Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home

I don't doubt he has wealthy pals with empty office space going begging foremost in his mind. Quite how he squares his big ideas about cutting costs with the expense of running bigger offices than required when plenty of people work happily and effectively at home is anyone's guess. I know not everyone wants to work from home.
Ho hum. It's just another bit of rage bait really, isn't it? Nigel mouths off and gets us talking about Nigel again. Fuck.

On a wider subject, this thread is a paradigm of what I was warned about by the gurus of strategy when I started in that sphere of IT. Which is to beware the "It's all about me" tendency of humankind. Everybody considers their world to be where it's at, so logically everything new has to be applied in that frame of reference.

Henry Ford used to say if he had listened to his customers, he would have made faster horses. Which reminds us that the automobile was never going to replace the convenience of horses in a world built around horses.

YANBU

He’ll be arguing next that everyone apart from people like him should go to the shops instead of ordering online, cook over an open fire and do laundry by hand.

Technology moves on. It should enhance our lives and protect the planet.

Absolutely no point people travelling all over the place to do work on a laptop. When it can be done at home or in a local workspace. Total waste of energy (both fuel and human) and time. Not to mention impacts on people who are disabled, too unwell to travel and/or live in locations with poor public transport. And environmental impact of extra cars, buses and trains.

IMHO, the ideal should be to give staff a choice, which hybrid or flexible location allows. Being with work colleagues has a social aspect. Lots of people have met friends and partners via work. It also allows newer people the chance to learn on the job, by being around more experienced people. And some people find online meetings more difficult.

Good point about owners of offices. I imagine lots have been burned.

It's both.

My Dad is 70 and only worked for an employer for about 10 years of his working life from aged 15 so was a self-employed taxi driver and later, an income-tax free foster carer for decades which he retired from 5 years ago.

He's massively concerned by lots of Reform policy ideas, as are his similar aged siblings and friends. Including WFH, because he hates the idea of anyone getting something for nothing and they all think as do several on this thread, that if he isn't able to get the help he needs on the 'phone, he thinks it's because of customer services WFH and not for other reasons.

Those reasons including him refusing to do anything online or have an email address...

Yanbu. My husband works from home, he is happier for it and therefore more productive at work, not less.

How about a bloody thank you to those who worked from home during covid (whether they wanted to or not) and kept essential services going like IT support etc. How about acknowledging the fact that those who have the ability to wfh will do so even when too ill to go into the office. When the weather brings the rest of the country to a standstill home workers keep going. Seriously we don't all take time out as and when, most home workers are monitored. Many call centres have home workers, you would soon notice if no one could get into the office one day for whatever reason and you really needed your call answered. I am no fan of labour but this man is not the answer

Like most of the arguments for/against, this is just repeating one side of a two-sided coin.

There were many people for whom Lockdown was bliss, not a hardship, and it was successfully WFH during lockdown that made employers realise there was no inevitable drop in productivity, the opposite in fact, and that there was no need to compel these people to come back to office-based work in the aftermath.

Ten years ago, I know if I'd made a request to WFH the way I do now that request would have been dismissed as being impractical. My actual job hasn't changed much in ten years, but it was lockdown forcing my organisation's hand that made it abundantly clear WFH was perfectly viable.

I still have plenty of ways to interact with colleagues despite not physically sharing a room with them, and I still socialise with all the other people I used to prior to lockdown. It's also the case that many people have no desire to interact and socialise with colleagues in the first place, because they are just that, colleagues, and not people you would have necessarily opted to form a relationship with otherwise. So it's not as simple as WFH inevitably being to the detriment of working relationships, socialising, social skills, and mental health. Far from it.

I also work for a medium size public sector employer - we simply don't have enough space to accommodate everyone coming in every day. Our space planning is based on 2 office days per week per person.

Sorry but this is such a mean and selfish take. That’s so awful to think of helping junior staff as a burden!

I was the senior staff but changed career so am now junior and trying to learn, so I’ve seen both sides of the coin.

As a manager it was my job to help junior employees learn, so helping with questions throughout the day were just part of my day. Often it’s just talking things through with them to make sure they are on the right track. Ultimately as a manager it is much easier to make sure the work was done right the first time than spend ages reviewing the work only for it have to be completely redone.

In some instances it is easier to say “ok put an hour in my diary tomorrow so we can look at it properly”, but that was the case pre WFH too.

Now as a junior member of staff more often i just have small questions that I need help with to move the work on. If I were to save them up I’d be sat with no work to do until then, and then no doubt I’d have another small question and be in the same position again. Saving up questions to fill a managers time just isn’t efficient for anyone.

Since the early 1990s, I have associated an opposition to WFH home poor management. I worked in a small owner-managed creative agency in a PR role used to WFH if I had a feature to write for a client. The owner hated it and was nasty to me as a result. He hated it because he liked to pace around the office checking that everyone was working and, his favourite activity, billing clients. He was totally resistant to me explaining that if I left the office saying I was going to stay at home the following day to write a feature about quantity surveying in the Middle East, and the day after that I came to the office with the copy, it was obvious I had been working.

More recently, I worked for a start-up/scale-up where WFH for 95% of staff was the operating model. Now, it's a multi-award winning company, top of its industry league tables, and which has grown rapidly because it attracts funders.

This is anecdotal evidence but there's plenty of research evidence showing benefits in productivity and employee satisfaction. Nigel needs to stop being like my former boss and start asking Zia to seek out evidence to prove his point. He won't ask, znd if he did, Zia would be hard pressed to find it.

He's a lazy twat that never turned up for work when he was an MEP, and doesn't now for his day job.

He goes to work if someone pays him a stupid amount of money to spout his racism and fabrications, and doesn't care what dictator or corrupt regime it's for.

Honestly I'm sick of this, if you vote Reform you are stupid, a racist or probably both.

Sadly, that's describes way over half the voting population so we will have a Reform 'government' at the next election.

Says the guy that can barely be arsed to turn up to anything that isn't of direct financial benefit to him.

AI will put paid to a lot of office roles, particularly the admin ones.

I’d love to know how this would work, a local authority has sold all its building off and are relocating into a smaller building, with a maximum of 80 desks they employ 1200 people

Not read whole thread but it will because he has a load of property mates whose property will be empty. Most offices have massively downsized. Where do we sit?

Well based on another thread running on AIBU at the moment, using the phone to talk to people does seem to be a genuine anxiety of a surprisingly large number of mumsnetters...

It's strange to me in some ways that the right don't like WFH. From a boss perspective, you're transferring quite a lot of costs in terms of rent and electricity to your employees. And presumably freeing yourself from associated bureaucracy. Cutting free the red tape!

many major Reform donors have significant investments in office buildings

And there it is.

Human contact is essential even for introverts.
As an introvert, I can still have human connection. The difference is, it’s with whom I want and when I want. Forcing me to interact with people I find toxic, because you think I need human contact, is not good for my mental health.

People do get more done in the office, it eliminates skiving.
It does nothing of the sort. Plenty of slivers in office settings.

There will be career advancement more readily available for onsite employees.
I’ve been promoted twice whilst WFH for my current company.

When home and work is blurred you never switch off if WFH.
My computer has an off switch. Many office workers still have work email on mobiles and take laptops home. If you can’t switch work off, that’s a you problem.

Yes fares and petrol cost but that is something that needs to be factored in when budgeting. Not sure why people complain about this when it has been the case for decades.
The rises in costs of these have been higher than wages over the years.

Location. Again, you choose to live in an area that is accessible for work. Whether that is driving range or train access. For a small number that includes walkable.
Again, the price of housing has outstripped the rises in wages for decades. Workplaces tend to be in cities where housing is more expensive than most wages can afford.

People who work from home do disappear to collects kids from school and go to the gym. Things you should do in your own time not your employers.
It is my own time. My employer gets 7.5 hours of my time a day. Largely, I can decide when to do those hours. I’m away at 3 to pick up my daughter. I’ll be gone for half an hour. I started at 8 this morning, so actually they’ll owe me half an hour if I finish at 5.30 (which I probably won’t)

If someone wants to WFH they should set up their their own company or be totally freelance. I.e in charge of their own destiny.
I am in charge of my own destiny. My boss gets their clients’ needs met, when they need to be met, and I can have a nap at lunchtime if I want to.

Firstly he's a knob, obviously.

But the WFH issue needs to be dealt with on a case by case basis.

It works for some, doesn't work for others.

For me, WFH is perfect. I'm the kind of person who locks in, for hours, and gets a tremendous amount done. I just can't do this in an office environment with people making conversation, offering tea or biscuits etc. I still get work done, but my productivity is huge at home.

My job pays me a full time wage, but I only have to complete set tasks each day and then I can stop.

It's 13.47 - I've completed my tasks. If I was in the office it would be at least 4.30.

That is still on the company though to ensure that young people are getting the onboarding that they need.

Plus, they applied to such jobs to begin with for whatever reason usually knowing that their colleagues were hybrid or remote.

From what I’ve seen, many job listings are upfront about hybrid/wfh, with plenty saying they do training in office for 3-4 weeks before they allow whomever they hire to wfh/hybrid.

Hybrid work is perfect in my opinion.
I hope the great British public wakes up to the absolute SHAMBLES a Farage government would be. God help us!

That from a man who is never in his constituency or in Parliament...

More nonsense from Farage who is doing this to cosy up to commercial landlords and business owners who complain that WFH means less profits for them.

This. He’s the ultimate hypocrite. Lecturing us about the EU while making a fortune from being an MEP.

He was 748th out of 751 MEPs on attendance during his time in Brussels. He was also docked £35k for misuse of EU funds.

Also he spends far more time on his lucrative media work than as an MP.

Listen to what he does not what he says.

Nigel Farage is deeply unpleasant, misogynistic and racist.
The attack on WFH is all about propping up the status quo and rich landlords who wish to continue to make ( tax free probably) profits on renting out large buildings.
As far as I can see Nigel has never done a useful days work in his life, whether he was in the office or otherwise. So his view is worthless, as it is on all things as he is w bellend.