I'm interested in people's thoughts and experiences in terms of working from home and reluctance to return to the office.
We have two team members who we have accommodated working from home since the first lockdown. One was trying to get and is now pregnant and so asked to shield which we agreed to. The other is prone to chest infections and also asked to shield which we agreed to. Neither were officially CEV.
Both roles within the same team can be done from home but the team in general requires an office presence to issue keys to contractors, receive deliveries and so on. These in office duties have therefore fallen to the remaining two team members for over a year now.
Last week, out of the blue, the pregnant employee informed us of their change of address - more than 100 miles away! The other employee has shared with colleagues that she plans to do the same and commute in one day a week if she has to.
I'm not looking forward to having to address the likely incoming permanent home working requests from either as it will be incredibly tricky to navigate. Yes both roles have been carried out from home effectively but this has involved two other colleagues covering the office full time between them. The roles were not recruited as work from home and really the whole team should be covering the office duties fairly amongst themselves. Fair enough when the risk was higher pre vaccine and when we knew less about transmission of the virus and so on but we have been working safely in the office for some time now and the remaining two colleagues have had about enough of having to do 100% of the cover.
I'd welcome any thoughts and experiences that people have to share.