Notice and changes to working location

Well yes grinning and bearing it will avoid things turning ugly and possibly in a few days the MD will realise how stupid they are being and be more reasonable. Its one path.

If they want to go "all formal" the key will be what their actual contract says. If they are employed as a remote worker then the employer may not have the legal right to insist on 5 days a week attendance - and anyway it doesn't pass the reasonableness test. But that path may/will get confrontational.

Probably I would see if there is another member of the management team who could intervene on your friend's behalf. Stressing wishing to leave on good terms, H&S issues, custom and practice etc etc

They have asked if the MD will be providing overnight stays which they would usually do if they were working there for multiple days. answer was along the lines of "no because you need to treat it as a normal commute like I do. you've been working from home all this time enjoying perks of doing school runs" which is untrue they don't do any school runs- their partner does them all.

I am not sure I would have asked that - as the answer would have been inevitable

The key is either how far and how hard they want to push this

Or if they can find someone else to intercede on their behalf - the latter would be best option

Also assuming "daily commute like I do" means MD is intending there will be no reimbursement for additional mileage costs of over £1700 and 80 additional hours travelling they are asking of this person... (mileage up to now always paid for the 180 mile round trips 3-4 times a month for over a year)

I don't know if in this scenario there is a way for it to not turn ugly without the person leaving getting completely walked over for the next 3 weeks. Safe to say the decision to leave has been solidified as the right thing to do. I also think the responses to these unreasonable/ malicious requests should have the MD's boss CC'd in. There is a LONG history of bullying especially when people are leaving that perhaps the higher ups need to be aware of as I am sure they are not!

There obviously no love lost here - hence your friend resigning.

I’d be cutting my loses if I was them, and making the resignation “with immediate effect”, with an explanation that the sudden change in working location is unreasonable and unnecessary - assuming there have been no complaints to this point from the MD about working from home affecting your friend’s productivity?

There are various threads on here about how difficult it is in practice to force someone to work their notice if they don’t want to.

Your friend would’ve lose out on three weeks of pay (probably unfairly), but equally doesn’t bear the sudden increase in commuting costs.

I don't think there is a way to avoid it turning ugly. I think I would be included to reply advising how long they have been working remotely, that it is now custom and practice (or indeed contractual if it is), and that they do not agree to this sudden change to their terms and conditions without any consultation or notice. As such, they consider that the request is unreasonable, but will attend the office once/twice a week during their notice period in order to carry out an effective hand over.

At that point the manager has a choice - they either try to argue that they are failing to follow a reasonable instruction (which they would find very hard to do) and institute a disciplinary, which will sound alarm bells and highlight his unreasonable behaviour with any decent HR professional. By the time they go through the process (assuming your friend has more than 2 year's service), she will just about have finished anyway.

I would be asking the new employer if I could start earlier.If yes then we have a win - win - win.

I'd just say "lol, nope". But I recognize that not everyone enjoys baiting sociopaths as much as I do.

Keith, Peter et al have much more mature and sensible answers. But it is worth noting that "lol, nope" is a reasonable response to an unreasonable demand. I imagine, if one permits the possibility of logical thinking behind the MD's expectation, that one could just about see that the employer is seeking to bait your friend into a resignation with immediate effect to save themselves the cost of notice. But the more likely answer is that they don't expect "work of value" from the last three weeks of a remote worker's employment if they can't stand over them with a cudgel (which, of course, historically produces the best outcomes /s).

If your friend were to take the "lol, nope" stance but from a slightly more constructive position, it may persuade the MD to back off. So an email outlining the pieces of work that your friend will complete before their final day's employment, perhaps with a single day in the office for a handover and to drop off work equipment at the end of it, but with a firm assertion that they will *not* be attending the office as instructed, might be sufficient. However, it may need to be followed up with the assertion that, if this provision is unacceptable, your friend's resignation with immediate effect will follow (the implication being "and then none of the things I listed above will get done and it'll be your problem").