WFH - Engineering
Discussion
Want to gauge how many of you engineers have WFH agreements currently.
Me - project engineer (aerospace), Midlands based, option to WFH up to 2 days a week
Quite a few folk taking the proverbial and showing up in the office once a week or two. Rumours wax and wane that we'll be told to come back into the office 5 days.
WFH has become a deal breaker for me going forward but I'm seeing fewer and fewer engineering jobs that offer it.
Me - project engineer (aerospace), Midlands based, option to WFH up to 2 days a week
Quite a few folk taking the proverbial and showing up in the office once a week or two. Rumours wax and wane that we'll be told to come back into the office 5 days.
WFH has become a deal breaker for me going forward but I'm seeing fewer and fewer engineering jobs that offer it.
My software engineering job is officially "2 days per week in the office", but unofficially 2 days per months, but not obligation to go in at all - that works for our team/company though.
My old job in automotive was going to be 3 days per week in the office, except that they moved the office 50 miles away whilst we were WFH during the pandemic. Hence I don't work there any more.
My old job in automotive was going to be 3 days per week in the office, except that they moved the office 50 miles away whilst we were WFH during the pandemic. Hence I don't work there any more.
My last assignment had a somewhat unnecessarily complicated system allowing 12 days a week of WFH per calendar month.
This usually meant two days in the office most weeks with a third day in the office one or two weeks per month - I usually did a couple more office days than were required because I live within walking distance of the office.
Next job (starting soon, fingers crossed) will require three days per week in the office.
I'm a mechanical engineer working on O&G and Carbon Capture projects and have only seen maybe one role that required full-time office attendance in the last 5 years, although it does seem that greater attendance is gradually creeping up again.
This usually meant two days in the office most weeks with a third day in the office one or two weeks per month - I usually did a couple more office days than were required because I live within walking distance of the office.
Next job (starting soon, fingers crossed) will require three days per week in the office.
I'm a mechanical engineer working on O&G and Carbon Capture projects and have only seen maybe one role that required full-time office attendance in the last 5 years, although it does seem that greater attendance is gradually creeping up again.
Engineering is a bit too broad of a term really!
My team has about 20 engineers but their main role is testing. They can't really run tests at home so we don't have any sort of defined "hybrid" split.
They are free to WFH when appropriate (spending the day analysing data, writing reports etc) but it doesn't happen that often.
Physical testing of things is very hard to do remotely!
My team has about 20 engineers but their main role is testing. They can't really run tests at home so we don't have any sort of defined "hybrid" split.
They are free to WFH when appropriate (spending the day analysing data, writing reports etc) but it doesn't happen that often.
Physical testing of things is very hard to do remotely!
Supplier Quality... 2 days from home.
Supplier visits count as a day in the office.
Work at a FTSE 250 industrial manufacturing company. Same rules apply for all staff.
Factory based roles e.g. operations management seem to be present more and potentially aren't taking their days from home. Shop floor are naturally 100% in the factory.
People who spend all day working internationally. E.g. on calls with China or USA for project work are often allowed more flexibility. No point commuting to sit in a room on calls. These people are still expected one day a week and co-ordinate so they generally are in at the same time as their peers.
Supplier visits count as a day in the office.
Work at a FTSE 250 industrial manufacturing company. Same rules apply for all staff.
Factory based roles e.g. operations management seem to be present more and potentially aren't taking their days from home. Shop floor are naturally 100% in the factory.
People who spend all day working internationally. E.g. on calls with China or USA for project work are often allowed more flexibility. No point commuting to sit in a room on calls. These people are still expected one day a week and co-ordinate so they generally are in at the same time as their peers.
There is no end of press about this and the general move across industry seems to be greatly reducing WFH. One I read recently there is a lot of pushback from people taking jobs (expecting WFH) or that have built their life around it and also a lot of people abusing it - coming into the office just getting a coffeee and going back home - even reports of people sitting in car park to log on to WIFI to fool monitoring systems. The article mentioned the problem was largely lack of motivation at management level as they like the flexibility so don't enforce.
From a group motivation perspective, what we are seeing really highlights the 'watcher/limit tester theory', you have the people that just follow all rules , then you have the limit testers and the largest group being 'watchers'. If they see limit testers getting away with things (turning up late, WFH, ignoring rules etc) they will start to adopt that and it becomes a new norm.
I think we'll see a lot more pressure to reduce WFH, likely going to an extreme in many industries to reverse the trend. Once the new norm is established I think we'll likely see a more gradual hybrid approach brought in again, with stricter polices to manage it.
From a group motivation perspective, what we are seeing really highlights the 'watcher/limit tester theory', you have the people that just follow all rules , then you have the limit testers and the largest group being 'watchers'. If they see limit testers getting away with things (turning up late, WFH, ignoring rules etc) they will start to adopt that and it becomes a new norm.
I think we'll see a lot more pressure to reduce WFH, likely going to an extreme in many industries to reverse the trend. Once the new norm is established I think we'll likely see a more gradual hybrid approach brought in again, with stricter polices to manage it.
Mechanical design engineer, we are currently 2 days WFH max per week with the requirement of at least one member of the team to be in every day and a Tuesday as all members in the office for team meetings.
Loosing WFH would be a deal breaker for me too it just integrates so well into my life now and would make school pick up a nightmare if it was to change
Loosing WFH would be a deal breaker for me too it just integrates so well into my life now and would make school pick up a nightmare if it was to change
I'd think id need another 20k at least to go back to a role that was full time in the office. Fueling, maintaining and running a car from post tax income easily cost me £5k in my lst role so at around 10k before tax, and then there is the wasted time sitting in traffic twice a day every day. Being able to run a weekend car as my daily, start cooking dinner as soon as work finishes or walk the dog while its still light outside is worth at least 10k to me
Electrical Systems Engineer based in the midlands, company is suggesting 3 days per week (at managers discretion), but site work counts as office days so I bank it up. Management in my team don't really care as long as we get the work done. I've got a graduate shadowing me now so feel it wouldn't be fair not to come in more often. Office is pretty dead these days.
I'm a Principal Systems Engineer (Control systems software) and I'm 100% WFH.
But I've pretty much worked from home since 2001.
I've been in my current staff position for 4 years, and out of those 4 years I've had 4 days not working from home. The company tries, every so often, to say people need to come in to the office; the fact that they have massively reduced the office space to save money, and hence, we all could not come in anyway, has completely passed them by. Anyway, they ask, and almost all people ignore it and carry on as normal (i.e. WFH).
But I've pretty much worked from home since 2001.
I've been in my current staff position for 4 years, and out of those 4 years I've had 4 days not working from home. The company tries, every so often, to say people need to come in to the office; the fact that they have massively reduced the office space to save money, and hence, we all could not come in anyway, has completely passed them by. Anyway, they ask, and almost all people ignore it and carry on as normal (i.e. WFH).
AI1601 said:
Want to gauge how many of you engineers have WFH agreements currently.
Me - project engineer (aerospace), Midlands based, option to WFH up to 2 days a week
Quite a few folk taking the proverbial and showing up in the office once a week or two. Rumours wax and wane that we'll be told to come back into the office 5 days.
WFH has become a deal breaker for me going forward but I'm seeing fewer and fewer engineering jobs that offer it.
RR?Me - project engineer (aerospace), Midlands based, option to WFH up to 2 days a week
Quite a few folk taking the proverbial and showing up in the office once a week or two. Rumours wax and wane that we'll be told to come back into the office 5 days.
WFH has become a deal breaker for me going forward but I'm seeing fewer and fewer engineering jobs that offer it.
I'm a CMM programmer, so I'm able to do 1-2 days a week from home, the rest of the time I need a physical machine. We're the last manufacturing based team with a WFH agreement though, we make it work within the team so we've been left to it
Electrical Engineer - "officially", we are offered up to two days at home but they go to great lengths to point out this isn't a contractual thing so can be withdrawn at any moment.
The slightest problem and we are all threatened with being back in the office 5 days. Tea spoon on the draining board overnight? Back in the office if it happens again...
Unofficially, we have a bit more flexibility and my line manager is happy for us to work more than two days at home if our work allows it (lots of Teams calls in a day for example).
The slightest problem and we are all threatened with being back in the office 5 days. Tea spoon on the draining board overnight? Back in the office if it happens again...
Unofficially, we have a bit more flexibility and my line manager is happy for us to work more than two days at home if our work allows it (lots of Teams calls in a day for example).
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