to think some people would be weirdly excited if WFH came to an end?

As others have said, it's not really something the government can control.

I agree there is room for all kinds of workers - fully office, fully remote, or hybrid!

I've cycled between at different stages of my life. They all have their pros and cons.

He’s trying to appeal to the telegraph readership.

For some reason a lot of retired people, who have never worked from home, are apoplectic with rage about WFH.

I assume they have no idea what the modern workplace looks like.

The oft repeated complaint is ‘you can’t get hold of anyone if you call the council / energy provider / other call centre’. Which merely shows they don’t understand either how those jobs are managed / monitored, nor how companies operate to make money.

@TiredofLDN I don’t understand the culture in this country of pulling up the ladder behind you.

My company have one office but staff are located all across the UK and a couple in Europe. WFH means that we can recruit the best person for a job, not the best applicant who lives within a commutable distance from the office.

The ripple effect has changed where people socialise and shop. Round here that has been a plus as most people worked an hour away. Now that more people wfh at least some of the time more of the shop locally, go to local cafes and pubs. It’s been great for local businesses.

It hasn’t been great for the big town an hour away and one of the multi millionaires who owns lots of buildings there is very loudly shouting about how bad for ‘everyone’ wfh is.

its jealousy

Pre Covid, dh worked in a city centre. In the office 5 days a week. They have an "entertainment" budget per quarter and did a lot of team lunches.
Then came Covid, the Company was bought by a massive French one and they were relocated to a city suburb with a subsided canteen on site. Dh works primarily from home now but even if he was pushed back into the office, they wouldn't be in the city centre spending money in shops and restaurants.

Instead, he and I regularly go for lunch locally to us as I only work part time.

Wfh is my idea of hell which is why I don't do it. Dh thinks it's great which is why he does.

Oh god like my great aunt and uncle who voted for- very loudly and proudly- for Brexit…. Having spent 20 years of their retirement living in Portugal between September and April every year….

They can’t do that any more of course. But they blame the Portuguese for “not playing fairly”.

The only problem is that the amount of remediation work (sewage, drainage, fire and safety improvements and so on) would make the building completely financially unviable. It would be better to knock it down and rebuild, but that's not good for the environment. Rock = hard place.

My understanding is that the ripple effect has actually improved things in town centres -ie, people do visit their local cafes, town centres, gyms, etc - because they are near to their homes. What has suffered are the city centre offerings.

It has hence why companies like Pret have expanded into local high streets.

I also suspect that the people insisting that others aren't productive at home likely don't do much themselves

Plenty of those against wfh don’t work or have retired!

Town centers were dying before WFH increased.

Nightclub and pub after work culture was on its way out pre covid.
Online shopping fucked high street retail well before WFH
I don’t see any dearth of coffee shops etc anywhere, so they’re not struggling.

And tbh if WFH was the issue, there should be an element of pent up demand for goods and services, which if you’re not going into the town/city during the week, you would expect to see at least largely reflected in weekend footfall and expenditure …

My understanding is that the ripple effect has actually improved things in town centres -ie, people do visit their local cafes, town centres, gyms, etc - because they are near to their homes. What has suffered are the city centre offerings.

I don’t know why this is getting so much traction. The government can’t stop private companies from allowing workers to wfh. IME hybrid seems more popular than wfh but that could just be me?
He said it because he’s repeating the words of his favourite US Conservatives. Surely he is one of the most famous wfh people in the country? I doubt he works from his constituency office 5 days a week bar trips to Westminster to vote (snigger)

I can understand people wanting to wfh so they can fit working around their domestic lives, and I can also understand different people wanting to leave the house and go into work where they can talk to people.

The blindingly obvious solution is for those who want one way of working to look for work that offers it, and for those who prefer the other way to do likewise. Stressing about what other people do and why they do it is pointless and (to me) inexplicable.

I saw a study saying it is mostly men who want to get back to the office. They want to get back to a place they can boss around juniors and have women fawn on them again, rather than having to help with the housework and raising their family with someone who might hold them to account. Says a lot about the workplace IMO.

Definitely jealousy

Of course the government cannot demand companies order their employees back to the office. But what the government has to do is deal with the consequences of a huge number of people working from home. As in the ripple effect on local cafes, town centres etc. People in the past would socialise after work or during their lunchtime, there has been a massive impact on those businesses now that people are no longer coming into the town centres, this needs to be looked at and they need to be supported. Demanding everyone back to the office is obviously not the answer but there needs to be new thinking on city/ town centres and what they are, what is their purpose, unique selling point etc if the office worker is no longer a source of income/ footfall for them

Agree. People get really weird about this and quite nasty. I also suspect that the people insisting that others aren't productive at home likely don't do much themselves.
I'm not a fan of Farage anyway but I think this is just daft from him. It might be a vote winner for the small number of complainers who think everyone else is a shirker but most people want a choice.
My old company insisted on 5 days in office and had huge problems recruiting. We just didn't get CVs in. People don't want to go back to the office full time.

Unexpectedly nanny state approach from Farage there isn’t it…

It’s also a boldfaced attempt to further ferment “class war”- amongst the working class / lower middle class- or maybe better to define as white collar/ blue collar?.

regardless- it’s much better for Farage if all the people on minimum wage and/or manual jobs that can’t be done at home, feel livid about people probably earning about the same as them but WFH “taking the piss” “trashing the economy” “hastening the demise of city centers”- because it distracts from the real issues- which he has no idea how to fix.

WFH are just an extension of “boat people” strategy- point the finger at one group, and sit back and wait for the baying mobs to go where you tell them- which is very far away from your cronies and their interests.

Farage’s backers need office rentals to go back to pre covid levels.

Yes, lots of companies would have to rent more space. They’d also have a smaller pool of applicants- only those who could reasonably get to that office daily, meaning they may have to pay more, or take longer to recruit.

I’m another one whose employer sold all our buildings except one HQ in London which is too far to commute for most of our national workforce and wouldn’t accommodate everyone anyway.

Do people really think the government can force organisations to buy or rent properties just so they can plonk workers in them?

Absolutely insane.

How could the government even legislate for this? I thought right wing parties were against state interference in business

Yes some people are weirdly foaming at the mouth about it. I think a lot of it is jealousy from people who cat wfh. The whole “if I have to suffer a commute so should you” thing.

Agreed.

Although I feel strongly that converting many of these blocks to residential flats with 3-4 bedrooms for families would be more valuable.