The Government has dropped its advice for people to work-from-home and we expect that TSB will begin getting staff back to offices – if only for part of the week – almost immediately. The working-from-home guidance remains in place in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for the time being.
The expectation was – prior to the most recent working-from-home instructions – that TSB staff would have already discussed with their line managers how the new ‘hybrid’ working model was going to work in their areas. We are aware that many members had not had those one-to-one conversations and the implication seemed to be that it’s up to individual teams to determine what’s best for them. Some members were told that going into offices must have a specific purpose, meeting other team members for example, but going in just to sit on MS Teams all day was unacceptable. It was all a bit chaotic, and that’s because there was no firm guidance from the centre.
Have you agreed your new ‘hybrid’ working arrangements with your line manager? If not, why not? Have those new working arrangements been agreed in writing? How often will you be expected to go to the office? Can you work from a different office to the one you previously worked at?
We’ve lost count of the times over the years when members have told us that they had verbal agreements with their managers on working hours or start and finish times that have gone wrong. Verbal agreements are worthless. Managers change or get overruled by their bosses all the time. Meanwhile the members may have compromised their contractual positions.
So, it’s important that members get a clear understanding of the hours they are being asked to work and where they are being asked to work from. We urge those members who haven’t already done so to confirm those new working arrangements in writing, to avoid future disagreements over what’s been agreed.
The purpose of our latest survey, which should only take 10 minutes to complete and is completely confidential, is to find out about how hybrid working is being implemented in your area and update our original research on home working which we published last year.
The results of the survey will be published in a series of Newsletters over the next few weeks.
Members with any questions on this survey or who would like advice on working from home should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 716029 (choose Option 1).