When will the work from home advice change?

[TabbyTat]

I hate working from home. I genuinely can’t do it and I know for as long as the advice is “anyone who can work from home should work from home” the office will stay closed. Do you think there is any sign of things changing this summer?

[Blackbear19]

I think that will be one of the last things to change. So Christmas if your lucky or 2021 when a vaccine is available.

Business might go down the route of people in offices 2/3 days per week maintaining SD, WFH the other 2/3.
Long term this allows for smaller offices, and less cost. My personal thought is the days of millions of people travelling to offices 5 days a week are gone.

[ineedaholidaynow]

DH’s company will be changing the way they work and WFH for at least a few days a week will become the norm, even when other things go back to normal. They are already looking at ways they can reduce office space eg move to smaller premises, sub-let floors across their offices.

[TabbyTat]

I was hoping the speculation about the 1 metre plus thing/ reducing 2 meters needed for social distancing would allow offices to open sooner. We are in Wales as well which so far has been slower than rest of U.K. anyway. 😔

[ShinyFootball]

I work in the city and we were already set up to WFH. I was doing it 2 or 3 days a week.

We're not back before January.

I miss my work friends

[PineappleUpsideDownCake]

If schools can go back in september why arent offices? Is it because ifscheaper not to have the cleaners abd maintenancen for a building
Surely there losing productivity?

[Browzingss]

I hate working from home too

Pre COVID we had flexible working benefits and could work from home, so my company were already comfortable with it. Annoyingly my company have now got much too comfortable with mass home working, really doubt office life will return if management get their way.

[daisychain01]

I miss going into the office, but I'd much rather be safe. I'm glad my employer is taking the virus seriously and ensuring people's safety comes first.

If you don't have the facilities at home, can you get some support from your employer to give you what you need? If you don't like wfh purely due to the social side of work or poor concentration, rather than having the right facilities, that's an easier one to deal with. Don't rush to go back to work in an office if you can work safely from home.

[bevelino]

The overcrowded transport system in the U.K. will make it difficult to return to the office, particularly in London. Even if you staggered journeys, buses, tubes and trains would still be overcrowded. There is no point in social distancing in the office if you travel on packed public transport at each end of your working day.

[thatmustbenigelwiththebrie]

I hope never. I love it. I really don't want to go back. I feel so much more relaxed at home.

[thatmustbenigelwiththebrie]

However I work in a university so I think we will be sent back just before the students return, so August or September. I'm not looking forward to mixing with so many people.

[okiedokieme]

We have decided to wfh where possible / if I want on going . I'm going in once a week

[Browzingss]

I think I’m struggling as I’m in my early 20s & just starting my career - it feels unnatural to be stuck at home, long term, like this. Even though I’ve always had a job, I don’t think I have worked for long enough to get truly sick of it yet.

My living situation isn’t suited to working from home & definitely struggling with the social side too (but recent lockdown easements have helped!)

[BeforeIPutOnMyMakeup]

My roles since the mid-00s have been for companies in various sectors that have had WFH policies and they have accelerated them in the last 5 years to save money on office space. In some large companies you don't have an allocated desk to force you to WFH more.

If you need the social aspect of work then you need to find industry specific networking groups and your own social groups to go to. The advantage of the former it will help you move jobs when the time is right.

[wherestheotherone]

I miss the office as well. WFH is so dull and lonely. I don't think my office will ever go back to how it was. Plans are already in place to reduce seating.

I'm not expecting to be able to go back before November and even that's optimistic.

I don't enjoy my work from home life.

[HollyBollyBooBoo]

I hope never (totally unrealistic of course) I absolutely love working from home, I have way more time to do a thorough job as I'm not doing hair, makeup and then commuting for an hour each way. Life is so much less stressful.

Our Head Office is open and have asked for 25% of the workforce to go back (against Government advice), you can imagine the response. They've got about 10% popping in for a few hours a week.

[Patch23042]

Do you live in a city/rely on public transport for your normal commute?

[megletthesecond]

Months yet.
I'd happily go back to the office as long as I could WFH in school holidays or if one of if the dc's were ill.
I am starting to go a bit loopy through lack of human interaction.

[Northumberlandlass]

We’ve been told early September at the earliest!

[devildeepbluesea]

We've already been told we're not going back this year. I work mostly in the field, need to go to the office once or twice a week and WFH most of the time under normal circumstances. My team has been actively discouraged from coming into the office too much in the future, and save it for team meetings etc.

I agree that this is the catalyst for major changes in the way we work. So many people I know have said their companies have already decided that WFH will be the norm rather than the exception.

If I was a commercial landlord I'd be shitting it.

[Medievalist]

My company has sent out a survey asking if people would like to continue wfh. They're looking to reduce the size of their office estate.

Ironically, I've been wfh for a few years but used to really enjoy my occasional trips into the office. Am really missing those.

[TiredMummyXYZ]

It’s Sage and the Independent Sage group have advised that it is not yet safe to move away from 2m to 1m - especially indoors where transmission is higher, especially in indoor contexts with prolonged contact such as offices (and schools). On this basis, I would have said home working would have been encouraged for longer but this government doesn’t seek to care about safety do who knows.

[IRememberSoIDo]

We've been told it will be at least October before those who would prefer to go back to the office will be able to get access one or two days per week. Part of me would quite happily never go back in! I do miss those who I am friendly with but between family, friends and a lovely set of neighbours I have plenty of interaction (not seeing all of these at the moment btw!). We've been told that when we go back it'll most likely only be a day or two a week long term as the penny has finally dropped and management have realised working from home actually does work, in fact they seem rather gleeful at the prospect at leaving the admin portion of the business at home. I've never worked harder than I have over the last few months BUT I'm far less stressed. I'm not racing there every morning, racing home to collect the kids, flying to after-school activities etc. That has been a massive eye opener as I hadn't realised until I stopped running just the toll it was taking on me.

[ClashCityRocker]

Most of us are going in for one or two days a week, working from home the rest.

They've just bought back a few into the office on a permanent basis.

But although it is office based predominantly, it's difficult to do the job full time from home effectively. We handle large amounts of sensitive data and a significant proportion of this isn't available electronically and obviously there are issues with hard copy data being stored off premesis overnight.

Also, some of our younger members of staff are living in house shares, so struggling.

I do expect working from home where possible to be the norm for a good while yet, though.

[daisypond]

The company I work for has now decided to close permanently all its offices and everyone has to work from home for ever.

[Qasd]

We have been told until October at the earliest