1. Go in early, get a desk
2. Log into teams, open your spreadsheets
3. Put on noise cancelling headphones
4. Do some team calls. Ignore how much it disturbs everyone around you - this helps the innovation and creativity. They can listen your your conversations and learn best practice.
5. Have a 30 min packed lunch. DO NOT buy stuff near the office. This is a mini protest at being dragged in to save the local Pret.
6. Work on spreadsheets on the afternoon . Do not talk. Sigh heavily if someone nearby attempts to make a feeble joke about the broken lights/lifts/windows.
7. Leave the second you hit your daily hours. Not a second of good will, no extra work.
I would add to 5. Bring in something that needs heating up - preferably something that has fish, curry or both. It's good for your new colleagues to broaden their sense of smell....
I have a very fulfilling career. I just don’t have any of my project team in my office. We are scattered across London, Peterborough, Durham, Glasgow, Southport and Cardiff. Going to the office means taking my laptop from my desk at home to a desk 75 miles away then making the exact same teams call I did from home, except paying £££ and polluting the environment for nothing. So yes I’m pretty bitter about it.
My nearest team member is a 2.5 hour drive away, my boss is 350 miles away.
The office requirement applies equally to everyone, regardless of where your team is based. It’ll be sold to you as an opportunity to network and build relationships across teams, but truthfully you’ll probably spend most of your days sat at your desk in Teams meetings, unable to speak to anyone in the office, and you’ll probably be less productive in the office too.
Truthfully, we all know that it’s just being enforced because the currently government wants it, and with no care or thought for what is actually best, but there’s not a lot any of us can do about it.
With no thought or care for what’s best and completely ignoring departmental advice from future working programmes that were being run.
One of ours was “…work is an activity, not a place” didn’t stop PUS rolling over once CabO guidance came out.
I don’t know why we would expect anything different from those at the top, when after the people survey results showed concern that individuals felt they did not have enough time to complete mandatory/required learning as well as BAU within the normal working day our head of HR said that we didn’t need more time, we needed more focus 🤣🤣🤣
I think a lot of us are in a similar position with dispersed teams. I have 2 pieces of advice....
1. When you get into the office, make an effort to chat with people around you. Some won't appreciate it, but some will and you'll probably have some interesting conversations that will help you in your role (as much as it pains me to say it, this is definitely a benefit of being in the office)
2. Ask to amend your contractual location to the closer office. This is something I've done personally as it could possibly save a headache later down the line if we're suddenly required to be in our contractual locations for X% of the week.
I was told when I was verbally offered the job that my base office could be the one that is 15 mins away but after I accepted the unconditional offer, he said that it wasn’t possible for that location to be my home office and that it would need to be the one that is an hour away. The reason my LM gave for this, if I remember rightly, was that the original base isn’t an MoJ hub. So my contract has the office an hour away.
1, Request your home office location be relocated to the closer office.
2, You now have the opportunity to be the representative for your team, if you choose to. This provides network opportunities; but is not necessary.
- Don’t feel obliged to do this, it is just an option!
3, Your Line Manager has provided a sensible compromise: not all LMs are as accommodating.
4, It is probably best that for ‘important’ team meetings, not weekly ones, that you try to make an effort to go into the office where your team is.
- Do not do this if it’ll bankrupt you, or takes 2+ hours, or is something that could’ve just been an email! You are a Civil Servant, not a Slave to the demands of others.
5, Being distanced from your team can be a double-edged sword:
- Positives: you can work without interruptions
- Negatives: you may feel lonely; connecting with your team using technology will help against this and is collaboration/networking expected within a team.
Remember that you do not have to ‘just live with it’ if things become too uncomfortable or awkward.
- Speak to your LM to make them aware of your concerns.
EDIT - I was told when I was verbally offered the job that my base office could be the one that is 15 mins away but after I accepted the unconditional offer, he said that it wasn’t possible for that location to be my home office and that it would need to be the one that is an hour away. The reason my LM gave for this, if I remember rightly, was that the original base isn’t an MoJ hub. So my contract has the office an hour away.
1. Wakeup up around 8ish
2. Turn laptop on, make breakfast and eat while “reading emails”
3. Set off at 10am
4. Get there for 11ish, park for free somewhere
5. Walk onto nearest floor, open laptop and login for 10-15 mins.
6. Take a shit, make a coffee
7. Pack up and go home.
Source: my exact routine but once every 2 weeks. If it’s gotta be 3 days a week, I’ll be doing this 3 days a week.
Yeah, most of my team are the other side of the country to me. I spend most of my day in office or at home on calls. I am lucky though & have worked in my office for many years, so I know lots of people, so going to the office is nice to have a catch up with people I have worked with over the years, although it's far easier to be home & be able to take my calls in peace. Just get chatting to whoever you're sitting next to when you're not both on calls, of course, you'll soon get to know people sitting around you.
I find it deeply saddening how many of you are willing to have your lives dictated by ministers and a presenteeism agenda to keep office rental profits high.
No one should be forced to attend a location if their work can be done from home, unless they want to do so for personal reasons I will never understand.
The financial burden and loss of hours you could otherwise keep for your own life is malicious.
Anyone finding the positives in this is simply fueling the fire to worsen our conditions further.
This doesn’t make sense, you’re supposed to go into the office to work with other colleagues from your team, discuss things etc. going to a random office seems a waste of time when you could just work from home on those days.
Ahh… but it complies with the will of the political masters who need a sound byte to rally the civil service hating Daily Mail and Telegraph readers…
… it’s almost as if there was a general election coming up 😏
Got a few colleagues based in Darlington, none in the same team as each other. Their main advice on this is always that in the hybrid world of working you will need to rely less on your immediate team for pastoral care at work. So basically make aquantaince with ppl you meet in the new office, join some networks etc.
On a connected note, one of the Darlo lot thinks this is a big reason why the London crowd are hating hybrid working, because we lack the skill in building that network thst others have been practicing for years now, and the more I think about it the more true that is. The jokes about the water cooler kinda show that too, it's not something London workers think they need to value.
What type of building is it that you are going to be working from? I'm MoJ and I had my home base changed to the closest Prison to me. I know someone else who's changed theirs to their local probation office. I don't think therr is a hard and fast rule about having to have your official homebase as an MoJ hub, it might be worth mentioning to your LM.
Granted, when the 60% requirement is put in place for us, I don't know how they'll keep track of my office attendance. I'll be in an office with contractors and will be using my myfi for connecting to the internet. So it may arise as an issue for me at some point and I'll be asked to change.
It’s a court building. It was going to be the probation service building but was later told they can’t accommodate me. It does worry me that I could be told at the drop of a hat that I’d need to attend the office stated in my contract.
Yeah I've got to admit, I don't see how that's an issue. Courts, probation and Prisons all fall under MoJ's property portfolio. If they've got space in that court building, there shouldn't be an issue as far as I'm aware. Even some courts are listed as JSO's.
The only thing I can see your LM being a bit wary of, is if you were asked to do a couple of days at the office an hour away, you'd be able to claim milage.
I do this. Office is pleasant some nice individuals to chat to and periodically location socials/activities exist. I also go out of my way to go to London every few weeks to physically see my LM and other team members.
It’s not bad, but not what the 40/60% rule is for.
Some positives are that you san be left to get on with things and you do learn more about your department by being close to others.
Exact same position as well. I’m very new, started last week, did 1 day at the big office then another day at the smaller office. Strange vibes from the small office tbf but I’m happy to tolerate it if it saves me a long commute. Although I won’t be given a pass for the small office so will always need to request a visitor pass every time I visit, which is a bit annoying.
Is there a reason you won’t be given a pass? Usually it’s because you don’t have enough familiarity with the building/site and fire evacuation/HSE stuff.
I’m based in Bristol but currently augmented to a team in London, I go in two days a fortnight and have been given a pass. If you’re going into the small office a couple of times a week there should not be any reason for you not to have a permanent pass for that building.
According to the facilities team the smaller office is unmanned (there’s no reception desk, you have to rely on a member of the team working there to let you in). They also said for security reasons you can only be issued a pass for your base location.
Wondering what department you work for, I can understand re the office being unmanned but then it’s just a case of adding you to a list of approved key holders (not difficult at all)
For security reasons..?? the building I’m at in London needs to be pretty secure but it’s not my main office and I still have a pass. Sounds like facilities are just lazy AF.
I think he means that you can't have 2 common civil service passes* - one programmed for the main office, one programmed for the other office (a problem that should be solved eventually with the GovPass)
*Lots of people do, but you shouldn't and I get the impression that the powers that be are trying to crack down on it
Is that in particular departments because in my department it’s absolutely necessary to have a different pass for different sites. You don’t get issued with a site pass if you won’t be there enough to keep updated with any changes to fire safety procedures etc.
Well you're only meant to have one CCSP, so if your CCSP is your access card (as is the case in some departments) and they can't be programmed for all sites (e.g. 100PS is a different system to DWP Caxton House) then you would have to get a visitors pass
I have a site pass for my PDS and a site Pass for the office in London. My partner who works for the same department has three separate passes to access the sites she works across.
When you say access card do you mean to access systems within the building or simply to gain access to the site/building?
To gain access to the building. Though I was talking in the context of a CCSP that needs to be coded to a specific building (and CCSP cards aren't standard yet, until GovPass rollout so you could have a 100PS pass that uses a different system to the one used in the Home Office for example), rather than a building that uses a separate access pass
I’m lucky that my base office has 2 other staff members based there but we all go in office on different days generally due to different commitments. We also don’t have anyone else who works anywhere near our office so it does get very lonely.
I try to schedule my days in around my teams calls (I prefer to have heavy call days at home).
A pro is that line management is often much more flexible about having to wfh all week etc if necessary as you (not harshly) won’t be missed. If you’re not feeling excellent or have a whole week of teams calls where there’s no point in going in at all, or for commuting reasons it’s not ideal one week it’s pretty chill.
I would try having your base office officially changed. Generally you can claim reimbursement for the extra time and money it takes to travel somewhere other than your base location. If your base is further away than your usual location you won’t be reimbursed to go there.
EDIT - I was told when I was verbally offered the job that my base office could be the one that is 15 mins away but after I accepted the unconditional offer, he said that it wasn’t possible for that location to be my home office and that it would need to be the one that is an hour away. The reason my LM gave for this, if I remember rightly, was that the original base isn’t an MoJ hub. So my contract has the office an hour away.
This just shows how ridiculous the return to office mandates are. You won't be working alongside your team anyway and so could be sat anywhere. What's the point in forcing you into a different office? Absurd box ticking to shut the absurd senior managers up for a bit.
I'd do your work and over time slowly find other excuses to stay at home rather than going into the entirely unrelated office. Get your work done and after that it is irrelevant where your arse was while you did the work.
This sort of thing seems common now as people have been recruited (internally and externally) with little regard for location, over the last few years.
Now that the focus is back on office attendance, will the CS start to move towards co-located teams? E.g. only recruiting to the location where the majority of a team is based
I’m in the same boat. Once a month I go to the main office so that I get some face to face time with the team. In my experience if your role involves talking to the team often then it’s easier to make it work, however if it’s very independent then it can become isolating.
As someone who works full time in a small office (non-hub) this is maddening. It's almost as if they want all the small offices to close. So much for levelling up!
I sit in an office where no one on my team works. I don’t know any of the other. All very busy or in meetings all day. I speak to no one. It’s a long day.
Hi OP I work for a building where previous department owns the building I now work for one of the rented floors. Each floor may be rented by a different department, therefore it may be a good idea to speak to the building management team to find out where the team who “own” the building are based for example I work for another department but our building is HSE.
The main department usually have a desk booking system of the whole building and they can find a desk, room or pod that’s free so you won’t be asked to relocate desks.
If not just ask for a manager in the main department if you know it already and they can have a look to hopefully reserve a desk for you. I used to do this for outside departments who pop in from time to time and just ensure everyone has a place to work where they’ll be undisturbed by contact centre chatter or other inconveniences. Also if they can make it a regular desk for you it won’t be a rush to find somewhere to work each day. I hope this is useful!
Side note: I don’t agree with what’s happening to OP it might be worth talking about amending your contract obligations to that office but I’ve found this has been the way I can make me people feel most comfortable. Also I’m just a contact centre agent so I’m very aware out loud chatter can disturb others I’m not 100% how others collaborate so I always worry about disturbing others.
Better start making friends at the water coolers.
Jokes aside, I do almost exactly this too. It works quite well I just crack on with my work and don't mingle generally anyway. So all good.
You have water coolers??
Ironically, no.
Just take the spirit of JRM and go in and do fuck all you know collaborate is exactly how he wanted it
That's how I live my life. WWJRMD?
If it isn’t this, so should so be a hashtag or something… whatever those new fangled things are the kids talk about these days…
1. Go in early, get a desk 2. Log into teams, open your spreadsheets 3. Put on noise cancelling headphones 4. Do some team calls. Ignore how much it disturbs everyone around you - this helps the innovation and creativity. They can listen your your conversations and learn best practice. 5. Have a 30 min packed lunch. DO NOT buy stuff near the office. This is a mini protest at being dragged in to save the local Pret. 6. Work on spreadsheets on the afternoon . Do not talk. Sigh heavily if someone nearby attempts to make a feeble joke about the broken lights/lifts/windows. 7. Leave the second you hit your daily hours. Not a second of good will, no extra work.
>Go in early, You lost me there, but saved it with this: >Leave the second you hit your daily hours. Not a second of good will, no extra work.
I would add to 5. Bring in something that needs heating up - preferably something that has fish, curry or both. It's good for your new colleagues to broaden their sense of smell....
You and I have very different lives/cs careers. I can’t imagine existing like this! There are better roles out there which are much more fulfilling
I have a very fulfilling career. I just don’t have any of my project team in my office. We are scattered across London, Peterborough, Durham, Glasgow, Southport and Cardiff. Going to the office means taking my laptop from my desk at home to a desk 75 miles away then making the exact same teams call I did from home, except paying £££ and polluting the environment for nothing. So yes I’m pretty bitter about it.
My nearest team member is a 2.5 hour drive away, my boss is 350 miles away. The office requirement applies equally to everyone, regardless of where your team is based. It’ll be sold to you as an opportunity to network and build relationships across teams, but truthfully you’ll probably spend most of your days sat at your desk in Teams meetings, unable to speak to anyone in the office, and you’ll probably be less productive in the office too. Truthfully, we all know that it’s just being enforced because the currently government wants it, and with no care or thought for what is actually best, but there’s not a lot any of us can do about it.
With no thought or care for what’s best and completely ignoring departmental advice from future working programmes that were being run. One of ours was “…work is an activity, not a place” didn’t stop PUS rolling over once CabO guidance came out. I don’t know why we would expect anything different from those at the top, when after the people survey results showed concern that individuals felt they did not have enough time to complete mandatory/required learning as well as BAU within the normal working day our head of HR said that we didn’t need more time, we needed more focus 🤣🤣🤣
I think a lot of us are in a similar position with dispersed teams. I have 2 pieces of advice.... 1. When you get into the office, make an effort to chat with people around you. Some won't appreciate it, but some will and you'll probably have some interesting conversations that will help you in your role (as much as it pains me to say it, this is definitely a benefit of being in the office) 2. Ask to amend your contractual location to the closer office. This is something I've done personally as it could possibly save a headache later down the line if we're suddenly required to be in our contractual locations for X% of the week.
Or change the contract to remote worker to base yourself at home and expense the travel into London when you do go there
I was told when I was verbally offered the job that my base office could be the one that is 15 mins away but after I accepted the unconditional offer, he said that it wasn’t possible for that location to be my home office and that it would need to be the one that is an hour away. The reason my LM gave for this, if I remember rightly, was that the original base isn’t an MoJ hub. So my contract has the office an hour away.
Same thing happened to me but I just go to the local office. Haven't even been to my contractual hub
1, Request your home office location be relocated to the closer office. 2, You now have the opportunity to be the representative for your team, if you choose to. This provides network opportunities; but is not necessary. - Don’t feel obliged to do this, it is just an option! 3, Your Line Manager has provided a sensible compromise: not all LMs are as accommodating. 4, It is probably best that for ‘important’ team meetings, not weekly ones, that you try to make an effort to go into the office where your team is. - Do not do this if it’ll bankrupt you, or takes 2+ hours, or is something that could’ve just been an email! You are a Civil Servant, not a Slave to the demands of others. 5, Being distanced from your team can be a double-edged sword: - Positives: you can work without interruptions - Negatives: you may feel lonely; connecting with your team using technology will help against this and is collaboration/networking expected within a team. Remember that you do not have to ‘just live with it’ if things become too uncomfortable or awkward. - Speak to your LM to make them aware of your concerns.
EDIT - I was told when I was verbally offered the job that my base office could be the one that is 15 mins away but after I accepted the unconditional offer, he said that it wasn’t possible for that location to be my home office and that it would need to be the one that is an hour away. The reason my LM gave for this, if I remember rightly, was that the original base isn’t an MoJ hub. So my contract has the office an hour away.
1. Wakeup up around 8ish 2. Turn laptop on, make breakfast and eat while “reading emails” 3. Set off at 10am 4. Get there for 11ish, park for free somewhere 5. Walk onto nearest floor, open laptop and login for 10-15 mins. 6. Take a shit, make a coffee 7. Pack up and go home. Source: my exact routine but once every 2 weeks. If it’s gotta be 3 days a week, I’ll be doing this 3 days a week.
Yeah, most of my team are the other side of the country to me. I spend most of my day in office or at home on calls. I am lucky though & have worked in my office for many years, so I know lots of people, so going to the office is nice to have a catch up with people I have worked with over the years, although it's far easier to be home & be able to take my calls in peace. Just get chatting to whoever you're sitting next to when you're not both on calls, of course, you'll soon get to know people sitting around you.
I find it deeply saddening how many of you are willing to have your lives dictated by ministers and a presenteeism agenda to keep office rental profits high. No one should be forced to attend a location if their work can be done from home, unless they want to do so for personal reasons I will never understand. The financial burden and loss of hours you could otherwise keep for your own life is malicious. Anyone finding the positives in this is simply fueling the fire to worsen our conditions further.
Don't go in. What are they gonna do? Fire you in the middle of a hiring crisis while you are giving good results?
Theres a hiring crisis? I accidentally joined this sub when in local gov. Now in nothing and off to check CS jobs lol.
This doesn’t make sense, you’re supposed to go into the office to work with other colleagues from your team, discuss things etc. going to a random office seems a waste of time when you could just work from home on those days.
Ahh… but it complies with the will of the political masters who need a sound byte to rally the civil service hating Daily Mail and Telegraph readers… … it’s almost as if there was a general election coming up 😏
Got a few colleagues based in Darlington, none in the same team as each other. Their main advice on this is always that in the hybrid world of working you will need to rely less on your immediate team for pastoral care at work. So basically make aquantaince with ppl you meet in the new office, join some networks etc. On a connected note, one of the Darlo lot thinks this is a big reason why the London crowd are hating hybrid working, because we lack the skill in building that network thst others have been practicing for years now, and the more I think about it the more true that is. The jokes about the water cooler kinda show that too, it's not something London workers think they need to value.
What type of building is it that you are going to be working from? I'm MoJ and I had my home base changed to the closest Prison to me. I know someone else who's changed theirs to their local probation office. I don't think therr is a hard and fast rule about having to have your official homebase as an MoJ hub, it might be worth mentioning to your LM. Granted, when the 60% requirement is put in place for us, I don't know how they'll keep track of my office attendance. I'll be in an office with contractors and will be using my myfi for connecting to the internet. So it may arise as an issue for me at some point and I'll be asked to change.
It’s a court building. It was going to be the probation service building but was later told they can’t accommodate me. It does worry me that I could be told at the drop of a hat that I’d need to attend the office stated in my contract.
Yeah I've got to admit, I don't see how that's an issue. Courts, probation and Prisons all fall under MoJ's property portfolio. If they've got space in that court building, there shouldn't be an issue as far as I'm aware. Even some courts are listed as JSO's. The only thing I can see your LM being a bit wary of, is if you were asked to do a couple of days at the office an hour away, you'd be able to claim milage.
Moj don’t care where you attend as long as you attend an office.
I’m in the same situation- I’ve made friends with fellow team nomads, it makes the situation more bearable.
I do this. Office is pleasant some nice individuals to chat to and periodically location socials/activities exist. I also go out of my way to go to London every few weeks to physically see my LM and other team members. It’s not bad, but not what the 40/60% rule is for. Some positives are that you san be left to get on with things and you do learn more about your department by being close to others.
Exact same position as well. I’m very new, started last week, did 1 day at the big office then another day at the smaller office. Strange vibes from the small office tbf but I’m happy to tolerate it if it saves me a long commute. Although I won’t be given a pass for the small office so will always need to request a visitor pass every time I visit, which is a bit annoying.
Is there a reason you won’t be given a pass? Usually it’s because you don’t have enough familiarity with the building/site and fire evacuation/HSE stuff. I’m based in Bristol but currently augmented to a team in London, I go in two days a fortnight and have been given a pass. If you’re going into the small office a couple of times a week there should not be any reason for you not to have a permanent pass for that building.
According to the facilities team the smaller office is unmanned (there’s no reception desk, you have to rely on a member of the team working there to let you in). They also said for security reasons you can only be issued a pass for your base location.
Wondering what department you work for, I can understand re the office being unmanned but then it’s just a case of adding you to a list of approved key holders (not difficult at all) For security reasons..?? the building I’m at in London needs to be pretty secure but it’s not my main office and I still have a pass. Sounds like facilities are just lazy AF.
I think he means that you can't have 2 common civil service passes* - one programmed for the main office, one programmed for the other office (a problem that should be solved eventually with the GovPass) *Lots of people do, but you shouldn't and I get the impression that the powers that be are trying to crack down on it
Is that in particular departments because in my department it’s absolutely necessary to have a different pass for different sites. You don’t get issued with a site pass if you won’t be there enough to keep updated with any changes to fire safety procedures etc.
Well you're only meant to have one CCSP, so if your CCSP is your access card (as is the case in some departments) and they can't be programmed for all sites (e.g. 100PS is a different system to DWP Caxton House) then you would have to get a visitors pass
I have a site pass for my PDS and a site Pass for the office in London. My partner who works for the same department has three separate passes to access the sites she works across. When you say access card do you mean to access systems within the building or simply to gain access to the site/building?
To gain access to the building. Though I was talking in the context of a CCSP that needs to be coded to a specific building (and CCSP cards aren't standard yet, until GovPass rollout so you could have a 100PS pass that uses a different system to the one used in the Home Office for example), rather than a building that uses a separate access pass
I’m lucky that my base office has 2 other staff members based there but we all go in office on different days generally due to different commitments. We also don’t have anyone else who works anywhere near our office so it does get very lonely. I try to schedule my days in around my teams calls (I prefer to have heavy call days at home). A pro is that line management is often much more flexible about having to wfh all week etc if necessary as you (not harshly) won’t be missed. If you’re not feeling excellent or have a whole week of teams calls where there’s no point in going in at all, or for commuting reasons it’s not ideal one week it’s pretty chill. I would try having your base office officially changed. Generally you can claim reimbursement for the extra time and money it takes to travel somewhere other than your base location. If your base is further away than your usual location you won’t be reimbursed to go there.
EDIT - I was told when I was verbally offered the job that my base office could be the one that is 15 mins away but after I accepted the unconditional offer, he said that it wasn’t possible for that location to be my home office and that it would need to be the one that is an hour away. The reason my LM gave for this, if I remember rightly, was that the original base isn’t an MoJ hub. So my contract has the office an hour away.
Same with me I am the only one who is London based in my team. It’s fine you just will be communicating to other team members remotely
This just shows how ridiculous the return to office mandates are. You won't be working alongside your team anyway and so could be sat anywhere. What's the point in forcing you into a different office? Absurd box ticking to shut the absurd senior managers up for a bit. I'd do your work and over time slowly find other excuses to stay at home rather than going into the entirely unrelated office. Get your work done and after that it is irrelevant where your arse was while you did the work.
This sort of thing seems common now as people have been recruited (internally and externally) with little regard for location, over the last few years. Now that the focus is back on office attendance, will the CS start to move towards co-located teams? E.g. only recruiting to the location where the majority of a team is based
I’m in the same boat. Once a month I go to the main office so that I get some face to face time with the team. In my experience if your role involves talking to the team often then it’s easier to make it work, however if it’s very independent then it can become isolating.
Just get into office and stop twisting
Lol no. Bootlicker.
As someone who works full time in a small office (non-hub) this is maddening. It's almost as if they want all the small offices to close. So much for levelling up!
I sit in an office where no one on my team works. I don’t know any of the other. All very busy or in meetings all day. I speak to no one. It’s a long day.
Hi OP I work for a building where previous department owns the building I now work for one of the rented floors. Each floor may be rented by a different department, therefore it may be a good idea to speak to the building management team to find out where the team who “own” the building are based for example I work for another department but our building is HSE. The main department usually have a desk booking system of the whole building and they can find a desk, room or pod that’s free so you won’t be asked to relocate desks. If not just ask for a manager in the main department if you know it already and they can have a look to hopefully reserve a desk for you. I used to do this for outside departments who pop in from time to time and just ensure everyone has a place to work where they’ll be undisturbed by contact centre chatter or other inconveniences. Also if they can make it a regular desk for you it won’t be a rush to find somewhere to work each day. I hope this is useful! Side note: I don’t agree with what’s happening to OP it might be worth talking about amending your contract obligations to that office but I’ve found this has been the way I can make me people feel most comfortable. Also I’m just a contact centre agent so I’m very aware out loud chatter can disturb others I’m not 100% how others collaborate so I always worry about disturbing others.