My company asks employees to come to the office once a week. They have people living on different cities come to the office without offering to pay for their fuel or train tickets. I live within half an hour away of my office but I don’t like going! The heating is never working so I’m always chilly for the full 8-hour day. My boss said he asks people to come in because that’s why we have our weekly meeting scheduled for that day - to meet in person. Fair enough. I agree with that. However my boss has recently changed the format of our meeting so that we have to use our laptops during. He has this ‘amazing’ online whiteboard he likes to use to structure the meeting and make it more ‘interactive’ for us… so we end up staring at our laptops instead of just sat talking to each other (which it used to be like). Then after this meeting, I don’t have any more. My job doesn’t involve meetings. So I spend the rest of the day on a row on my own (I need the quiet to think because I’m a linguist and everyone at the office speaks a foreign language). Then I have to get a taxi home or a tram and a long walk in the dark. I just don’t see the point in going to the office for me personally because ai can perform just as well at home! And I’d be frickin warm and wouldn’t have to spend money on trams or taxis. Instead of asking my boss, I just told him ‘I’m not coming tomorrow’, which admittedly was a bit blunt but because I’ve got to know him and the ‘mandatory’ day hasn’t really seemed mandatory because whenever I go there is always someone at home, I just thought he’d be okay with it. Instead he got mad and wrote to me (On teams instead of calling me) that ge wasn’t happy with me just deciding and not asking and that it wouldn't be fair for me not to come because ‘other people’ come from further away. But from what I see, they don’t come every week! Anyway could do with some advice. Should I stay at this company if they insist on this 1 mandatory day? I hate being cold :(
Can my boss force me to go to the office? Should I just quit?
What Girls & Guys Said
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3Opinion
Unless you have another job already lined up, I'd stay. The economy isn't getting better -- be careful about jumping ship too fast. And, yes, your company and boss can make working from the office mandatory. It may be short sighted but they can. I had a conversation with my boss that I'll gladly go to the office as much as they want but that they lose a huge amount of hours from me when I do that and I showed him the data. He pulled back from the requirement.
The cold thing is different. Companies are required to meet certain guidelines for your work environment. Put it in writing to your office manager to have them get the work space up to whatever the requirement it (it still may be colder than you like). Make sure it's in writing each time. If it doesn't get better, escalate it up your chain of command. (If your company leases its office, they may have to fight with the property manager to get anything done, so it may take a while.)
But, no, don't quit without a good plan.
Nope, you have to go or lose your job.
You're wrong