Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home

He Needs to look for hybrid job. best of both

much like his hero - Trump

People like him ignore the benefits wfh brings to society. Other than work/life balance on an individual level, it also:

It reduces pollution and cars on the road. Less traffic means the people who actually need to be out can get to A to B quicker.

It helps people to shop local and support small businesses. Just because people aren’t popping in to Pret in the city doesn’t mean they’re not spending their money elsewhere. Lots of people pop in to their local bakery on their lunch break or can meet a friend at their local cafe. Rather than sitting in their office canteen.

Parents can spend more time with their children in the mornings and evenings rather than wasting that time on the commute. Helping children’s’ overall wellbeing.

Disabled people have more access to work, reducing the money the government would need to spend on benefits.

It reduces sickness. Both due to sickness spreading around the office (I was always catching things when I was in full time and there was no option to wfh when you had a cold) and reduces stress and mental health problems if people have a good work/life balance they’re happy with. People will also be spending less time on stressful commutes, making them healthier.

It is cheaper for businesses. They save money on office space, electricity, utilities etc. The money can be spent on hiring more staff instead.

I will need to commute to Singapore to go to the office. I do several times a year, but daily 😆, nah. I’d have to set out before l left.

My wages are higher because our small charity got rid of it's premises and decided to pay us more out of the rental savings. I get far more done from home. I work in social research so can sit and write a paper in peace without dozens of questions and tea rounds. People who take the piss are dealt with by management (to be honest the one time someone did this it was obvious, there was very little output, and they got their act together after a meeting!).

I expect he will cancel all PMQs or he’d look dreadful (more dreadful) plus he’d actually have to turn upto work like the plebs.

He is a master at swerving any position of accountability. You can guarantee that as PM everything will be somebody elses fault.

Remember this is a man who insisted Liz Truss pension-shrinking budget was a work of genius.

Very true

We have seen how thin-skinned he is and how he becomes very ill-tempered when he is put under pressure.

My local authority has been selling off its buildings. Fewer desks available. There is no room to accommodate everyone.

I work remotely and absolutely love it. Never worked harder. I am self-motivated and get a lot done, and it also means I can get in my exercise at lunchtime. There’s no way I want to return to the office.

I work in an NHS role and am at home 90% of the time. I am no less productive. I could however be a lot more productive, because all that time I used to spend answering other people's phones, making small talk, walking to and from meetings could now be spent working but isn't. I do life stuff instead and am grateful for the chance.

If Farage wants me to go back and work in the office full time then fair enough. It's taxpayers money. But I will be no more productive. And the more intriguing thing is how he will afford all the new office space required to accommodate my colleagues and me since my old offices are now used for clinical work. It would cost an arm and a leg to have us all back.

More ignorant posturing from Reform, I fear.

But it’s not as simple as WFH causing such change in productivity - correlation doesn’t mean causation.

It’s not exactly clear for example how ‘productivity’ is measured - what outputs are less and are they on exactly the same basis as before? Which is unlikely with digital changes, reduced staffing.
However, the main measures aimed at on your link do appear to be achieve the same for less funding - although again not clear what ‘the same’ is - just functional seems sufficient as long as it effectively costs less to provide the service year on year.

So basically what is happening is that as wages go up productivity effectively goes down on this measure - as each output costs a bit more - which would be an obvious conclusion anyway and actually maintaining any increases in productivity at all implies there must have been staff cuts (or wastages) and different ‘smarter’ working to try and keep up, just to keep functioning at some level.

From this then the one thing I can be sure of is that the phone doesn’t get answered due to WFH - but due to saving costs by not having nearly as many staff on the phones - to maintain productivity/output of staying functional and the ‘smarter’ bit is hoping digital is sufficient.

I’ve seen these cuts at councils, public authorities and charities - and every single place would be after your ass if you were failing to meet call stats - eg/ Ltd wrap time, Ltd toilet time, expected call answer time and expected call length time and this is all recorded by the telephony system used whether in or out of the office.
WFH is not the reason you haven’t got your call answered for sure.

Great description of this person in my team who makes comments behind my back when I WFH and she's in the office. When we are both in the office , she gossips or complains non stop... all day long... and I find it quite tiring to be honest.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
My son worked from home on a telephone helpline for a large retail company and was closely monitored to make sure he was up to quota on how many calls he took. He had timed ‘comfort’ breaks and often didn’t get his lunch break till about 4pm.

The reason nobody is answering your calls is because the companies employ fewer people to do that job, not because they are swanning around at home and only picking up the phone if they feel like it.

I wonder how many people factor their commute into their hourly/daily rate ?

OK. Less angry thoughts.

I am delighted that workers are getting some power and agency back. Going to work is an exchange of value. 'Buy my skill for money'. The employer has, for too long, held all the cards in this dynamic, dictating ALL the terms of that value exchange - everything from the location to the pay and conditions. The worker had no agency at all and was expected to be grateful. But it is our labour lining the businesses' pockets - and yes, our own. A more equitable power dynamic is long overdue.

I am fully behind anyone who places conditions on their labour being available. Equally, I support any business that doesn't accept those conditions. Because it's an exchange of value that has to work for both parties.

It's depressing otherwise, to consider that for the vast majority of our lives, we are simply a unit of economic production without ANY control in that power dynamic. Capitalism is a neutral concept - neither good nor evil. Capitalism too heavily in favour of businesses - not cool.

So Rose and Farage can huff and bluster, but they might find that the best talent goes to work elsewhere. Market forces. Capitalism as it should be, in action.

I am a business owner. We are remote-first and always have been.

Sorry but I was a civil servant and I was required to attend an office 3 days a week but MY team were spread all over the country and so I didn't get to sit with my team, I was Billy No Mates in the office and if anything it made me feel more isolated. I still did all training/team meetings by Teams. It was a waste of my time and the unpredictable time I spent travelling to and from work, was working time lost to me because when at home I worked through it.

When I had a bad cold, I continued working from home whereas if I was expected to be in office I would have to call in sick so I didn't spread it.

I would take that flexibility over a bit of extra money at a job elsewhere any day. But I have colleagues who are single and live on their own and rely on going into the office for people contact and a social life. That I will admit I miss when working from home, friendly chats with colleagues and an ad hoc suggestion we all go out for lunch. But my job sees me going into an office with hot desking and I never get to sit with my colleagues as they are based in other parts of the country and never get the same civil servant (from another team) sitting next to me from one day to the next and that is quite lonely sometimes.

There are swings and roundabouts in all roles.

The argument you have made is all role dependent and it doesn't apply to all. Civil Servants can go in 5 days a week if they want, I however appreciated the flexibility of hybrid working.

Well he's an old white man. So of course he thinks that way. The world has changed but the old white men at the top cannot get their head around it. Much like my granny was with a video recorder in the 90s.

Another key takeaway from strategic thinking (see 2016 is 2026) is to understand structural as opposed to ephemeral shifts. This is often seen when a company tries something. It fails. Then another company tries a few years later and succeeds because something fundamental shifted.

A lot has changed - irreversibly - since (say 2016). What that means ... well time will tell.

I've noticed that he is worshipped on Nextdoor, it would be hilarious if it wasn't so worrying.

Why?

About a woman leaving a voice note? No I don’t see how it’s relevant to my comment, I’ve never done voice notes as part of work, I don’t see how that connects to wfh at all? I talk to my managers in real time.

I’ve worked in both but the vast majority now in wfh companies.

I really hope you are right and I am wrong, @SerendipityJane - I’d never have been happier to be proved wrong.

Yes, this. I gave up trying to chat with anyone at HMRC. It’s crap, quite frankly,

I doubt Farage will do anything about the private sector, that’s up to them. But the public sector is a different matter.

This quote from the IFS suggests productivity in the public sector is not yet back up to pre pandemic levels:

“Panel A shows total public service productivity. On this measure, UK public sector productivity has seen three broad periods of change since 1997. It fell gradually between 1997 and 2009 (by an average of 0.2% per year), followed by a marked increase between 2009 and 2019 (by an average of 0.7% per year) and a sharp drop during the pandemic (falling by 14% in 2020). Despite some ‘bounceback’ in 2021 and 2022, initial estimates for 2023 and 2024 suggest that public sector productivity is stagnating and has not yet recovered to its 2019 “.

And I have to say that I know of public sector workers who are truly taking the Micky courtesy of the tax payer. One of them is a relative of mine who is not very motivated because afterall, his boss isn’t working very hard, so why should he? Apparently his boss is often not available to chat on the phone because he he is skiving. Another was wondering whether they can somehow still claim the cycle to work scheme allowance despite not going to the office.

Not everyone is a bad actor, but if public sector workers want to get a strop on with anyone, they should take it out on those abusing the system, and report it. It’s not on. And before anyone gets a gob on about the private sector, I couldn’t give a rat’s arse, because my taxes aren’t paying for it.

And I don’t even like Farage. I think the system stinks.

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/outlook-public-sector-productivity

The fact you can’t see how it’s relevant is exactly the point!

So you have never worked in an office?