Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home

I think you will find that the people against WFH are generally not retired. Any retirees I know don’t give a jot about what other people are doing in the workplace , they’ve gladly left it behind.

Managers, business owners and business dependent on office working are the ones beating the drum on this.

True but civil servants are already mandated in the office 3 days a week and many government offices don’t even have capacity to accommodate that.

I thought he said it was for public sector? Private businesses can do as they please as they are not taxpayer-funded?

My job is fully online so not sure where I would go 🙄

True.

But that is often ignoring the burden on more senior staff who are constantly bothered by minor queries from junior staff who should be able to figure out most of it by themselves but won't if there's someone at the next desk they can distract.

Being available in an arranged conversation enables boundaries for both parties, so the junior member of staff organises what they really have questions around that need answering and not silly queries or mundane questions that are causing them anxiety momentarily but don't really need senior advice.

Tell me you don't have a disability without telling me you don't have a disability..

In the times you're talking of there were opportunities for engagement outside of the regular workplace for people with physical and mental health issues, these have largely gone by the wayside.

I doubt it would happen in private sector and in Government they need to get some more office space first. That said I do go in every day from choice and I am so over all the complaining and excuses why they cannot come in, sometimes when it’s only once per week as per office space. Before Covid we did 2 days WFH and had few issues, now no end of problems. What doesn’t help is people refusing to put cameras on, and so trying to engage online is pretty impossible.

Absolutely!

I think it will lose him some votes, which can only be a good thing.

Not to mention getting over your anxiety about leaving the house or using the phone….

Fair enough-apart from the class-but the poster to whom I was referring simply said, "Old, white male." It is something I have seen more and more of and I am sick of the men in my life-all white, all obviously male and hopefully, one day, all old being insulted by twerps.

Someone's colour, age and sex should not be a stick to beat them with and I am amazed that so many white women think it is.

This^ he's being clever with why he's being so vocal about this, he's trying to position himself as a friend to the people who would bank roll his future campaigns by trying to present himself as leading a cultural shift. Which is why he is so dangerous.

Other than the impacts to commercial real estate, which I wont claim to fully understand, just know that my old office block is now completely empty and in ruins with vandalism etc I don't see how it impacts him.

WFH means that as a parent I can work full time and rely less on wrap around care, can attend school events, spend more time with my family - all things he claims to be important?

It also opens jobs up to people who otherwise couldn't do the same role if it was in the office with a commute, this means greater diversity.

I've worked in large offices most of my life and all the people who claim that WFH means people are being lazy are those who don't do very when they are in the office, there have always been those people who make a full time of doing very little - that's not a new issue at all.

If Farage becomes PM, it does come under his remit to look at WFH in the public sector, civil service, quangos, councils, NHS, etc etc.

Most employers if everyone turned up to the offices- there would be no room. My workplace has hybrid working. Have 135 workers on the books but only 100-105 desks.

My workplace only has 25 parking bays. 4 are permanently given to colleagues who have mobility issues. The rest are rotated between the other 110 (rest walk or use PT)

It costs me £7 to park and £3 in fuel per office day.

@MissAustenMadeAQuilt

There is nothing wrong with white. There is nothing wrong with being old. There is nothing wrong with being male. In fact, hooray for all bloody three!

Well said. It's an awful generalisation and completely unfair to tar an entire section of society with the same brush. By all means, lets rightly criticise the white old males who are indeed awful people, but we can't forget all the others. By making sweeping generalisations, it makes such people look stupid and dilutes their message. Yes, we need to call out EVERYONE who is in the wrong, whether male/female, young/old, white/coloured, but we can't do it by using lazy generalisations.

That is up to organisations to manage themselves.

It's not up to you or Farage to police that.

You're right there is nothing wrong with being old white or male. There is a LOT wrong with being an upper middle class, highly privileged, older, white male feeling entitled enough to dictate how everyone else should live and work with zero effort to really understand the lived realities of people in less privileged positions.

There are plenty of old white men who do that work to inform and educate themselves, they are generally not the ones telling everyone what to do with some sort of god given authority.

Well I’ve got some news for him. There has to be a work life balance for work to work! Sorry Nige but working isn’t the be all and end of peoples lives.

The trend in corporate culture is to go back into the office. DH company requires 3/5 days in the office and monitors this. Anyone young who wants to get on in their career is in more than this so they can learn and build relationships as well as work. If you were in a low paid admin job and happy to stay there 3/5 would be ok. But most people are keen and ambitious.

Nail on the head. Young and trainees are the worst impacted by WFH as they don't get the same "environment" and benefits of being around their more experienced colleagues on a day to day basis. Getting support/training via email or teams calls really is nowhere near as good as being sat on the next desk!

I dunno about cheating, but I would be very curious about the gender breakdown of those opposed to wfh vs those in favour of it.

I imagine it would be more predominantly men being more willing to return to the office to avoid having to take ownership of more of the domestic load. It works be interesting to see if the stats back it up.

Slighlly off topic but still concerning Farage and Reform, he has been oddly silent about the hideous revelations in the Epstein files. Thought he was keen on protecting women and girls, doubtless only when it suits his agenda. He is in the files in connection with his dealings with Steve Bannon and pushing the Brexit agenda so my cynical self thinks it is no doubt connected to that. He has also been quiet about Mandelson which is odd given what a huge story it is. Anyway back to his latest bit of dog whistle, it is none of his business how companies and organisations organise their work forces. Maybe because he is such a shyster he thinks everyone else is like him and out to con and cheat.