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

Er, no. I voted for Brexit and I’m a big fan of hybrid working.

Noting that even if my public sector employer wanted everyone back 5 days per week we’ve sold off 40% of our buildings and it would be impossible

The type of people who hate WFH are likely the same people who voted for Brexit.

NF definitely has backers who own office space and city businesses . Thats what its about . As usual just about billionaires and tgeir money .

A lot of teachers weirdly get jealous I’ve found, but then I get jealous of their extra long holidays!

Local councils had flexible working long before Covid. No set hours and you could work where you wanted.

Hi, my child was in nursery/grandparents while i WFH aged 1-4. I dropped him off at 8 then worked 8.10 - 4.10ish.
I would never have worked from home with a child, it’s not fair on them and my employer wouldn’t allow it.

I was lucky in that his nursery is on the same road but having no commute time massively helps anyway even if it’s not.

Then for school his dad drops him off and I pick him up at 3.30pm and we avoid wrap around care. I make up any lost time.

My employer is very modern and is totally fine with this. I’m measured on the completion and quality of my tasks, project success etc.

Agree, call centre staff get away with F all, they absolutely can not spend 53 minutes doing the school run. Call centre work is still the same at home as it is in the office.

I don't know if the roads, trains and buses could cope if everyone stopped working from home. Also many companies no longer have the main office (one I used to go past there was an amazing canteen where everyone was tucking into full English breakfasts just before 9am). I know people who have to book a desk space the day before.
I worked from home a few days (during the days of self isolation positive COVID test but was well) and hated it.

This is a very limited view - there are massive recruitment and retention issues in the public sector, especially in regional and local government. About 80% of councils are carrying long-term vacancies. Pensions are often better than private sector but low salaries and inaccessible locations as well as having to carry those vacancies are not attractive enough to make people stick around for the pension.

Agree, I’ve had visually impaired colleagues before who worked mainly from home and occasionally in the office. For obvious reasons the office was much harder for them / travel and moving around - but also they felt ‘different’ because of their screen readers or sitting position and it made them feel different. At home, even on video calls, there was no way anyone could tell they had a disability and they were treated the same as anyone else. Obviously ideally we’d treat people equally wherever they are but, until that happens…

Work in a cafe or library? Meet up with other WFHers? Don’t go for a full remote job?

I also would hate 100% remote, but there are many hybrid or office jobs around.

This Farage situation is like in COVID again, when people were begging for more lockdowns. Erm no, you just stay at home then!😂

As someone who seems to spend 80% of my time in meetings, the answer to when the work gets done is in snatched bits of time in between meetings so everything takes 20 times longer than it should if I had fewer meetings. It’s exhausting! My team should have 10 people on but due to cuts only has 3 so there’s nowhere to delegate too either. It does make the days go fast though.

If he was PM he could try to stop it for civil servants, and I believe he’s already tried to stop it at Nottinghamshire County Council (where Reform have control).

But beyond that - well he can’t.

DH has a small business and Nige has no control whatsoever about stuff like that!

She doesn't have to do the commute though because she works from home. That's the point.

But why did you take a job with such a commute if you couldn’t do it? I’m always slightly baffled when people talk about public sector jobs and lower salaries. Public sector jobs are hugely in demand because of the generous pensions at least. They are very sought after. A friend of mine is losing her public sector job, and similar private roles she is applying for pay half what she was on.

Such an important point about disability. Remote working has been incredible for workers who are disabled and have health conditions. I'm not sure the people who want it reduced understand how much it would fuck disabled workers over. People often say it should be allowed in certain circumstances, but the fact is it's better for people who need remote work if it's a norm rather than an adjustment, something that has to be asked for. It's harder for an employer to discriminate if they know non-disabled applicants are just as likely to want remote work as disabled ones.

It’s jealousy with a dashing of
ignorance. Pure and simple.

WFH, once it becomes more established, will be fantastic for social mobility. Growing up in a deprived area where the only jobs are paying minimum wage, or a remote area with few jobs at all? That won't matter in future. People can live by their family and friends, keep communities together, better prospects, more money into economically disadvantaged regions, great for society and individuals. Eg, Cornish villages could stop being taken over and destroyed as real communities by wealthy second home owners if local youngsters could access decent careers.

I'm public sector and worried about this. My office is central London and an hour away by train. I go in about twice a month and with train ticket and parking, it costs me £50 a day. I'd have to leave if I had to go in every day.

Public sector salaries are generally lower than private sector equivalent roles and it can be hard to recruit good people to certain roles already. I think there'll be a flood of people leaving the public sector and who's going to want to replace them for 60-70% of what they can earn elsewhere? It'll have to be less experienced or qualified staff. There will be big gaps in service provision/lower quality work.

Why do you think office working should be the default?

And who has suggested that WFH while caring for children is the norm, or acceptable?

Plenty of jobs are on a screen all day whether that’s at home or in the office.

Plenty of jobs that can be done from anywhere are enhanced by AI, but not replaced by them.

Tell him lots of people have weird beef with workers who clock off at 3.55 pm every day 😏

Confused. How would Farage stop WFH?

Agree, that’s what I’d be concerned about. Also when jobs are WFH they are more accesible for people with disabilities, caring responsibilities etc and there’s no reason why customer service jobs can’t be done just as well by people who would otherwise struggle to get to a call centre.

Those daft enough to believe he can enforce that, are the same people that envy people that can wfh

Working from home was a thing way before Covid. I wfh and there’s no office space to occupy so even if I didn’t like it , which I do, I love it in fact, there’s no other choice.

This is an argument for balance where it's needed, not for everyone to go into an office by default. Why does it matter to you what my work agreement is?