Backstory: Company did full WFH during the first 3 months of the pandemic. Then they required fully in-person job, and about 1/5th of the company left (for better paying jobs, a more interesting one, one where they could WFH full-time, etc.) I was hired and told we would be working fully in-office. I agreed, because I wanted a job that paid okay.
1 month in, Omnicron took it's toll and we went fully WFH for 2 months. No hitches. All I do is send emails all day. That is it. I do not interact with others, only my clients. I enjoyed WFH more than I thought, and after 2 months they switched to a mandatory hybrid plan, with 2 days at home (WF) and 3 in office (T-Th), and I've since found it immensely frustrating.
Last week I asked to WFH for a half-day and sick day the rest, on a Tuesday, so I could take a relative to a procedure. I was taking the half day so I could pick her up, but requested the WFH so I could drop her off and make it home in time to clock in and start work.
The head of HR said “no, Tuesday's are mandatory in-person days” and I ended up having to use sick day on the whole day, because I didn't want to drive 30 minutes in the wrong direction for 4 hours of work.
Flash forward to today: A co-worker, who is in a different department emailed me and asked me to cover XYZ because she wasn't going to be in office because she was going to be working from home because she was “super busy.” Aside from now having to cover part of her work, I was annoyed that HR clearly declined my request for a WFH, but approved someone else's. It seems like that team can do whatever they want, like leave early, WFH, and take longer lunches, but the rest of the departments aren't allowed to.
Not sure if it's worth bringing up to HR. I imagine they'll tell me that was an exception, or that that worker has worked here for 30+ years and it's different, but I found the whole situation ridiculous, and now I'm more offended that I had my request declined, and someone else didn't.
EDIT: The departments are different, but we all share the same office space. There are no formal managers for each department, we just have the Head of HR and the CEO, so it is not a difference in managers. This co-worker is healthy and is normally in the office when required, but recently she'll just say “super busy, I'll be WFH today” or sometimes a vague “sick today I'll be WFH, see you tomorrow!” The issue isn't that SHE needs to be in, it's that other workers in other departments can't be OUT.