymes with Schmerizon, and they're not going back any time soon (remote since last March). They gave up the lease on their office space in Denver and will probably move to a smaller come-and-go space so execs have offices and conference rooms or whatever and people who want to come in have hot desks to sit at; they might end up as an anchor tenant at a co-working space or something. But my husband is also on the hunt for a new job, so his situation could change soon (although he's a software engineer so most of the jobs, even local ones, are remote).

[mskitkat]

Still completely remote, but customer visits are slowly creeping in. I’m in sales, so this is expected. I rushed to get vaccinated ASAP for this reason.

My husband is still fully remote with no word on when they will go back in. He’s in no hurry for that to change since he will be quitting his job instead of returning in office.

[shauni27]

My office closed March of last year and it was recently determined that we will stay remote 100%. I am truly THRILLED and as unhappy as I currently am with my work, I am not really looking for another job right now because the flexibility of working 100% remote makes me so happy.

I do wish we had occasional in person meetings like once a quarter just to boost employee morale; we have not seen each other or had any communications really in the last year. We are all in our own silos, and since we are a small company I got used to seeing their faces regularly and having "cooler talk" chat.

[noodleoo]

My company scheduled an all hands meeting this week. I hadn't thought about it, but I'm guessing they will be talking about the return date for office workers (vs. lab/manufacturing workers who have been back as needed already). My boss already told me they are ok with me WFH part time, so I need to start thinking about what I want. My team is mostly remote, so there doesn't seem to be much reason to go back to the office.

[mrsukyankee]

Both my H and I WFH full-time. The plan for my uni is that we'll have a blended return come autumn, so most of us will WFH some of the days and come in others. That is mainly because of numbers and allowing for people to not return to working at the office if they are vulnerable or live with someone vulnerable. My H won't return to the office until late summer at the earliest, and as they have closed an office, they will only be required to return to the office one day a week (their entire team will all return on the same day). So, one of us will be at home every day of the week and might even overlap being at home one day a week depending on our schedules. We're doing okay with both of us home, but it'll be nice to have that change! I feel okay about going back if things continue to move positively as they currently are.

[konapoppy]

We have three options: full time office, flex, or full time WFH. Some leadership isn’t allowing their team to be full time WFH.

Some will start back in July/august. Others will start back in September. Vaccination isn’t required, but most of my county is vaccinated so I would guess our office will be too.

H works for a much smaller company and isn’t sure what will happen. The building they rent space from is renovating, and I won’t be surprised if the CEO decides to either not have an office or has a much smaller one to reduce overhead.

[glw]

We're all fully remote with no return to office date yet. It's likely that while others will return to the office either full-time or most days, my department remain remote permanently.
MH's job has been operating normally this whole time (plus masks).

[estrellita]

H's work went fully remote around summertime last year. My work is STILL deciding. Part of my overall company went full remote, but my part of the company is dragging their feet. There is an overwhelming amount of people that want to be WFH permanently, but they haven't made a final decision. They say it's for security reasons but who knows. I do love WFH but I also miss parts of being at the office, especially the gym. But a lot of people are waiting for a decision because lots of people want to move further away (including us). And they still won't let us get any of the stuff we left at the office when we had zero clue if we'd even still be home at the end of the month! I don't have anything overly important there but come on!