Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home

I can reassure you Nige people are perfectly capable of shirking when they are in the office...it makes zero difference!

He tells the thickos what they want to hear whether any of it could be implemented is another matter.
They would still be bound by UK laws the same as any Govt.

I work at a global company which only mandates for us to be in the office 2 days but we have the option to come in other days too. Without exception all the younger members of my team do exactly the same and all seem to enjoy the flexibility. Saves them money on travel (this is in London so might not be applicable to all) and better work life balance.

Farage pontificating about "hard work" 😂

Good luck employing the best staff for the job if your company only has office only jobs. Good luck making the best margins when your company is paying for offices in expensive centralised locations (due to tax and rent) which your competitor is not. It does not really work in practice even for the likes of Google though.

Its fine to a point - especially for public service departments such as councils - but realistically its not a reflection of the work place anymore. Skilled worked have a certain amount of bargining power.

This is an appeal to blue collar workers who are more likely to vote for Reform who are quite frankly jealous of homeworking and more to the point, are increasingly marginalised by more priviledged and middle-class homeworkers writing policy and providing services who are tone deaf to the idea that not everyone has the flexibility of home working.

I would agree that homeworking does reduce some productivity in some areas, but it also increases it in others - particularly in women who have young children. There is evidence to support this. Homeworking probably needs better management (but not intrusive survelliance) but that relies on individual employers not the state to implement. Its also not particularly appropriate for a number of public facing services such as GPs unfortunately as it reduces its effectiveness and efficiency where this is highly important to the functioning of that service.

Farage, as usual, is just poking the populist red meat policy on this which satifies a particular part of the electorate.

This shouldn't come as any surprise. He's a dickhead who doesn't do nuance and only really is interested ultimately in the interests of the oligarchs he sucks up to.

I don’t. But I can tell you it’s going to look like absolute shit! Scary

The informal ‘unionisation’ of workplace is also not possible WFH. I can recall many an uprising being organised and many a workplace injustice being resolved just through virtue of everyone being in the office together and tactical seeds being set - chat to Janet at the coffee station, speak to Rob at the printer. Room 5 has gone full on viva la revolution 😂

WFH does make the workplace vulnerable. In many ways. If you can’t see that I don’t know what to say.

That said I do prefer working from home - but I work for myself and don’t hire anyone. So no one to fire me, no training people, no grievances or injustices here.

Do you remember that Mrs. Thatcher was the first woman Prime Minister ?

Do you remember how in 11 years of government she promoted no women and never had a female minister.

Does that help ?

This! We don’t even have an office anymore as a team - we have to hot desk. We all work in a highly confidential area and access information that people shouldn’t be reading over our shoulders or overhearing in calls.

I have 2-5 teams meetings a day. - again highly sensitive, we have to book a room for these a week in advance and there aren’t enough. Often meetings are in response to an immediate issue and not prearranged so can’t be confidential - unless I am at home, alone

it would cost money to take us back to pre-COVID times - and local authorities have none

Er, we still have "the law" in the UK. Even if it isn't to everyones taste..

Complete fallacy.

For a start, when do you think WFH started? that's a very vague idea.

People working in the call centre industry in the UK are still subject to monitoring and supervision.

But the majority of call centres are outsourced to other countries because it's cheaper and this started years before 'WFH' increased in the UK post covid and those individuals aren't WFH, they're in vast call centres.

Some of my friends were helping to start them up in the Phillipines , India etc almost 20 years ago.

There's also staffing cuts, due to cost-saving but also because of an increasingly online world and use of AI.

If you're experiencing poor customer service or long call-waits there are dozens of reasons why before we get to the Reform idea that it's someone WFH and bathing their kids :)

It would be puerile to suggest that is because they are thick as pigshit.

But I will anyway.

Bless them, do they find counting a struggle?

Surely it's public sector jobs rather than private sector

Can someone explain to me what a ‘pull the ladder up generation’ is?

How is he planning to police this? Will he be visiting every business in the country and taking a register every morning? "Hooble?" ... "Here Mr Farage!"

Tw@t, I wfh home every other week as I have a child with SEN and DH works shifts, my boss trusts me to govern my own work and, as I'm the only one in my role, it's pretty obvious if I'm not doing it! He probably has never taken responsibility for his own children or can afford nannies to cover the gaps when both parents are working. He's living in his own upper class tit bubble as per usual.

Private businesses can do whatever the fuck they want 😂😂

Yes.

And hen discovered afterwards they had no idea whether it affected productivity or not.

But how do people have conversations with older management about their life and their goals and their career progression?

Why do you think work will look anything like it does in 2026 in 2066 ?.

Do you still worry about who will fill the inkwells ?

Our local Reform Council tried to insist on all of the local authority staff going back to the office full time.

It took them a while to realise that they didn't actually have enough office space to accommodate everyone.

Typical Boomer. They had to work in the office for 40 years so Everyone else should too. The world has changed, technology is here to stay.

We (younger people) may have hybrid and remote working but we don’t have the many things his generation had. Many of us are saddled with student loans for our whole working life, unable to afford a house and working just to afford the bare minimum.

Working from home has changed many people’s lives for the better. We work to live not live to work. He can sod off.

My small workplace is closed 3 days a week with staff required to work from home as they cannot afford their sky high energy bills, requiring us to go into work would be the final nail in the coffin.

It's exactly this. He and his supporters are invested in corporate real estate and all of the other products and services that are needed when people can't WFH.

They want you to need to outsource your childcare, laundry, food and drink prep, cleaning. They need you to buy clothes for the office and to go to the gym in the city centre and and and and.

I'm a radiologist. I work flexible hours in / out of the office. Espiecially when the office has sewage running down the walls. Or no air con. Or no heating in winter for 3 months. Or damp mould in the corners. You can say by by to UK based doctors and hello to outsourcing everything for the cheapest price possible and a worse outcome. What's that you say? That's business. Course it is. When your investment firm is balls deep in the private companies that take it over.
No we dont waste money in my department. There's no money to waste.

To an extent, he has a point - to have growth in an economy you need to produce a product and sell said product to those outside of you economy, hence bringing new money into the system, growing wealth.

The kind of operations that traditionally do that are not very adaptable to working from home, well back office functions yes, but not the part that actually generates the revenue.

I can't see us going back to a point where everyone files into the office for multiple reasons, but primarily because a job you can do remotely is low hanging fruit for AI to take over from in the next few decades anyway, and office based roles will become less common as there will be fewer of them.

There are a great many people who do great work from home, but there are equally a good few piss takers as well.

But how do people have conversations with older management about their life and their goals and their career progression?

Elder colleagues offer a wealth of knowledge in so many ways beyond can I do this actual job competently right here right now in front of me.