The future of working from home

[Maighdeann]

Before the virus there were campaigns pushing towards flex working/working from home. Do you think now where it's shown it can be done (for certain jobs) companies will allow it to continue and is that a good thing?

[thecatsthecats]

Working from home might be sustainable if we had a society in which working people had good access to secure and affordable homes

The housing angle is an interesting and complex one, sure, but I'm not sure secure and affordable is much of an issue. The vast majority of the presently wfh population got chucked into this with little notice.

What becomes interesting is:

• commercial lets tanking - would some be converted back into domestic use?
• location inflation - if I'm not in the office, why would I need to live within an hour? I can meet virtually, attend training courses local to me, and commute occasionally for F2F. Competition could dramatically increase the cost of rural locations previously unsuited to workers.
• provision of services to domestic residential areas - with more of the population staying near where they live, is there an increased demand
• type of housing - I'd have picked a different house if I'd known my husband and I were both going to be living and working in it five days a week.
• cost of general transport - with lower commute footfall, will costs increase?
• cost of services - are they cheaper because of lower office costs? Or the same because staff need to be paid enough to afford a home with working space?
• childcare - you can't wfh with toddlers around you all day, and it would be a bugger to replace the commute with a drop off to a distant nursery etc

[BirdieFriendReturns]

My friend works for a bank, in digital banking. The digital banking arm is being offshored to India. WFH has been so successful, they would rather pay less for offshore workers to WFH.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Quite a few companies who offshored various roles have ended up onshoring them again, for various reasons.

[FinallyHere]

good access to secure and affordable homes

I'm sure that real WFH arrangements with good quality support from technology and management who understand how to manage by results would over time allow people to choose to live in a wider area and mitigate against the pressure cooker that increases housing costs.

I'm absolutely in favour of flexible arrangements which work for everyone.

[B1rdbra1n]

would over time allow people to choose to live in a wider area and mitigate against the pressure cooker that increases housing costs
I'm absolutely in favour of flexible arrangements which work for everyone
good points and well said!
Lets hope....

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

It's obviously very different for people thrown into wfh suddenly, without proper facilities at home

I will never have that as I don’t have an office or a spare room I could make into an office

[StCharlotte]

I'm sure that real WFH arrangements with good quality support from technology and management...

I'm quoting you out of context FinallyHere but I wanted to mention support from management: in eight weeks I have had not a single call from management to see how I'm getting on! I'm taking it as a compliment as (for once in my life) I appear not to be causing trouble

[SeasonallySnowyPeasant]

I’m finding this thread really interesting. I started a new job during lockdown and while there are some things I’d like to be in the office for, these months have proved that it’s a nice-to-have rather than a necessity. My contract is already WFH once a week but I’d be happy allowing my team to WFH 3/4 days and come in 1/2 days a week for meetings and training.

One thing I have found though is that managers need to be very clear that WFH is dependent on business need. Otherwise you get people booking the dentist during their lunch hour / putting their car in for a service and getting grumpy when you tell them that they have to be in the office on that day.

[Greengrassgravy]

Are the task-focused people the people with poor people skills - the people that everyone tip-toes around because they seem to really hate other people because these people do cause lots of problems - but I suspect they aren't aware enough to notice.

[Greengrassgravy]

@thecatsthecats what industry/role do you work in. Is it creative?

[dibble15]

DH used to wfh once a week, now it's looking like he will only be in the office once a fortnight but wfh completely for the next few months. It's a big change & who knows if they will renew the lease.