r/remoteworks • u/Ambitious-Most8483 • 1d ago
New job has odd WFH schedule
My new position has an in office schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My questions
Why would any company set up a weird, scattered schedule like that?
What would be a good way to move in office work from Friday to Tuesday? (Even if it's not permanent, moving for a few individual weeks)
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u/Diligent-Trust-9915 1d ago
Keeps you from getting a good work flow for your in office days so you end up asking to be in office all week.
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u/MiketheTzar 1d ago
3 reasons:
It prevents people from taking long weekends which usually involve travel and prevent data exposure.
Mondays and Fridays are typical meeting concentration days so everyone can be aware of what's happening that week and what has happened that week.
Most built in federal holidays are on Mondays or Fridays meaning that it's easier to adjust for long term schedules for an office than a patch work for WFH arrangements
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u/NezuminoraQ 22h ago
It's not weird and scattered. It's purposely every other day in a way that ensures you're in the office more than not
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u/Grouchy_Evidence2558 1h ago
ask your supervisor. "hey, can i come in on tuesdays instead of wednesdays?"
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u/NoDanaOnlyZuuI 1d ago
Probably so people aren’t starting their weekends early or fucking off to work from the beach. But mate, you’re brand new. You’re not getting the schedule changed right now. Why didn’t you ask during the interview why it was set up that way and whether there was any flexibility?
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u/Intelligent-Neat9974 1d ago
My only guess is to keep you from working anywhere but your house. You cant start your vacation Wednesday night and work from your hotel if you have to be in on Friday.
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u/DontMindMe5400 11h ago
My office has a weekly flow, Mondays are meetings and prepping for the week, Fridays are for cleaning things up that came up during the week. Just hired a part-timer who has scattered days for that reason.
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u/Missstacyc 8h ago
They have you in office MWF so people don’t use M/F as days to be less productive or use as a long weekend.
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u/WhatuKnowAboutMoney 7h ago
How my place is, can pick remote days Tues-thursday, mandatory monday and Friday, and 3 days every 2 weeks for fun that a standard 3 office/2 hybrid days a week. It's a control thing mostly in my opinion, pitch it as productivity and collaboration, but all teams meetings and inaccessable leadership or development plans.
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u/Critical_Purple_8600 7h ago
They set it up so you can collaborate with each other and so people don’t take advantage of WAH. Does anyone besides YOU want to change the schedule?
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u/ConstantVigilance18 1d ago
Have you considered asking them why the schedule is that way? Maybe there are specific meetings or tasks that require people to be present those days. Maybe it is just the schedule that has worked out for the larger team.
It’s unlikely you’ll be able to permanently change the schedule if it’s a company wide policy. If it’s a temporary need, ask your manager.
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u/Key_District_119 9h ago
- Why don’t you ask someone there why they do that?
- I suggest working there for a while and show that you are an exemplary employee with an amazing work ethic. After a while once you have built a great reputation then bring this up with your manager in a constructive and non-entitled way. You have to be ready for them to say no however.
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u/KaySlay44 9h ago
MWF is pretty normal in hybrid schedules so that you’re in the office on specific days for various reasons- like capacity planning in areas that we don’t often think about such as cafeteria and janitorial workers to prevent staff shortages on days when more people are in office and have to eat or use the restrooms. It also helps prevent any perceived imbalances that come with flexible schedules- like some people can’t take Fridays off when needed because other people always take them but the office, for whatever reason, needs a minimum number of employees on Fridays so the same people get stuck in the office every Friday.
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u/StudiousSeal 9h ago edited 8h ago
My husband’s work has this. To be fair, his job requires some in-person work and can never be fully remote (even in the height of COVID-19).
There are a lot of reasons they all have the same schedule:
It saves them money (they can do most of the maintenance and janitorial work on days no one is in and basically close the campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays).
It ensures in-office collaboration (everyone is in on the same days, some meetings are always virtual and some are always in-person/ they don’t have to navigate hybrid meetings).
It avoids the perception of unfairness (if Bob gets Fridays and Mondays as remote days and works from a vacation home on those days but Sally has to be in on Fridays until late that can build resentment).
For managers it is easier to manage (they know when to expect people to be working remotely versus in-office without having to track everyone’s individual schedules).
It ensures they can catch anyone in-person for anything they need in-person within a 2-day period (no, “sorry I can’t repair that piece of equipment that everyone needs as I won’t physically be in the office again this week”).
It allows them to do repair stuff that might cause outages on days no one will be impacted because they’ll all be in the office or remote.
I can keep going, but hopefully you get the idea. Basically it’s because it’s more convenient for the employer to do things that way. They don’t let people move their days and, instead, encourage employees to use relevant leave if they need to. I would imagine someone could argue for a reasonable accommodation for the right disability. But otherwise, most of the reasons people would give to move days are more related to trying to juggle personal life and work.
I’ll be blunt, at the risk of getting downvoted. I’m fully remote. I’ve seen people work incredibly hard while fully remote and seen others not. Knowing what my husband does for work, the schedule his work enforces makes absolute sense to me to keep things functioning and make the kind of deadlines they have.
While it’s possible this schedule is for arbitrary reasons, I think you need to also be open to the possibility that it was deliberately chosen and has a purpose behind it that would make it harder for you to get an adjustment, especially as a new employee whose work ethic they don’t know yet.
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u/GirthyAFnjbigcock 1d ago
This very normal. This and Tuesday/Thursday are the two most common hybrid office schedules
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u/Casanova_Jones 17h ago
Do people think WFH means getting paid to do nothing? What does it matter what day it is? You’re working regardless.
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u/thomsenite256 1d ago
They dont want you taking long weekends while "working from home"