TLDR: You have to do 2/5 days in the office. How would you space them to make it suck the least?
Background:
My department have been successfully working from home since 2020. I joined late 2021, moving from a customer facing position, so WFH was a blessing! But now that we’re apparently pretending that the pandemic is over we’re being asked to do 2 days minimum in the company owned office. There are team members who live at the other end of the country (UK), AFAIK they’re not being asked to do the same.
My home setup is perfect. Lighting, ergonomics, temperature, all set to my needs. The office is loud, too hot/too cold, full of people, and the extra commute (though admittedly short) is becoming increasingly expensive with fuel costs.
I’m not the roll out of bed 30 minutes before work kind of person. When WFM I’m up 2 hours before my start time to mentally and physically prepare for work. When working away from home that becomes 3 hours, with the addition of the drive home. Depending on my shift, this becomes all consuming of my personal time even when working from home. Some weeks I feel like I’m living for my days off, which I then have to use to recover and do the cleaning/laundry/food shopping that I didn’t have time for in the week.
How would you group your office days in order to minimise their impact? Split them up with a day at home in between, or get them out of the way at the start of the week? There is the option to do our compulsory alternating weekend shifts in the office too, which would guarantee a quieter office and less potential covid exposure… but who would choose that??