As we make slow progress out of lockdown there will be more discussion amongst businesses, Trade Unions and employees over where and when office work will take place. Many people will still have little choice. If you are a shop worker or factory staff you need to be there in person when the facility is open when it is your shift. Many others now see opening up the vista of keeping on with some homeworking after a year of working mainly or wholly from their living room. Many companies have found they can continue to meet their customer needs and fulfil their work requirements on line with many working from remote locations.
For the employee there is the advantage of not having to get up early and rely on trains or buses to reach the office, nor having to sit in the traffic jam if you go by car. You save plenty of money on the season ticket or the fuel bill. Although there is more heating and wear and tear at home, there is a substantial time and cost saving by cutting out commuting. For all those employees who have to juggle minding and maintaining a home, and looking after children or elderly relatives with paid work, the conflicts are reduced and multi tasking just got easier.
For others often living on their own life became a lot lonelier with home working. Seeing work colleagues on a zoom meeting call is not the same as having lunch or after work drinks with them and being able to swap stories and arrange social events over the coffee maker. Those who live in smaller properties, or have well occupied homes with others needing the broadband capacity and some quiet space to make calls returning to the office gives them a better environment for what they need to do.
Employers seem divided or unsure about what they want. Some do think they need people back in the office to provide discipline and framework to people’s working hours. They value the advantages of in person collaboration, informal meetings and idea generation. Others think they can exert discipline through the well monitored systems of computers logged into the company network and can ensure the outputs flow from the home location. Maybe the individual is also less fussy about the time of some requirements because they are at home and can break off for domestic needs during what turns out to be a longer working day. Maybe the bosses often with larger houses like homeworking themselves and see the need to allow some of the same for others. There is little study yet of what has happened to productivity or how the wins and losses net out. Clearly many business meetings requiring travel and stays away were expensive and time consuming. It may be as good as well as much cheaper to do those on line.
Many say they want a hybrid week. That probably means Mondays and Fridays at home . Is that a good compromise for employers? Would that maximise output as well as employee satisfaction? What would it do to our city office centres who have travel and hospitality capacity for millions five days a week?
April 10, 2021
Working locations in the private sector are determined by the employer and the profitability of those arrangements, while working locations in the public sector are determined by the unions and committees
April 10, 2021
In the state sector determined largely for the convenience of the âworkersâ.
April 10, 2021
JR, sometimes I worry for your lack of conscience. What about the unavoidable deaths your party and govt has caused from policies relating to Chinese virus? We know there are deaths from treatment not being given to known historical diseases like cancer, heart etc. We know your party and govt has deliberately prevented life chances by stopping education, especially to the poor. Why have you and your colleagues not demanded from the govt. the cost benefit analysis? Why allow your govt. to continue to destroy jobs, businesses?
Chinese virus presents a tiny risk to a very small proportion of the population. Yet your govt wants to vaccinate healthy young people who are very unlikely to get ill, seriously ill or die from it.
You already know there is no scientific evidence to justify wearing face masks, you know social distance measurements are based on previous century thoughts about TB. Govt work and Leisure guidelines are about scare tactics than factually based scientific evidence. Why are you by implication continuing these scare tactics rather than out your govt. to provide honest factual scientific evidence?
Your govt is anti business, high taxation, pro welfare dependency, pro mass immigration, anti strivers, anti savers and the prudent.
April 11, 2021
Hope
Yet sadly, those you list are the very people who vote for them.
We no longer vote for what we think is the best, just the least worst, but, in the end, the same !
April 11, 2021
Mark,
Not me. I would rather not vote than elect Fake lying parties like the Tories. How many times do people have to be deceived and lied to?
I am a conservative. When asked by Johnson, Portico would not bring himself to vote for the party he represented.
April 11, 2021
Avoidable deaths.
April 11, 2021
Correct. We should always look at the costs on both or all sides. The death and harm caused by this lockdown, the economic damage caused by excessive taxations, the vast damage done by the insane expensive energy net zero lunacy, the damage down by the NHS killing real competition in healthcare. We should have groups of sensible & independent experts looking at both sides and not just one as we have now seem to have with Sage, JCVI or the idiotic Climate Change Committee.
1000+ killed just because the Gov. and JCVI negligently chose to discriminated against men (who have much higher covid risk) in the vaccine priority order. They should rationally have vaccinated men about 5 years younger than women. That is about two years of UK homicide victims that could so easily have been saved at zero cost. Also saving about 30,000+ NHS admissions, enabling earlier unlocking and saving ÂŁ billions too. But there was no political appetite for this. My sympathy to their circa 1000 widows and partners plus their many other relatives. If only more people were more numerate and rational.
Reported CV linked deaths since vaccinations started this year are about 52,000. Thank goodness now down to only 30 a day. But of these 52,000 circa 1,000+ will be deaths caused by the above innumerate negligence.
April 11, 2021
So where is your positive alternative that sufficient people are encouraged and motivated to support? Every comment of yours has been negative whether berating our host or his party for one thing or another.
So share with us your positive alternative for the future of this country and it’s leadership.
Prove you aren’t simply anti-conservative. Prove you aren’t simply a troll or left wing activist or both attempting to camouflage what is simply an attempt to disrupt.
April 10, 2021
JR, why are otherwise perfectly healthy young adults being encouraged (or being coerced) to get vaccinated?
If they are not at serious risk (which statistically speaking they are not) and there is no proof that vaccination stops re-infection or transmission of the virus, why are they being put at risk by being encouraged to get vaccinated? This is unethical (or illegal).
April 11, 2021
@glen cullen; Typical hard right anti trade union nonsense, the public sector is run by govt, either national or local, clue it wasn’t the trade unions who decided, for example, to centralise Driver and Vehicle Licensing in Swansea, I’m sure the trade unions were more than happy to carry on with (duplicate) local offices and staffing, same with those now closed local HMRC offices.
April 10, 2021
The vast majority working from home are the public sector
We have been trying to pay CGT bill since September which is holding up proceedings from a house sale. Getting any sense out of HMRC is impossible. Endless phone calls starting….due to the pandemic etc etc.
Our local council hasn’t collected garden waste money and didn’t empty the bin because they said we hadn’t paid, it’s on a direct debit.
Both my neighbours work for the public sector and are enjoying life to the full.
It’s time they were back at work
April 10, 2021
Probably time they were released to get a real and productive job instead.
April 10, 2021
I would have though that only about 10% of jobs can be done efficiently or at all from home many of these are non jobs or largely parasitic ones in the state sector.
Taxi and bus driving, delivering, repairing machines, building, decorating, plumbing, roofing, bin collecting, medical procedures, manufacturing … all rather tricky.
Rather depends on how you get on with the wife and family. Rather more to discuss if you have been at work all day.
April 10, 2021
If companies find jobs that can be done efficiently from home in the UK then these jobs will soon be being done at far less cost overseas. The UK job will be gone.
April 10, 2021
We need more social venues . Pubs have been closing more and more over the last 10 years and they are not particularly suitable for the many single people out there who find it difficult to go into a pub on their own. I have always wanted to open a jazz club where people can relax , listen to a real piano etc with live musicians , the lights low enough for everyone to feel comfortable , yet not at all sleezy. Here in my village many small wine bars have opened. They attract the young here and to a greater extent replace pubs .As we get older though we don’t want to stand up all night in crowds and expressing that opinion might allow someone to realize here is a gap for this type of laid back ,type of evening entertainment for all those who once used to go dancing and enjoy all types of concerts.
April 10, 2021
Sounds like you want to run a pleasant place, Margaret. Older people often have adequate disposable income too.
All the very best with that – such places are lacking in the cities too, incidentally.
April 10, 2021
“Here in my village many small wine bars have opened.”
What a strange village you live in.
JF
April 10, 2021
J Flood,
Not really. You only have to watch âMidsomer Murdersâ to realise there are a huge range of varied events and activities in villages. Nobody has to worry about drinking and driving either. Ideal – provided you can avoid getting bumped off.
As for small wine bars, micro pubs and small wine bars can operate where traditional pubs – especially those under the iron control of the big pub companies – struggle to break even.
April 11, 2021
Why is it strange ? I simply cannot understand this position , enlighten me … We have 6 wine bars within a small area , some more popular than others and Jerry just because I wanted to, doesn’t mean that I have the resource to do so, but there are syndicates
April 12, 2021
@Margaret Brandreth; It won’t matter if the investor into a business is just one person or a syndicate, what matters is the profitability, passion alone does not pay the bills!
April 12, 2021
I am convinced it would make a profit . We also have a jazz bar in name and prior to covid it was bursting at the seams at night but not suitable for above 40’s . A smaller version of
a Jules Holland type night would be a hit. I am a very practical person who at one time wanted to open a wine bar. Now there are six and pre lockdown: they prospered. Passion with myself never tips over the scales of pragmatism.
April 11, 2021
@Margaret Brandreth; Sounds like you either want to go personally bankrupt (running a live music Jazz club) or want massive subsidies to run venues that amount to a social service, and of course before taxpayer VFM became all conquering that is what many communities large and small did have…
April 10, 2021
Parliament can meet on-line? We can then reduce the excessive wage and expenses bills for MPs. Government can still operate out of Whitehall.
April 11, 2021
But how would they justify the cost of ÂŁ20bn (Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg) to refurbish the palace of westminister if they didn’t attend
April 10, 2021
We need to get out of lockdown first, Sir John.
It is still not a given as officialdom studiously tries to ignore the huge vaccine successes.
As for working from home – great for established workers with established mortgages and families, not so great for young ‘uns wishing to get to know their way about and make names for themselves.
April 11, 2021
@NLA; Only the over 50 age group have a high level of vaccination against Covid 19, very few people aged under 50 have been vaccinated. Remember, the current lockdown was caused (due to infection rates) by the younger age groups failing to be careful, not those already actively shielding or choosing not to mix in risky work or social settings.
As for your second paragraph, if they are good at their jobs then they will get on, if they expect to ‘advance’ by being popular then perhaps not, but isn’t such social interaction a type of Lobbying … hmm?
April 11, 2021
“infection rates”
We should be going on death/hospitalisation rates now.
Under 50s have an extremely low risk of serious reaction to CV-19 – vaccinated over 50s vanishingly small.
Lockdown is doubtlessly killing more people than CV-19 now.
I know former gym goers who are now fat and others who have become alcoholic in lockdown isolation. A risk averse Zero Covid policy is both unhealthy and dangerous.
April 11, 2021
NLA; “We should be going on death/hospitalisation rates now. “
That is what was tried in Q3 and Q4 last year, that is what lead to the pre-Christmas Tier restrictions and then national lockdown. Ignore the infection rate and the hospitalisations/deaths rise, slowly at first but with increased speed as the (“R” number) infection rate increases.
“Under 50s have an extremely low risk of serious reaction to CV-19 “
Those under 50 have a lower risk of death, but most of the people suffering Long Covid appear to be under 50.
“I know former gym goers who are now fat”
If so their motivation was never about getting or keeping fit, their motivation was most likely to socialise, after all you do not need a gym to get or keep fit – even during lockdown.
April 11, 2021
Lockdown is unhealthy.
Facemasks are unhealthy.
Social distancing is unhealthy.
Not socialising is unhealthy.
Closing gyms, sports clubs and swimming pools is unhealthy.
Attempting to live entirely risk free is … unhealthy.
Why are you *studiously* avoiding the positives about the vaccine roll out in order to enforce the above ? Those suffering long covid under 50 are doubtless fewer than those suffering suicide, misdiagnosis, lack of treatments and accidents due to lockdown but Prof (Prime Minister) Whitty hasn’t bothered even trying to count them.
April 12, 2021
@NLA; Why are you *studiously* avoiding the FACTS?
There has been little or no roll-out of the vaccines to those under 50.
No one has ever been stopped from taking exercise, almost no one has been stopped from socialising (non essential mixing yes, socialising no, you might need to think about that), the only thing the govt stopped were excessive numbers of people dying or falling seriously ill from an otherwise totally preventable disease.
Quite why you think social distancing is unhealthy, other than perhaps a wish to show your total ignorance about how infections occur!
Face masks are only unhealthy, other than for a small minority [1], if either worn incorrectly or people incorrectly reuse them – ie. do not sanitise a reusable or try reusing a single use mask.
I wonder how many people are committing suicide in Brazil, those suffering with their mental health not getting the medical care they need either because the entire health system appears to have collapsed under the weight of Covid patients, or simply not seeking help and thus giving up to their inner voices?
[1] who most likely/should have a medical exemption
April 10, 2021
I primarily work from home and use CAD along with XL and other bespoke software for tender evaluations and other work. I am fortunate enough to have a home office, although heavily reliant on fast internet and VPN phone.
Clients inc a mix of state and private sector. On balance I prefer state sector clients as they are much more transparent and easy to communicate with. Some private sector clients are like ice bergs.
Home working largely depends on good internet speed and sadly this country is behind many other European countries when it comes to internet speed, even Romania enjoys much cheaper broadband and faster speeds.
Despite all the hype about UK broadband, its over priced and unreliable. The lock-down has shown how some families cannot afford internet, so I feel its probably better to have it in the public sector and available to every one an affordable price. This way more people can set up small business from home in areas where work is scarce.
April 10, 2021
+ 1
We need top notch broadband and not HS2.
The future is clearly hyper virtual reality and we are on the cusp of a VR revolution. Green and clean and instant.
April 11, 2021
âOn balance I prefer state sector clientsâ perhaps because they have more of other peopleâs cash to spend and are far less driven by value for money. It is not their money, not they who get the value.
April 11, 2021
@David Brown; Brave words on this site! Comments I agree 100% with.
April 10, 2021
If people can work from home in the UK, likely they can be replaced by people who can work from home in India; Korai or Vietnam at lower cost. Post Brexit, I can’t see any unique product selling opportunities the UK has to offer the rest of the world. Perhaps some of you “leave” voters can tell me what I am missing?
April 10, 2021
We are now world beaters at pointless bureaucracy. *
* Brought to you by people who promised to cut red tape.
April 10, 2021
… Or qualified British people moving to areas of the world where they pay lower tax and their money goes further and their location more exotic and friendly.
What’s unique about Britain ?
Pubs.
Boris is killing them.
April 11, 2021
acorn
What you describe will affect Leave and Remain alike and has nothing to do with BREXIT. Surely someone with your intelligence can see that.
Jobs have been going to India and other places regardless. That’s Globalism for you.
April 11, 2021
You say ânothing to do with Brexitâ, âthatâs Globalismâ, maybe, but does Brexit help? Somebody with your intelligence should be able to put forward arguments why it will do. In this time of Covid, it might be difficult to conclude, but assuming we are getting out of the Covid restrictions by the end of the year, what is your road map to counteract âGlobalismâ and can you define what Britain will specifically offer to âthe rest of the worldâ, which was acornâs original point you were disputing.
April 11, 2021
Plenty of UK manufacturing moved to countries like Poland and Turkey with EU funding when we were in it.
April 11, 2021
It will be hard to compete, especially with a government set on the expensive energy, net zero carbon lunacy, over regulation of everything, vast over taxation, very anti-business, hooked on lockdown and pushing endless government waste. But perhaps we can get a sensible government soon but it looks unlikely?
April 11, 2021
@acorn; Well companies can try, but as those who use off-shore call centres have found out many customers reject such practices (in fact many consider then potential data leaks). Also, when a non virtual meeting is necessary, it is easy to bring your employees together in one location when they all live in the UK!
April 11, 2021
Well, for starters there is Arm and it’s ecosystem, the Raspberry Pi and it’s ecosystem. Both are global leaders that originated here while the Pi and Pico are also manufactured here. The problem we have is that decisions are made by people who have no connection with this country and in a global context, where cost is paramount then activity shifts East, whether from the UK or Europe. The destructive effect of the EU has been to destroy that sense of connection.
So much in enterprise and endeavour is based on personal drive and belief, otherwise why all the products and facilities founded on western science, technology, engineering, medicine that you depend on every day of your life. If you have no real connection here as “remainers” such as yourself appear to prefer then of course you cannot see the opportunities because you don’t want them to exist.
April 10, 2021
BBC reporting – Inhabitants of the Caribbean island of St Vincent have woken up to “extremely heavy ash fall and sulphur smells” after Friday’s eruption of the La SoufriĂšre volcano
And I’ve been told by this government that its my fault for driving a petrol engine car ? Yeah volcanos erupting almost every year around the world doesn’t effect the environment ?
April 11, 2021
Oh I am sure their magic modelling take these thing into account (and earthquakes, meteor impacts, genetic changes in plants, pandemics, sun spot variations, new innovations …) even though they do not have clue when any of these will happen. The modellers are clearly brilliant magicians and soothsays too. Alas their models so far have been very wrong indeed and nearly all in the same direction.
April 11, 2021
I guess you know that SPI-M, an offshoot of SAGE, has modelled a âNew Waveâ saying that much death and hospitalisation will occur in 60%/ 70% of those who have received both vaccines? Due to vaccine âfailureâ.
Donât ask!!
As seen in the document.
âSPI-M-O: Summary of further modelling of easing restrictions â Roadmap Step 2â
Date: 31st March 2021
April 11, 2021
Modelling will only reflect the assumptions you feed into it. Feed in the required level of vaccination failure and your model will give you the argument for a third round of vaccinations.
April 11, 2021
Exactly.
And more lockdowns, more âimprovedâ vacs.
And encore plus de pouvoir!
April 11, 2021
Glen…honestly. And there you were, driving carelessly around Pompeii!
Should have learned by now.
April 11, 2021
and now power cuts …thats defo not my fault
April 11, 2021
No one of any intellectual standing at all would have told you such an obviously silly thing.
However, you appear to have form in taking such types very seriously indeed.
April 11, 2021
Have you looked it up?
It is a Gov website.
âResearch and analysis
SPI-M-O: Summary of further modelling of easing restrictions â Roadmap Step 2, 31 March 2021
Statement from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O).â
April 10, 2021
‘Where will people work?’ Many will not work, neither at home nor anywhere else. But still be furloughed, as the New World Economy takes shape. It will be interesting to see how soon Sunak announces a further extension of the furlough scheme, and how long it will be for. Probably to cover the next seasonal virus outbreak at least, so that’ll be well into 2022. And by then normality will just be a distant memory for many people, vaccine or no vaccine.
April 10, 2021
+1
Universal credit will be the norm.
Communism by the back door.
April 11, 2021
@NLA; Universal credit will be the norm. Communism by the back door.
Except everyone in the USSR had a job, even if it was a (largely unproductive) ghost job, shadowing someone else!
What Bill was describing has less to do with the pandemic but the point at which capitalist automation and streamlining of jobs means very few jobs actually exist, even though the economy is highly productive, this scenario has been debated since the 1970s and the early use of robots in mass production.
April 11, 2021
Well… instead of tractor stats we now have *infection* stats.
Both irrelevant.
April 10, 2021
I’ll be keeping my shares in British Land and Land Securities. The talk about the end of the office has been over-hyped. As a customer, most of my contacts with people allegedly ‘working from home’ have been dreadfully inefficient. My bellweather office car-park was only 5% full in the darkest days of the second lockdown. This Friday? 50% full in late afternoon.
April 11, 2021
I’d keep your money in *title* to land, not in “securities” if I were you.
April 10, 2021
Working from home severely impedes the prospects for training, and puts the person’s career at a standstill. This is not just their own training, but their usefulness to train others.
Working from home makes someone unavailable to interact in a human way. They can’t lead and inspire others in their group.
April 11, 2021
Your comment suggests that all will be set in stone, ensuring it will fail. Flexibility is the answer to all concerned.
April 11, 2021
@Dave Andrews; The on-line training industry, and organisations such as the OU, would disagree!
April 10, 2021
âWhere will people work as we exit lockdown?â
It depends how much the government can get away with. If they can destroy a lot of small and medium sized enterprises they may hope to take these business under tight state control.
You will own nothing, you will be happy. The Great Reset. A social credit system like the Chinese to reinforce control.
The financial system is on its last legs. So elites may try to pre-empt a further bail out and try to consolidate their wealth and position.
It depends what Boris and co have been told to do and how far they are able to carry it out.
April 11, 2021
+1
April 10, 2021
Where will people work?
Quite a lot of them will work in The Netherlands as, thanks to Brexit, their companies can no longer export from the UK without masses of pointless, expensive, hasslesome and unnecessary Tory paperwork which they were promised they would not need.
Unfortunately existing British workers canât just be transfer to The Netherlands – their right to free movement has gone – so the Brits will be fired and will get to claim universal credit instead.
Prime Minister Rutte can then worry about where the Dutch employees of the countless British companies who are relocating to The Netherlands will work from.
April 10, 2021
I’ll decide not the State, this PM or indeed the vile unions. The State and all of its greedy advocates can kiss my arse. I am sick of being told what I am, what I can say and that I’m a criminal because I am white or male or heterosexual.
These bastard Marxists that have infected the western body politic will drag the west into an abyss for that is their aim
April 11, 2021
Dom, you have just qualified yourself for self employment. My advice would be to tone down your perfectly valid reasons for being self employed because you will have customers to please and they might not see the current situation in quite so vivid a way. I accept what you are saying, but while democracy exists I do not believe that government are competent enough to organise the Marxisim you anticipate.
April 11, 2021
What this government has done is shameful and we now see how much the political class really cares about âfairnessâ and human rights and all that over-worked stuff.
To use a disease to scare sheep half witless in order to gain compliance?
And then just overturn their lives.
It is so easy now to see how the regimes we always, smugly, regarded as evil, arose and flourished.
Go out and bang pans…or throw flowers…..
April 11, 2021
And every single white male should feel as you do!
Sadly…many have been reduced, brainwashed,destroyed.
April 11, 2021
You must know or read some very strange people, Dom.
I’m white, male, old and heterosexual, but no one that I know or who I take seriously has ever suggested that there is anything wrong with that.
April 11, 2021
PS, if people don’t like you, are you sure that it isn’t rather because of something else?
April 11, 2021
There’s no doubt about it: people whose work is primarily of an intellectual nature would prefer to work from home, going to the office one or two days a week for project steering meetings. Speaking for myself, I had a couple of years commuting to London (one hour on the train plus half an hour on the tube each way each day). It was an unpleasant experience and I would happily have taken a 10% pay cut to avoid it. Employers’ motives for continuing to demand daily attendance include (a) they have already paid for the office space and (b) they enjoy bossing people around, neither of which is entirely legitimate. If they used their brains, employers could reduce their requirement for office space and operate a ‘hot desk’ system.
I think that the PM is in for a nasty shock. There will be employee resistance to a return to ‘business as usual’, both for reasons of personal convenience and because public transport is – and is perceived – as a super spreader of COVID-19 and its variants. BoJo may be able to bully the Civil Service but everybody else will wave two fingers at him. Certain categories of London employment will decline, leading eventually to a long overdue fall in London house prices. More sandwich bars and take away services will spring up near residential areas in suburbia. The market for IT services in homes will increase. To help the High Street and maintain revenue, Councils may need to reduce business rates, impose rates on warehouse space and raise residential Council tax. The politics will be interesting.
April 11, 2021
If working from home is to be the new normal, we will need less new rail infrastructure to get them to work. Suddenly no reason left for HS2. Time to cancel it.
April 11, 2021
You ask lots of questions and at best produce lots of what ifs. The answers to home working are not so complex.
Is the location of what you do important.
Does the employer agree to it.
Is the employer prepared to help with home facility costs.
Does the employee have the physical space.
Does the Covid experience suggest it is a more efficient way to work, has productivity improved.
Is the employee mentally suited to home working, some are, some need the discipline of the scheduled commute and time table.
In the final analysis it is a subject for individual companies to decide after in depth discussion with its workforce. I think flexibility is the key. Government should only look out for employer abuses if any. The employer can deal with employee abuses. If it is to work, as from personal experience I know it can, there is much to be gained by both parties.
April 11, 2021
Are you âembracing the futureâ JR? Oh, at a suitable distance…no hugging!
All for the good of The Party.
April 11, 2021
Five Live Science, on R5L, covered some aspects of the government’s Project MOONSHOT testing programme, exposing some of its flaws and, en passant, mentioning the ÂŁ100 bn cost. MOONSHOT just doesn’t seem to warrant the expense. It needs killing off.
April 11, 2021
On the face of it I agree, but would guess there is a lot of money to be made from ones ability to place hardware and software in orbit. The moon is the advertising.
April 11, 2021
Having checked it out I discover it is nothing to do with the Moon. Grand title with an incoherant set of directions to follow, so few will.
April 11, 2021
What this government has done is shameful and we now see how much the political class really cares about âfairnessâ and human rights and all that over-worked stuff.
To use a disease to scare sheep half witless in order to gain compliance?
And then just overturn their lives.
It is so easy now to see how the regimes we always, smugly, regarded as evil, arose and flourished.
Go out and bang pans…or throw flowers…..
April 11, 2021
The public sector may have caused a huge problem for themselves they donât have to worry about productivity or even check net revenue per hour per person working because activities arenât costed and if they overspend they just get the extra money (see the local council 5-6% extra tax this year without providing 50% of the services last year) without question of competence from the rate and tax payers and nothing the service providers can do about it. They could just send everyone home without having to ask them to do very much at all on full pay most of them, getting them back in an office on 37.5 hours per week is going to be near impossible and cost us all more money to get less than we had before, youâve only got to look at all the delays from home workers, ex public sector big organisations like British Gas use it as their excuse for six week waits on urgent new boiler problems. Getting to speak to a doctors is almost impossible four levels of checks including sending my passport I had yesterday just to open an NHS account to send a message to my doctor and its still not given me a pass. Probate is causing people massive problems in delays, why if all the workers are at home working as before?
Family workers with children with no childcare costs last year whilst âworkingâ and caring for their own children wonât want to return and I donât see how the employer can refuse now if theyâve enabled it all last year.
April 11, 2021
Sorry the service payers/users (not service providers)
April 11, 2021
It certainly makes sense to be able to work from home – Less commuters, roads less busy.
Not having to suffer the vaguaies of public transport or the 1 hour plus journey each way is something I would appreciate… The trouble is we all need some degree of mixing with others to make our lives more fulfilling. Yet there are many ways around this.
I spent about the last 10 years of my working life working from home, and I would not have changed that — There are just too many advantages. Nothing stopped me from engaging with colleagues. For me it was the perfect solution.
April 11, 2021
As has been written above, there are developmental and creative issues with isolation at home. There are also the divides of the comfortable middle classes and their home offices versus working from a millennial’s bed.
Overpaid public sector staff and private sector execs are driving the productivity narrative because it is easier for them to commute to their converted lofts or spare rooms.
The truth is that a hybrid of mostly in the office and time at home to concentrate and preserve balance is the way forward. This saves businesses office space and opens the door for more desks to be hired by the day. Win win for all but it is not the narrative we are hearing.
April 11, 2021
What some people may be missing is that every large-scale change in the way we work presents an opportunity. The transition the UK went through at the time of the Industrial Revolution wasn’t just to get people working in factories. It involved huge investments in transportation, roads, cities and their associated infrastructures. The needs of new industries fed back into R&D and entire new University Departments came into existence.
If we really do move more in the direction of working on-line, there is going to be a need for new models of the “company”. Multi-pane meeting software is just the beginning of it, and it’s not very flexible. Imagine a model in which AI software reads your email and notes what on-line meetings you attend, and then sets up side conversations with key colleagues, including deploying all the on-line forms, documentation and other audit trail that the activity requires. Since such AI software would look at what it did for you in previous weeks, it would get better and better at organizing your day as time passes.
This is just the sort of thing the UK and its software industry ought to be good at providing, since we already have a major presence in AI and deep learning, and we have a home market and educated workforce large enough to justify the needed investment.
April 12, 2021
For the first time, I’ve scanned the comments on this site. Until the late entries, most of it was depressing reading.
Apart from the multi-repeat posters, there seems to be a jaundiced core who are against WFH without good reason. Another group claim that they “need” fast broadband and “VPN” phone (why does a normal phone not work just as well?). Mention of social interaction – without realising that in a non-lockdown world, people can arrange social events if they wish – and can have more time to go to them.
Others mention the fact that some (enforced) home workers have small homes, ignoring the fact that people can change the homes they chose for a world where they were forced to go into an office. We should not assume that the “pad near work” is their preferred option – perhaps instead of choosing a small pad near the office, they may now prefer to move to a more rural location.
The fact is that many jobs can be done from a home office so it seems counterproductive and counter-intuitive to try to force people to go into an office in the post-covid world.
My company has found that productivity has shot up to the extent that we are warning people to take breaks and end their work days properly. The problem is that they are near their work equipment 24/7 so the temptation to “just write that email while it’s in my mind” is ever-present.
The people who come to my home to work (Homeserve, gardening people etc etc) have said that they find the roads so much easier to travel without office worker cloging it up – they can do 3 more appointments per day. So this is not a zero-sum game, it’s win-win.
And finally, if someone prefers to work outside their home, then they can find a job that allows them to do that while others can now, perhaps for the first time, do the opposite and find a WFH job if they wish.
I hope we all find what makes us happy in the new world – it should be possible with good will on all sides (and without coercion).
April 14, 2021
I agree with you that most of the comments on this post are unnecessarily negative.
The point that made me laugh out loud because it was so ridiculous was the thought that I would go to the office for “some quiet space to make calls”: I suspect that our host has never been to a contemporary London office with hot-desks scaled at 60% of the workforce where the background chatter from colleagues is inescapable! I much prefer my home office or garden.
I take this opportunity to commend Virgin Media whose cable broadband service here in Hampshire has been robust and capacious throughout the pandemic.
Reply Of course I have been to an office. They have quiet rooms or spaces to make important calls.