Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home

Apparently Reform see KCC as their ‘shop window’ and their ‘flagship council’. And yet, it’s been plagued by leaks, defections, infighting, suspensions, broken promises and fantasy economics. In a nutshell, it’s been a shitstorm. So the fact that they are leading in the polls is frankly terrifying. And I say that as someone who leans to the right when it comes to politics.

I’m not a user of X but I saw elsewhere that Rupert Lowe just tweeted that 7 ex Reform Kent councillors have just joined Restore. Hopefully there will be a mass exodus.

https://x.com/i/status/2023839768895996229

Glad he’s said that- means even fewer people will vote for him!

You'll probably find in certain sectors it's much more widespread than this. I note you are not addressing my statement about the evidence of remote and hybrid working on productivity - you stated categorically that it was always a negative, and it is not.

You're also not considering the environmental and infrastructure impact of everyone returning to the office.

Bottom line is that employers who demand office only working when the job can be done remotely are dinosaurs.

Personally I favour hybrid working - I had a remote only job and I hated it. It was lonely and lacking in interaction. I currently work 2/3 with three home days, but flexibly as needed by the organisation. In return, I also get flexibility, because I perform excellently and am trusted. Trust does have to be earned though.

This applies at a senior level. I agree that if say you have been promoted to Partner level you have more input in your terms and conditions. I.e it has been earned through experience and skillset.

The onsite request applies more to the average employee. Also to those early to mid career who are proving themselves,

What is also going to happen is that employers who offer hybrid and/or remote working will have the pick of the best talent, whilst the 'in office at all time' control freak employers will get those who are not quite so talented.

Especially since as I mentioned the data on productivity in remote working is not in any way clear cut - however much you might want it to be.

What are you saying:-

Parents will refuse to make provisions? More fool them.

Employers will choose employees who can't be onsite? Wake up if you think that is the case

Oh bless your little naive heart.

You're stepping on your own point there.

It's not about being sensible - the childcare options just don't exist in some places, and in other only exist in limited supply at inaccessible cost. Without structural/wholesale measures to address that many households will have to pull one parent out of the workplace. That isn't going to correlate with the people least impactful for productivity.

I didn’t think 4pm on Friday a good meeting time as by the time it had finished all my staff had gone home and by the time it was finished we in the meeting were ready to go home - when ideally we would have discussed the meeting immediately and disseminated info from above onto our staff as we agreed - instead of restarting all ideal post meeting actions on the Monday.
Obviously you and that manager would get on as he was quite open he knew it was inconvenient as well as unnecessary at that specific time.
Neither I nor any member of staff worked 8-6 on a daily basis as that would have made a 45 hour week most likely.
I have done meetings at 8 and before - when the job required it - but meetings for meetings’ sake are really unproductive and IME tend to be called by ‘important I am’ people.
For you then it’s only in office and you find that works well but surely you can see hybrid or wfh can work equally well for others and other places.

We don't do 8am meetings in person because all of us work hybrid, and there are two roads near us which are notorious for crashes and long delays. Rescheduling because key players cannot be present is costly.

We do however have Teams meetings at 8, because if all else fails, you can park up and attend online.

Technology brings opportunities. Looking back to the past doesn't.

Lastly, the evidence on home working and productivity is mixed. Anyone claiming it's definitely one thing or the other has an agenda.

Rising unemployment doesn't create an overall employers market unless there are an excess of suitable applicants for vacancies across all sectors. The fact that there are fewer jobs in retail, hospitality abd manufacturing doesn't equate to a large pool of suitable applicants for specialised and management roles for example, to which 70% of business report difficulties in recruiting. A company isn't going to see a highly skilled experienced person as easily replaced because a local factory has closed and there will be a lot of assembly line workers looking for work.

DH who is disabled and has cancer would take early retirement if forced to return to office working because he couldn't manage the physical side of it. His company would lose out due to his vast amount of experience in a niche role.

First off a working parent from every household will not leave the workplace as the sensible ones will make provisions for their kids.

We have rising unemployment. Employers will choose employees that are prepared to work to their terms.

I think you're being naive - if that's the type of work environment you think is most productive (and I disagree btw) then there need to be some more wholesale solutions to the childcare that would be required because there just aren't the options available.

What happens to productivity when a working parent from every household has to leave the workforce because there are no flexible hours that allow them to contribute?

I think people who have a job that revolves around meetings, sometimes forget that most meetings are not getting work done, they're talking about getting work done. That's two different things.

If we're talking about who is and isn't getting work done, being in meetings all day might not be as productive as people think it is.

In truth I'd be equally concerned if Farage had called for an end to office work because he felt that people were more productive at home. Because the worrying thing is that he would feel entitled to misuse his power to meddle in things outside of his remit, based on his own personal whim. Huge red flag for an authoritarian despotic approach to government. Which is all good and well if you views continue to align with his, but not so attractive the day they don't.

I am talking about productivity of a company, nothing to do with childcare. That is an issue for parents to navigate with nurseries, childminders, neighbours, family, nannies .

So meetings 8-5 with 1 hour of non-meeting work time at 5pm?

1. that's a 46 hour work week.
2. that's a dreadful meeting: work ratio
3. where are all the childcare options open at 6.30/ 7 to allow for a universal 8am start?

Working 8am to 6pm onwards, meetings at 8am are a good way to start the day. Why would you think 4om isn't a meeting time? 5pm onwards is when you focus on non meetings.

WFH should be uoto the employer. Productivity is down and more and more companies are seeing the value of onsite employees for the majority of roles.

Specialist niche roles which are not reliant on teamwork and meetings will probably continue to WFH in a hybrid capacity.

Some seem very keen on ‘how it used to be was better’ - things change, and with work much of it has been for the better.

I doubt anyone here regrets stopping young kids going up chimneys but there were a lot of difficulties at the time with pushback. Same as a reduced work week from 48 hrs or more than 5 days.

I couldn’t have cared for my parents without flex/wfh, and there’s many examples of care responsibilities outside young children and that is only likely to increase - when you think of this then the gov’t/local authorities/tax payers are saving overall with at least some of the many unpaid carers able to keep going.
Meetings can easily be around school hours - who is ready at 8am to be in a meeting room and who likes them at 4pm? I had a manager loved to put them in at 3:30 Friday - it didn’t even work well as getting too late to follow up immediately and then have to remember and fit it in on the very busy Monday am.
Obviously, some work and meetings may have to be done outside school hours, depending on the type of work - however some work in today’s world has to be outside 9-5 too, so flexibility with all often can mean this work is a lot more easily covered than before.
It’s a bit reactionary and short sighted to maintain work on an in office 9-5 model - but that’s Garage (as well as lazy).

As mum to a child with Down’s syndrome who can’t attend wrap around care, I work school hours only so that I can be around when she gets home from school. Luckily I have a carer’s passport allowing me to be in the office once a week rather than the mandated 60%, as commuting to the office is a 3 hour round trip and completely negates the advantage of my taking a pay cut to be able to do school pick up and/or after school childcare.

Colleagues absolutely cope with arranging Teams calls around my hours just as they do with any other PT member of staff, just as I cope arranging calls around others’ meetings etc.

Normalising WFH was the silver lining of covid and allowed me to stay in my professional job rather than ending up in a minimum wage ‘mum job’, dependent on DH or UC. If that’s selfish of me, I don’t particularly give a crap.

Oh so a few limited examples.

Well, as I've said, if you're a manager/hiring manager you should do what's best for your company/business based on the work required and the ability of management to ensure their workforce achieves the required outcomes. What you shouldn't do is think you have any say in how anyone else chooses to run their business.

What a complete bellend.

Fuck off Farage!