To think perhaps WFH might need encouraged again for a while

The company I left last year (not for this reason though!) mandate 2 days a week in the office for most colleagues. This is tracked and reported on and any non compliance gets referred to a disciplinary. They also now check how long you’ve been in because people were just going in for an hour, or even swiping in for a few minutes if they happened to be in town but not at work.

“We” don’t make anything. The oil industry in the UK is privatised and the companies who extract it sell to who they want at the price they want. Take the US is self sufficient in oil and yet is still seeing huge price increases.

Our oil supplies are safe as we produce a lot ourselves and the rest we source from friendly countries unaffected by the current war. However this does not protect us from price increases because the price of oil, like that of gold or copper, determined at the global level, not by local markets.

You also need the assurance of decades of enough political stability to justify the investment. Something neither the UK or Venezuela can provide at the moment.

AFAIK oil companies are not interested in the North Sea as there is not enough oil left to justify the cost of extraction.

Yeah, urm. Can't see my boss going for public transport. My not rocking up til 11am isnt going to go down well. Nor will me leaving at 2 30 to get home in time for bed.

DHs work specifically advertises as "own transport preferred as no public transport routes nearby".

Not all of us have access to public transport that is fit for anything.

Quite agree, we should be exploring North Sea oil. While it’s not a quick solution, we are far too reliant on other nations, as has been shown to our cost with the fuel crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as with the current crisis.
On WFH, this would be very costly for many, particularly those households on heating oil which are usually rural and have poor access to public transport, so compounded additional costs… but then again Keir seems determined to destroy rural life and the countryside so might view that as a bonus.

Great, as long as work don't mind if you don't get there as you live 30 miles or more away! I do think pedestrians and decent pathways need some focus, it's been all about the bike for far too long now.

No one I know was furloughed, all just worked from home. If they won't listen though then I think you just let them find out the hard way.

I didn’t wfh when Covid hit. I was the only one going in a few days to keep the office ticking over - whilst everyone else was furloughed and sat in their gardens drinking gin in the sunshine.
I mentioned to our manager that maybe it would be a good idea to have a plan in place just in case the fuel situation goes from bad to worse and gets seriously rationed - only about 20% currently have the ability to wfh at present.
You know……perhaps it would be a good idea to sort out laptops and secure home connections for the rest of us to wfh if we had to.
🙄 as usual I just got nil response and looked at like I’ve got two heads…….
oh, well…….

How about just walking small distances for a change?

The residents at the he top.of my road are too lazy to walk the 150 yards from their flats to the post box. And always use their cars for a return journey.

Plus 15 million pounds was spent in my area 2 years ago. To upgrade crossings, pedestrian areas and provide cycle lanes re the vision the God Andy Burnham

The cycle lanes are barely used . And the cyclists are still using the real cycle lane. That is the pavement.

So get off your arse folks and cycle or walk if you want to spend less money on petrol.

Takeways and vapes 🤣 not wrong

Meanwhile on the threads where someone needs to go to A and E loads of Mners will STILL say get a taxi.

They should make all bus journeys free so that no one needs to use their cars. Most buses are empty most of the time.

It's not just one van though is it? There's a Tesco van, an Amazon van, a DPD van, a Parcelforce van etc. Many of which are dropping off one parcel here and there.

I get any Amazon/DPD parcels delivered to the local Co-Op, then I walk down at my leisure to collect them. That means one fewer van clogging up the streets of my village and I don't have to wait in for the delivery.

We need more walkable communities so that we don't need to drive to run basic errands (groceries, doctor, pub, school etc.)

I used to have a scrapman down the street. Every car imaginable on his driveway, roles Royce, porche the lot, what did he drive most days?
Horse and cart. 2 carrots and a bale of hay & it was happy.
Couldn't help it, perhaps a horse is the answer reminded me of my old neighbour.

I'm a taxi driver so I've no choice but to go out and use fuel. My employer pays for it, but the national insurance increase, fuel increase & minimum wage rise. Taxi fares are not rising so the profit margins are getting smaller. We're 1 small independent company rather than a large organisation & I'm waiting for my boss to say enough is enough and give us our notices.

How does it help the poor noble low earner if everyone is needlessly forced to get on the roads and use the fuel?...many lower earners could also benefit from WFH incidentally

Thank you for saying what I was going to

Privileged middle class work from home CoVid lock down fanatics getting themselves all excited about the prospect of another few months in their pyjamas.

Working class warehouse workers, drivers, carers, tradesmen, retail workers etc will all be crippled high costs and rationing, while smug mumsnetters are spaffing all over the Internet how they are saving money AND the planet while getting paid to sit at home boasting about how their £50,000 company car EV is so cheap to run.

How tedious and how very predictable.

Doesn’t less fuel get used from one delivery vehicle making a dozen stops than a dozen people making their own trips to the supermarket?

Eat local food, what is in season now? It’s not called the hungry gap for nothing.
I don’t mind WFH half the time but the only enjoyment I get from my job is seeing my colleagues. I’m not getting the bus. It’s 4 hours a day even if it was free!
But the amount of online deliveries and uber eats etc around me, people aren’t that poor.

Yes please to WFH more! Sadly my boss is constantly banging on about the importance of face to face interactions and hauling us back to the office 😐

Given how quiet the roads are during the school holidays, the real solution is to close the schools 👍