A Brent Council worker living 220 miles away says he was forced to resign after the council refused to let him work from home. Finance consultant Charlie Boyle, 43, took on the role of bank reconciliations manager on a short term contract due to finish in April 2022 but resigned after allegedly falling out with council bosses about a seven hour roundtrip into the North West London offices from his home in Preston.
He claims his team made “record progress” remote working, solving a decade old accounting issue in two months. Mr Boyle told MyLondon he had “no problem” with office working, but claimed coming to Brent from the outskirts of Birmingham was “completely irrelevant” to his job. He said: “I do not think people should work from home forever, but I do not think it should be a blanket policy.”
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Brent Council said face to face work would help “build a positive and collaborative work environment”
(Image: Adam Shaw)
Mr Boyle described his “nightmare journey to the office” on Wednesday, February 9 when he left Birmingham at around 7pm, arriving at a hotel in Wembley shortly after 11pm. He complained to the hotel about heating failures which kept him up until 1.30am and wrote to a senior worker at Brent to ask they waive the agreement he come in one day a month. Mr Boyle said the experience was a “complete waste of time” which he could have spent working.
He also claims his staff were not present when he arrived at the office, where he conducted a meeting with them remotely. He added: “The whole thing was completely ridiculous. I feel like I have been kicked in the teeth.” A week later Mr Boyle resigned after he felt he could no longer challenge the council’s policy.
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A Brent Council spokesperson said: “The council has a very progressive flexible working policy which enables staff to work from home for up to four days a week, depending on the needs of the service. However, many officers work in jobs that cannot be done from home and these key workers worked right through the pandemic on the front line. Others, who have office jobs that can be done remotely, choose to come to the office much more often than one day a week.
“As local government officers, we have a duty to the local residents we serve and who pay our wages. It is only right that we are present in the office for at least one day a week to understand the area residents live in. It is also important for council staff to interact face-to-face, and not just through a screen, as this helps build a positive and collaborative work environment.”
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https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/brent-council-worker-living-220-23207506
