I’m an engineer that lives in a very congested metropolitan area with an interesting situation that I’d like Reddit’s take on.
I’ve been at my company for 7 months and we are on the M-W on-site and Th-F working from home hybrid schedule. I got into the M-W routine of starting at home in the morning and driving down a little before lunch at 11 AM to avoid morning traffic and cut my commute in half from 50 minutes to 22 minutes. This worked really well for a few weeks and I was always responsive and reachable.
My manager told me during a 1:1 that this schedule was problematic for perception reasons. He said that despite me getting all my work done, communicating well, and having a positive attitude, my growth at the company would be limited if I was not seen at my desk more often in the mornings. I needed to adhere to the on-site 10 AM – 4 PM core hours at minimum to satisfy the on-site day requirement, which wasn’t made clear to me until now. Apparently our senior management wanders around the cubicles at 10 AM to see who isn’t at their desk. I was told that this flexibility is a slippery slope and while I’m performing well, my manager wanted to “nip this in the bud”. He said our company may force us back into the office 5 days a week if our hybrid schedule is “perceived to be abused”.
Our office also has gossipers that keep track of who’s in the office and when. One of them probably said something to my boss, I am certain.
I mostly do work at a desk and most of our meetings are Zoom calls, so I don’t see why my routine was an issue. People rarely stop by my desk when I am at work.
I’ve since adjusted my commute to come in at or before 10, but I’m spending a lot of money on express lane tolls to save time and it’s made me less flexible to attend meetings from 9-10 because I can’t just dial in and drive afterward. I don’t want to deal with the insane 8-9 AM rush hour either.
I feel like my workplace has sort of an antiquated view on work hours and location. I also feel like this is more of a management control thing.
Does my company seem weird about remote/flexible work?