Remote working is killing city centres...but what's the alternative?

[Eastie77]

Reading today about Pret cutting almost 3,000 jobs and articles about the death of city centres due to the lack of office workers. My company has announced that all employees can work from home for another year. I honestly doubt our central London office will re-open or at least in the form it took before, ie they may just keep renting part of it for occasional client meetings.

The government is pushing workers back into the office but realistically people are not going to go back while they have the option to WFH and companies have realised they can save on office costs and get the same output from their staff. I am happy to WFH but I really feel for all the local businesses that relied on office workers and are now facing closure. I work close to our office and 6 independent coffee shops and small cafes have closed😔 Not sure what the answer is.

It will get to a stage where companies insist on returning to the office so middle management can justify their jobs and because companies want to keep an eye on people!

Who will train the next generation if the experts are all wfh?

@dox

Who will train the next generation if the experts are all wfh?

Exactly! In, say, accountancy, trainees learn on the job from people they sit next to. Lots of other trades/professions do the same. You simply can't do that remotely.

I love WFH pre covid and still want to continue that but even I am bored now with it 5 days a week and want to go back to a mix.

And I have a big house so room isn't an issue and a garden to take a break in. But winter is going to be a bit bleak when it's darker and colder.

I don't visit the local cafes as I have everything I need at home so the local economy is not being propped up by me.

@dox

Who will train the next generation if the experts are all wfh?

No need. With the retirement age going up and up and up, there'll be no new vacancies for a long time - and then loads of the jobs will go to robots!

Retirement age might be going up but how many companies keep on older workers?

They want the younger people in the company because then they can pay them less than more senior members of staff

But if a company is wfh, how then do they train the new and cheaper alternatives

I’m not in a job that is possible to do from home but I’m definitely going out less because of having to wear a mask and not spending so long out at a time. I’m going out socially less so not stopping to eat lunch out. I also avoid places that charge to park if there is a free parking alternative out of town.

So remote working is part of the story but not everyone’s story for using the high street less, especially right now.

Sorry it's just accelerated an already ongoing process. The government shouldn't try and reverse it just think of the co2 emissions saved by not traveling on one instance they want us to drive less next they want us in the office. No thanks I will save that extra hour I now have for something fun.

Would wfh save a huge amount of CO2 emissions.

I wonder what the percentage of people who now wfh commuted to work using public transport as opposed to those who took the car.

The buses, tubes and trains are still running for the most part full or empty.

I think it depends on where you work. Some places still have v high rates of car travel to work.

I don't think emissions are going down due to people WFH. Traffic problems seem to have worsened in some parts of London since offices closed. In West London it is taking schoolchildren an hour to get to school vs a normal time of 20mins due to ongoing chaos and huge levels of traffic around Hammersmith.

I am now working from a local a co-working space a couple of times a week. I still love the fact I'm not in the office but found staring at the same 4 walls a bit demoralising. The space was previously a cafe and the owner has refitted it to provide socially distant desks with office friendly amenities in a nice environment. Could be a way forward for other cafe owners around here. I am close to central London and the area is still pretty dead. Several old pubs popular with city workers have now closed down and the atmosphere when walking around is almost eerie.

Re. India: my employer has a large customer care team based there. They are extremely well trained and technically knowledgeable. However we have had to move several of our biggest clients back to a UK support model as we risked losing their business due to communication issues and other problems with the team in India.

Re: wfh cutting down emissions, as @Oliversmumsarmy says, hardly anyone seems to be using public transport. Nobody is in the offices at my work (university) but the car parks are full because all the Estates and Maintenance staff have been told to avoid public transport and drive. And there seems to be a hell of a lot more Amazon/DHL/DPD/UPS traffic about!

In seems, from reports in the Guardian, that Sadiq Khan is going to ask Londoners to work from home as tougher rules are implemented here. Hancock has said this will probably be needed due to rising cases.

The covid cycle lanes are also causing a lot of congestion which means more pollution etc.

Norman Foster’s view:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/24/pandemic-accelerate-evolution-cities-covid-19-norman-foster

I find this ‘work from home will push more jobs abroad’ narrative weird.

Surely not paying for an enormous physical office space is going to save a huge amount of money that can be funnelled into retaining experienced staff. One of the major costs of employing in the U.K. is paying the exorbitant rates for desk space for that staff member.

Ditto paying for train tickets and travel cards for staff to commute. And also paying airfares and hotels for staff to attend meetings.

Also, a lot business have been burned by the communication issues caused by overseas call centres. Why would they start funnelling loads of money into redundancy packages for UK staff and then pay to set up a physically office or buy remote working software and training and company induction for a while load of staff in a different country? Especially when the trend was already moving in a different direction.

I also find in nonsensical that the U.K. wouldn’t benefit from this by gaining remote working jobs from other countries. Surely it is up to the government to make us as attractive as possible in this respect.

It is tremendously short sighted to try to force things back to the way they were. It’s never happened in the history of the world. The people who have pivoted hard have been the ones to do the best in this situation.

DH's company outsourced some software development to India. It was a nightmare at first - over charging, lack of feedback, always agreeing with every request but not being able to deliver. They had to really work at it and switch company but have made it work on a smaller scale. It's not as great or easy as it sounds

Also, a lot business have been burned by the communication issues caused by overseas call centres.

Some of that is because they recruited cheap low skilled staff abroad - because they were replacing cheap low skilled UK staff.

Professionals, such as accountants, computer programmers, etc are a different kettle of fish. They're expensive in the UK and properly qualified/experienced professionals abroad are likewise "expensive" abroad but a lot cheaper than UK based. An ACCA qualified accountant in China will be comparable to a UK ACCA qualified accountant in terms of ability etc but will be hugely cheaper. Same with computer programming etc. If they recruit abroad at a high enough level, there'll not be the same drop in quality suffered by the call centres.