So, for context, during covid I, along with the entire company I currently work for, worked from home and helped sustain their business. WFH benefited a lot of us, either with childcare, being able to exercise during the day, whatever…
As we came out of lockdown, the owners/directors insisted we all return to the office full time. No hybrid working. This caused quite a bit of animosity and lots of people left because of it but the company stuck to their policy. I only hung on because being in a relatively senior position, my options to move were limited.
Fast forward year, I've landed a new job which is a demotion but money balances out with the additional pension they pay and most importantly they do Agile working, WFH 3 days a week.
Anyway, we were discussing this with family on Boxing Day and my MIL was extremely critical of WFH policies, saying it's not natural to be sitting on your own etc. I countered that with the fact that in our office, there is no real social environment. Most people sit at their desks working for 8 hours then leave. You can hear a pin drop most of the time. I also said given we helped run a business for 18months remotely that the only real reason for getting us back in the office is control. Well, that set her off about how it's their company and they can choose the policies, lots of people can't WFH, like nurses, shop workers etc, like I should stop being so ungrateful. Additionally, the social issue is just a lack of interest from people who work there apparently… I could easily resolve that by taking some cakes in.
I don't know why but it just enraged me, it's like talking to the man. It was fine for them when they could buy a house, car, holidays with one salary whilst someone stayed home with the kids for 10 years not working. Me and my wife need WFH to fit around childcare because we get minimal help from family.
Previously there have been remarks about how much better the private sector is vs public sector, even though shes never worked in the private sector, and almost all of the family work in public sector. Like, I get paid a decent salary, but have minimum legal holidays, no sick pay, minimum legal pension (could never retire on it), no death in service, very poor job security etc. Contrast that with her husband who worked public sector and having being made redundant sat in a redeployment pool collecting a wage for 2 years with no actual day job, and then retired with a final salary pension of £50k a year.
Is this just a typical boomer attitude/self-righteousness?