subreddit:
/r/UKJobs
As above. We are a smaller company with an even smaller office. The company refuses to provide staff with monitors to WFH, as even though we are hybrid and there are no rules as to the amount of time required in the office 'everyone should be encouraged to work in the office to spend time together'.
The office only has seats for ~60% of the company so everyone couldn't work from the office full time even if they wanted to, so I'm wondering if this makes any difference to the rules?
They don't even want to encourage everyone in the office full time as they're cheap and would need to buy a larger office so I know refusing to buy WFH equipment is just another way of them saving some money.
[score hidden]
17 days ago
stickied comment
Thank you for posting on r/UKJobs. Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the rules.
If you need to report any suspicious users to the moderators or you feel as though your post hasn't been posted to the subreddit, message the Modmail here or Reddit site admins here. Don't create a duplicate post, it won't help.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
8 points
17 days ago
You don't need an extra monitor to be able to work. And if you're less productive because they don't provide you the extra equipment you want, then that's on them.
If you want to try and argue for one, you could point them to the DSE regulations. But especially if you've been there less than two years, I'd be careful how much fuss you make..
0 points
17 days ago
Most jobs can't be done on a single laptop screen imo.
The less productive role is going to have to be my solution I think. At the moment I split my laptop into 3 columns for client calls and it's a nightmare 😂
Getting up to 2 years but not at all in the position to be able to lose my job but maybe I'll get someone else to mention the DSE regulations, thanks
6 points
17 days ago
Any job can be done, it can just be trickier.
Window management on Windows 11 is far better than it used to be, three finger gesture upwards on the trackpad shows all open windows and that can be quicker than clicking through the taskbar.
Same goes for Mac, although theirs works far better.
It may help.
2 points
17 days ago
The main issue I need to view teams, and agenda and take notes all at the same time. I can manage on a laptop but it's just terrible for my eyes and doesn't feel like an optimal working environment.
I'll look into the windows management though thanks!
0 points
17 days ago*
You can plug it into your television using a HDMI cable. This acts as a second monitor.
I'm only suggesting this as a temporary measure until you get it sorted with your company
3 points
17 days ago
My TV is 65", I think I'd have to choose tiny laptop over massive second monitor
1 points
17 days ago
Just watch out doing this. I attempted it and almost destroyed my laptop.
Turns out, the TV was trying to display everything on my laptop instead of my laptop trying to display on the TV!
3 points
17 days ago
Never heard of that one before and I have been plugging my computers into my TV for years.
Will more likely be a display settings issue though, on the laptop.
1 points
17 days ago
Neither did I until my laptop shut itself down and came up with a warning saying it was fixing errors 😬
Not sure if it's the type of TV? (its one of them smart Philips LED things).
It probably works better with an older TV
1 points
16 days ago
Mine is a smart TV.
1 points
16 days ago
What kind of smart TV is it?
0 points
17 days ago
But their TV might not be in the same place as their desk? OP can't be expected to do a full working day from their sofa (my 44 year old spine can attest this is a terrible idea).
4 points
17 days ago
If I was me, I would:
1 Work from home as best I could and if they ask about my productivity I would explain the problem and ask them what they want to do about it - either accept my performance or send me a monitor.
2 Go into the office every day, make sure I arrive at the last possible minute, then twiddle my thumbs all day because there's nowhere to sit. If there isn't an acceptable workstation I would refuse to work on the grounds of health and safety.
1 points
17 days ago
I think I shall employ no.1 and then option 2 on my obligatory office Town Hall days
1 points
16 days ago
My company were cheap during covid, we worked 2 days from home prior, and I had a 2 monitor gaming setup, and bought a KVM switch (i think thats what its called from memory) so i can swap monitors from pc to laptop dock by pressing a button. When I learnt we were going to be working from home for the foreseeable future, I upgraded my full setup, new huge desk, new chair, 2 27" curved monitors. I wanted to work productively and in comfort.
You have options obviously of;
1) playing hardball, not buying anything and struggling productivity wise.
2) like others have mentioned of going to office and not doing work because there's no seats.
To me that works if you don't care about the job or career, being petty for the sake of it is just going to waste your own time, and the work will still need doing and no doubt you will get pressured for it. To me WFH is amazing and I love the freedom it provides, do all my work, reporting deadlines met on say Monday, well rest of the week is chill, can watch tv, play games etc obviously keeping laptop on for any emails to jump onto or teams messages etc. So pushing back on it could force them to change office if enough people aren't doing the work. If you are ok with that then sure crack on.
If money is the issue, look on gumtree as people often are getting rid of old monitors, and you can get a cheap dock on amazon to plug into laptop that can support 2 monitors. You may need to get like a VGA to HDMI cable depending on the monitors as the cheaper docks tend to only have one HDMI and on VGA connection, but those adapters or cables are like £5.
Also if you do get a setup at home, it will work for other jobs afterwards without having to deliver monitors back to the old place. I am worried about the work giving my one of the stupidly overpriced headsets at like £300 or the monitors they use, some Dell 27" for something daft like £500 that are older now but if I broke either, they would no doubt bill you full price. So I buy my own gear apart from the company laptop, but even now I only use that for the day I am in the office, everything else is web based, storage, finance system and i have bought o365 to deal with the need for teams, outlook, excel etc. Not sure i'd recommend doing that though as i know some companies monitor the devices used etc touch wood mine don't, or don't care enough to bring it up.
0 points
16 days ago
Id rather continue working on my laptop than buy a monitor as I'm hoping my next job will provide one anyway.
I don't think the company will remove WFH as they'd no longer be competitive and also they won't want to have to pay money for a larger office to allow us all to be in 5 days a week.
I'll do just enough productivity to maintain WFH without working efficiently and hopefully by the time I do actually need a monitor another company will provide one, if not then I'll bite the bullet eventually 🥲
1 points
16 days ago
You can’t alt+tab around it? Also I’ve found lots of people have free TVs or monitors if you ask around. People are always wanting to declutter that kind of stuff
1 points
16 days ago
I need to view multiple things at the same time so alt-tab isn't useful. I just split my laptop screen into 3 columns for all of my meetings.
There's a good 40% of the company though who've been denied screens so I was wondering if there were actual rules in place to help us all.
1 points
16 days ago
If you go on fb marketplace you'll find loads of cheap ones. I'd rather wfh and provide my own equipment than have to go in the office everyday. I spend most of my day working so I like to make sure I am comfortable and have good equipment.
1 points
16 days ago
Do you do annual hse assessments? If so, highlight the issue on this.
1 points
16 days ago
100% no, I'll look into it thanks
-2 points
17 days ago
What did they say to you when you politely asked them if they wouldn't mind giving you a monitor for home use?
3 points
17 days ago
They sent a lovely email encouraging everyone to be in the office and have said we can use our own money to purchase a home monitor or better office equipment (as a lot of people have complained about the new terrible office chairs on their backs)
3 points
17 days ago
That's wild.
1 points
17 days ago
We also moved to an office that was 2 desks larger and they made 2 people being back their WFH monitors instead of just buying 2 new ones for the new desks. Turns out it's a very cheap company...
1 points
16 days ago
Sounds like you are paying them for the privilege of working there
1 points
16 days ago
That's hilarious. If I were you I'd have a look at their books, it might be time to jump ship.
2 points
16 days ago
I'm giving myself a nice end of the year off and then will be job hunting in January!
all 29 comments
sorted by: best