As someone who’ve stopping working from home since the beginning of 2022, it is fun to see people complain about coming back to the office full time. Mind you I work in education, on a campus where teaching happens in-person. Therefore it’s only appropriate for the support staff to be there as well. Because the university just spent a lot of money on a new arts building, and is currently constructing a new science wing. So damn it, there had better be people using these new facilities!
A coworker of mine is a steward for the union. He’s been fielding complaints from people being asked to work in-person the full five days a week. Of course, those complaints go nowhere, because whether or not you get to work-from-home is up to your supervising manager. Nothing in our contract stipulates mandatory remote working days. California’s COVID emergency is expiring this month, the Federal one in May. Things are going back to the way it were on campus before the pandemic, folks!
The obvious pain point of coming to campus is the commute. Traveling from San Jose into San Francisco five days a week - like a coworker of mine does - is just brutal. I shall never take for granted my living proximity to campus, and the ability to simply walk the 10 minutes to work. But those are personal choices, right? The employer have zero duty to acquiesce and account for how far you live from the workplace. Again, a university isn’t that sort of job anyways.
Back in January, our supervisor informed the team we will be working on campus the entire work week. I replied with gleeful nonchalance that I’ve been doing so for well over a year now. The low-key griping from some is schadenfreude-ic music to my ears.
Secret stash.