Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

Words words words

Grmmpfff, this is beside the point, but I have to correct: it should be "Wörter, Wörter, Wörter". Worte express whole thoughts, Wörter are individual words that, for example, form a sentence together. Using "Worte", especially without quotation marks, as filler words is therefore wrong. This mistake is an affront to my language intuition.

As you yourself have noticed, there are different jobs with different profiles. Besides jobs that can be done entirely on-site, there are also those that can be done in HO. A differentiation is already an advantage and necessary here. I do not see any disadvantage there. I also don’t stand around complaining: "The warehouse workers get their work clothes including shoes paid for – I want that in the office too!"

Your comparison is flawed, work clothes or shoes usually belong to the work equipment or serve as occupational safety. HO is a different story, you don’t need it to work.

I am also only reporting what is the case in our small company, because not everything is just black or white!

Honestly, in such cases, I also change my HO days. That is completely legitimate if the BV allows it.

I also go into HO as long as I have the possibility to do so. And of course, from my point of view, there is also the differentiation of the individual activities, but from the perspective of those who simply cannot go into HO, it looks unfair. Because they imagine that people in HO are basically sitting on the terrace all day doing nothing. A certain envy arises.

Of course, my commute and the associated costs are my problem and not the employer’s. But this point is directly related to the last point, which you didn’t understand from me. I have a wife and a daughter, both of whom I love very much. My child gets up between 8 and 8:30 in the morning and goes to bed at 7 p.m. If I want to fulfill my required working hours, I leave the house before my child gets up. If I have an appointment in the office from 5 to 6 p.m. and then have to drive home, then I see my child exactly zero minutes that day.

Sorry, you might not like to hear it, but that is an organizational problem which you would solve with your last sentence in the next passage if you no longer had HO.

It may be normal for some here to spend hardly or no time with their children, but it is not for me. I consciously chose to have a family and want to spend time with them. If we didn’t have HO, I would have quit the job about two years ago and would work in the local clerical office.

How you can interpret such nonsense into (my) post is a mystery to me...

Just for clarification, before someone again approaches the matter emotionally instead of rationally: I myself have HO and personally think it’s good. But it is by no means a matter of course and also evokes a feeling of disadvantage among some employees. That it is not like that in your company is nice. It looks quite different with us.

I had many years of purely on-site jobs in the medical field, now I can work 100% from home and do so independently. That's a difference like night and day. And yet I see many advantages in both. Today I often miss the contact with colleagues, the short chat, the personal closeness, simply dealing with people. Sometimes also just the obligation to appear somewhere acceptable at a certain time. The routine. On the other hand, today I can organize everything completely freely. I can even do less for a few months if, for example, we currently have a major construction project. If the children are sick, that is no longer a big problem. Activities in the early afternoon? No problem. Accompanying the school class on a trip? No problem. Going for a walk with the dog in the morning? No problem. Many doctor appointments? No problem. Currently accompanying one child for 4-6 weeks to their rehab? Also not an issue!

We are not arguing that it is a given, but that it should be so.
If colleagues think this way, then there's more wrong than just old-fashioned managers. It seems to me that in general, team spirit and appreciation for colleagues and their work are lacking (by the way, also among office workers when meetings are simply canceled like that).
This increasingly points to entrenched management.
Maybe you should offer a few job rotations so that everyone understands what the others are doing and there is a bit more mutual respect.
Another option is to approve and support spontaneous events at the location (Afterwork Get together, with drinks and a barbecue sponsored by the company).

As someone mentioned above, someone who does not perform does not do so in the office either. They just have more opportunity to hide it.
On the other hand, unnecessary constraints are always a good way to demotivate actually good employees or even drive them away completely.

But this will reverse quite quickly over the next 20 years anyway, because young talents will simply vote with their feet.

I also work from home as long as I have the possibility to do so. And of course, from my point of view, there is also a distinction between the individual tasks, but from the perspective of those who cannot work from home, it just looks unfair. Because they imagine that people working from home are basically sitting on the terrace all day doing nothing. A certain envy arises.

There is not much you can do against envy caused by false assumptions. Maybe clarify that working from home is work too ;) But the right approach is not to forbid it for everyone. That only works in the short term anyway; eventually, people vote with their feet. And then the warehouse worker still has no home office, but the company spends money training new people.

Your comparison is flawed, work clothes or shoes are, in most cases, part of the work equipment or serve as occupational safety. Remote work is a different story; it is not needed for work.

I am only reporting what is the case in our small company, because it is not always just black or white!

I also do remote work as long as I have the opportunity. And of course, from my point of view, there is also a differentiation of the individual tasks, but from the perspective of those who simply cannot work remotely, it looks unfair. Because they imagine that the people working from home are basically sitting on the terrace all day doing nothing. A certain envy arises.

Sorry, you might not like to hear that, but then it is an organizational problem, which you would solve with your last sentence in the next post if remote work should no longer be available.

How you can interpret such nonsense into (my) post is a mystery to me...

Just to clarify, before someone here approaches the matter emotionally instead of rationally again: I myself work remotely and personally think it’s good. But it is by no means a matter of course and also awakens a feeling of disadvantage in some of the staff. That it is not like that in your company is nice. It looks quite different with us.

The comparison with work clothes is not flawed. Why do warehouse or production workers often even get them provided free of charge by the employer when employees could even claim them tax-deductible if they bought them themselves? I in the office have always had to buy my clothes myself and could not deduct them from taxes. When I still worked at the bank, that really cost a lot. Ten suits plus shirts plus ties plus shoes, which I could not wear in my free time at all, all bought completely on my own. No warehouse worker came to me and said: "It’s unfair that you have to pay for that yourself. I always get my work clothes for free from my employer. If you have to pay for it yourself, then I want to do that from now on too."

The solidarity you demand is therefore quite one-sided and based on zero reciprocity.

Our meetings are indeed an organizational problem, but among other reasons the following apply: We have no core working hours and can freely arrange our working time between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. That suits us very well because we often have appointments with external consultants, suppliers, software manufacturers, etc., who also do not work 9 to 5. And exactly that is the next point:

It often brings me absolutely nothing to be in the office and then meet with others via Zoom from there. Our team is spread throughout Bavaria and the externals all over Germany. On-site meetings are therefore limited to a minimum due to costs.

The job market has changed in recent years from an employer’s market to an employee’s market. This development will gain more momentum with the oncoming retirement wave of the boomers. If you want to have good people as an employer, you have to offer them something. Besides monetary incentives, this can also be working conditions like remote work, flexitime, etc. If I do not have innovation pressure and accept for myself not to get the best people from the market, then I put a fruit basket in the kitchen once a week and try to carry on like the last 20 years.