Help! My boss suddenly wants me to come to the office more often. What now?

Dilemma

I work as a manager of a ‘self -managing team’, where I am alternately at home and at the office. This summer I am planning to move and because of the long travel time I only want to be present at the office for one or two days every two weeks. I was then presented with an internal guideline from my boss, which states that I have to be physically present 60 percent of the time. What to do?

Woman (45), name known to the editors

Mutual agreements

« My freedom stops where yours starts, » is a spell that Marjolijn Feringa has been raised with. As an interim director and coach of management teams, she regularly cites him in discussions between employers and employees around home work wishes. You cannot only look at the individual interest of an employee if she wants to say it. Ultimately, employers and employees must together determine how and where the work can best be done. And that depends on the nature of the work and the corporate culture.

According to Feringa, there are always three parties with wishes: the individual employee, the team, and the organization as a whole. « Everyone’s interest counts in this and it is important to bring those interests together, » says Feringa. « That is not always easy, because if you get into service somewhere, you will agree what you are going to do, but usually not how exactly. » An employer has quite a few requirements, says Feringa, who cannot simply ignore an employee.

About 60 percent rule seems fair, but is of course very arbitrary

Although since the Coronapandemie most large companies have drawn up a home work policy, this often causes problems. « If one colleague says: I only come to the office on Monday and Tuesday, and the other colleague alone on other days, then you will never meet each other again, » says Feringa. And that turns out to be important. « If you know each other personally, you are more likely to help each other. » The larger whole benefits from that. Just like of conversations at the coffee machine. « They are nice to discuss informal things, but also often lead to good ideas, » said Feringa.

As a coach, she sees how many companies try to find a balance between the wishes of employees, who for all kinds of reasons (‘it is fine at home’, ‘travel time’, ‘swimming lessons of children’) increasingly want to work at home, and the need to meet each other. This is often laid down in regulations with stringent percentages. « About 60 percent rule is of course very arbitrary. It seems to be honest and many companies think that they will be rid of the hassle. But of course it must be about how we can best organize our work. »

According to Feringa, it is important to investigate what kind of work should be done, where that is best and what fits the company. « If I have to concentrate on a certain task, it is nice that I don’t have to sit in an office garden. If I have a big meeting, with people throughout the country, it might be more efficient to do that digitally. And if you want to brainstorm together, it can be better at the office. »

Acquired

Employment lawyer Stijn Blom also sees that weighing of interests often passes by in his work. He emphasizes that a right to work at home does not exist. « Based on the Flexible Work Act you can submit a request to your employer to work at home, but in the end it is the employer that determines it. » Because there are no clear frameworks in this, that is a gray area. A law that would arrange that stranded a year and a half ago In the Senate.

In labor law, reference is often made to reasonableness and fairness- preconditions for good employees and employership. Once you have an agreement that you can work at home (part of the time), it can be a so -called ‘acquired right’. « Then it has become an employment condition and an employer must come from good houses to motivate why that could not be possible, » said Blom. There are criteria for that, the lawyer knows. « Then we look at, among other things, how long someone has been working at home, and whether other colleagues can do that. »

If someone doesn’t get targets, an employer can say: « We want you to come to the office more »

« Such an internal guideline can therefore be quite valid, » says Blom. « The question is whether working from home has become an acquired right and whether the employer has such an interest that he may change that. »

Conflicts around working from home rarely come to court, Blom knows. “If that does happen, it often has to do with the employee’s malfunction. If someone for example targets Not achieving, then an employer can say, « We want you to come to the office more. »

What, according to Blom and Feringa, also plays a role in this type of dilemmas is the tight labor market and the requirements that employees can make as a result. « The Netherlands is working from home, and employers generally deal with it quite flexibly, » says Blom. Large companies that want to attract young talent must actually offer these conditions. Blom: « You simply no longer attract young staff if you do not offer very flexible, hip employment conditions. »

So

The right to work from home does not exist, so how you can fill it in or falls with agreements that you make with your employer. The interests of the individual employee, the team and the entire organization must be included in this. If you have been working remotely for a while, it may have become an employment condition, but that is not necessarily the case. So make sure you have clarity before the situation becomes untenable.

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