to think it's not India that people should be worried about, it's cheaper parts of the UK

[chomalungma]

If you have a high paying job in the South East - because that's what the pay levels are down there because of living costs etc - and your job can be done at home, then your job can be done in other parts of the UK for someone who will do it just as well but for less money.

There may be occasional commuting on the train - but I am sure that could be incorporated into a reasonable package.

The cost of living is much cheaper in many places in the UK compared to the South East.

I disagree. There are hoards of jobs in the SE my Dh could apply for. Double the salary and exactly what he’s doing now. Only thing holding him back is housing costs and preferring where we live now.

I think the job market is going to open up more work for a lot of people. Ability to apply for jobs all over the place which I think is fairer. Those able to afford SE housing shouldn’t only be able to get the plum jobs. Work needs to stop being Londoncentric. People are just as qualified and elsewhere.

It’s interesting that interest in rural housing from city dwellers has shot up.

Errrrm Tectonicplates you what now?! Also surely your therapists in a massive metropolis like London come from various places around the world and also study after study on regional accents has shown Geordie accents to be one of the most trusted and calming accents in the U.K.

Not everyone in the SE has a high paying job. Believe it or not, there are thousands of us doing normal jobs for min wage...just the same as other places.

I think in many ways it will allow people to stay in their home towns. Londoners might be able to afford to stay in London.
I dont think there will be a mass exodus to the north

The gov arnt keen on wfh. I'm guessing because they don't want a London property price crash.

I forsee health and saftet regulations coming in for home workers. You'll need a proper desk with swivel chair and appropriate lighting. Anyone that doesn't have room for this won't be allowed to work from home.

I don't actually think full wfh would work anyway. I think more flexible working would be really good though and city centre office hubs. Where anyone can go and work remotely but it's a proper office set up.

People shouldn't actually be expected to work from kitchens and sofas. My dh has had to set up a desk in our sons room. I also think it's good to get out the house and interact with the rest of the world. And I don't think wfh will be good for career progression and relationship building.

It’s not only a bad thing though.

I work in an industry very concentrated in London. Some people would appreciate lower living costs. I still think you have to consider it carefully, it won’t always be zoom calls with clients and when meetings start happening again you’ll need to be in. Depends how client heavy your role is.

I forsee health and saftet regulations coming in for home workers.

I also see a lot of problems for people whose insurance doesn't cover
working from home, or the lease /covenants on their home forbid it.

the letters in the nhs were outsourced years ago, i am not even sure where to

@Ifailed

I forsee health and saftet regulations coming in for home workers.

I also see a lot of problems for people whose insurance doesn't cover
working from home, or the lease /covenants on their home forbid it.

this was being discussed on radio 4 this morning. employers have a duty of care towards their employees and any back issues for instance that they may incur from working from home.

My Dh simply moved his office chair and screens to home, not hard.

No way could he do his job in an office hub due to security and long vocal meetings.

Hasn’t held him back at all. Just been offered an interesting new project and has been working solely from home since March. He is talking to his team continuously all day. They were never sitting side by side anyway so not a lot different.

Even though I own a small house in London, I would be delighted if property prices fell so many other normal salaried people can afford to buy in the place they work - nurses, teachers, admin workers... all the people who can often buy if they are settled in cheaper areas. Also it would be amazing to see some more social housing freed up for families in the capital.

My Dh simply moved his office chair and screens to home, not hard.

Lucky you with all that space and the ability or help to move the items. For other people though, it is hard.

I think most could organise a chair being moved as a one off.

Re space a desk does not take a lot of space. It may not look pretty but a huge amount of space it does not need.

I suspect going forward firms will prefer those who are adaptable.

We have had a lot of interaction from all sorts of sectors WFH during lockdown.

The majority are doing it and managing it already.

The difference is though that not many people would be willing to move to India to keep doing their job, whereas moving to a different part of UK is viable for some if not for everyone.

I agree too, and also companies might see the talent that they can get outside London for a fraction of the overinflated cost of London salaries. I could get a job wfh for a London firm at half the salary they’d pay and still be on 5 figures more than I am now!

My Dh simply moved his office chair and screens to home, not hard.

It is if you have nowhere to put a desk. Many people don't have a spare room to use as an office, or room in bedrooms. You can't use communal spaces like kitchens or living rooms if you've got kids running about. Not many houses have dinning rooms anymore, and even if they did - should we lose the family meal table for home working. Not great if you've got kids.
And what about people living in small flats, bedsits, shared houses. Many people don't even have a table to eat their dinner at, let alone a space to put a desk.

Not everything is driven by work in the south though is it? We have places here full of retired people and people who chose to live here because it's nice by the sea not because of work necessarily. I could live in a different area as I can wfh and commute but my family is here and I like the lifestyle. There will be others like me

Over time it should even out the cost of living more equally across the country with any luck and also sure as the population more equally throughout the U.K.

We don't want it "even out". Because in reality that means massive price rise. There is no "win-win" for locals.

I don't think the exodus from south will happen anyway considering snobbery towards North and the London centric view will not change easily too.

But people are doing it.

You only need to accommodate a lap top or computer. It doesn’t need hoards of space.

Adaptability is key. Moving furniture to make space etc

Saying I can’t work from home end of is going to put an awful lot of people at a disadvantage and not a good attitude. People are going to have to make it work and most people did during lock down and still are.

When it comes to a salary or no salary you make it work.

I think this is the long awaited wfh revolution that has been predicted for decades

Maybe it's because I am agoraphobic, so the book resonates, but the book "City" predicted it in the 1940's, the result wasn't a work from home utopia, but a descent into isolation for everyone.

WFH doesn't work for everyone - it's easy for the people established in their jobs, working with the team and environment they already know, but it's very hard on the inexperienced and the young with cramped living conditions. There will be solutions to that of course, but so far COVID has only caused solutions to the existing teams working together remotely, nothing to aid in the training/mentoring of new staff, or the establishment of new teams.

I've said way before covid that allowing lots more remote working opens up the recruitment pool (and indeed the possible job pool for job-seekers).

If I don't need to go into London every day but only once a week or once a fortnight or once a month, I can live much further away. I have had colleagues in ostensibly London-based roles who lived near Chester and Doncaster, as well as Northern Ireland. It's not a new thing.

My Dh is joining a new team. They wouldn’t have been sat together anyway. It’s no different wfh to working across a building or buildings. They couldn’t all fit in the office at the same time even before Covid.

In the office I have a desk, an ergonomic chair and double screens.
Now i "work" from the sofa or kitchen table or bed, on a laptop. I live in a flat with 3 other family members, all at home. It's awful, uncomfortable and distracting. I am not motivated at all in a job I used to love which used to involve events and meetings all over the country and which now involves Zoom and emails in my kitchen. Despite a W'app group and weekly Zoom meeting I am losing touch with my team who are equally frustrated and miserable. If this is the future, count me out.

I think it's interesting that the Gov are presenting people who want to wfh as scared of cv and willfully ignoring the fact that people just prefer their life this way.

I would wfh like a shot, if I could. Not cos of cv fear, but because I have gained 2 hours a day, not to mention being able to stick a wash on etc and see my neighbours more. My working conditions have been a bit shit at the kitchen table, but I've always had to do some work at home anyway, so not a problem. If I was young and single, I might not have enjoyed it as much. I'm also not v good for the economy when I go to work outside the home, as I take my own food and don't have time to pop to shops or browse shopping sites.