There is a TLDR at the bottom of the page!
I was hired for a customer support role back in November 2021 for a team that speaks foreign languages. Including me, the team consist of 2 German speakers, a Dutch/Spanish/French speaker, a Norwegian, a Swede, a Danish/Spanish speaker and a Pole. We used to consist of 4 German speakers 'cause it's the company's biggest market besides English, but 1 was let go and the other left with the end of 2022 for a new job.
The reason why I'm saying all of this is because we were hired specifically for our language skills, and none of us really live close to the office. There are a lot of teams that speak English exclusively, and these people have been hired locally. All of us have been hired from across the country for the purpose of our language skills.
Just before the new year, the CEO has announced he expects everyone in Customer Support to work from the office 3x a week starting January 16th.
We used to have a 'team day' once a month where we'd have to come into the office, which felt reasonable to me and I enjoy socialising with my colleagues, but it takes me about 2h to commute and other members on my team even have to get hotel rooms the night before.
My manager has now suggested we all speak to her on a one-to-one basis to figure out a solution. I believe those members on my team who live further away have more chance of more leniency, but I would be pretty close if I had a car, it's just that the public transport connections suck, so I'm worried they'll expect me to actually come in 3x a week. This would increase my expenses by about £40 per week, and I'd lose 6h minimum of my private time every week. The days I'm working would be just work now, with little to no free time. I'd have to leave the house at 7am and get home for 7-9pm depending on rush hour traffic on the bus. It's doable, but would just ruin my work-life-balance.
I checked my contract and unfortunately it does state my regular place of work is [office address] and it was an unofficial agreement with a higher up to let us work from home.
I'm looking for other jobs, either closer to where I live or fully remote, but I can't afford to just quit until I find something. My savings would last maybe a month or two tops.
TLDR; I would really appreciate some advice on how I can formulate my point of view professionally in a one-to-one meeting with my manager where I'm supposed to be evaluated on a one-to-one basis.