I'm so mad right now that I want to scream. I'll have to settle for posting here.
I have a coworker, “Judy” who had children earlier in life, so while she and I are the same age, hers are adults and my son is 5. She has a role similar to mine on the same team, and mostly similiar to another coworker, “Tina” who also has young kids and a family member she helps take to medical appointments. Judy lives roughly 2o minutes from the office, Tina and I both live over an hour away and have to drop off and pick up our kids from school, or have someone else do it.
When the pandemic started our team switched to all WFH. Then it was WFH except for having to come in once in a while. Then a monthly project was introduced that we were responsible for and it can only be done in the office (literally there is no way to complete it outside of it due to specialized equipment we can't have at home). Judy and I would work on it, sometimes togther, sometimes not. It takes two people two days each to do it. Tina was not working on it as she did other work for the team that we didn't have to do, it was balanced and worked out.
Then our bosses decided that we have to come in every other week for one day a week. Due to the deadline of this project, that would mean coming in three days if only Judy and I worked on the project. I suggested that we could split up the work then between the three of us. One month Tina and I would work together on part of the project and I could help her with her other work, and the next month Judy and Tina could work togehter and Judy would help Tina with her work. Judy balked at the idea, said we should just do our own work. She also said she were trying to get out of coming into the office three days a month which is true, and then she tried to say the bosses required us to come up two days for this special project in addition to one day every other week, which is definitely not true – I confirmed with my boss that if we could do our part of the work in one office day (which we could do with any combination of us working together), that was fine.
Judy has been saying for months that she thinks we all (but especially those of us in this role) should be in the office more. She's gone so far as to say repeatedly in meetings with bosses that she feels whenever anyone's boss or anyone they are supporting is in the office, she thinks they shoudl be, too.
Any suggestions on how to handle this?