I am currently employed (+2yrs) in a permanent position, however have a relatively new manager (6 ish months).
Over covid, our entire office shifted from 100% face to face to 100% online and gradually transitioned back to 60 f2f/40 remote, although I managed to negotiate 40/60 for a vertiaty of reasons, and there's been no issue with these arrangements.
My role requires me to be relatively flexible with hours as there's alot of potential for things to go wrong outside office hours (we operate in multipule timezones). I'm not paid extra for this but the WFH flexibility means I can shuffle home responsibilities around to make it work, and we've made it work.
In the recent annual review my new manager (who was not present for the prior negotiations/arrangements, and return to office from covid) has now proposed to “consider returning to the office 60/40 so that we can continue to build team and office culture“.
What does build team and office culture even mean?!
How can I get him (manager) to elaborate on WTF they mean, without getting getting them offside?
Whats the way to push back on this?
And what “pros” should I expect them to list for this?
And what cons can I reasonably bring up? (3hrs transit time lost each extra day in office, $20 in transport costs, loss of family time.. etc)