Government should advise 'work from home if you can' - plain common sense

[swabthenose]

I'm not talking about furlough, or people who are unable to do their jobs from home. I'm talking about office jobs where people have successfully worked from home for months and months with no decrease (and some increase due to no commute) in productivity. Surely it's plain fucking common sense for the government to say 'work from home if you can' and stop encouraging people back to offices?!

All this talk of a lockdown except offices and schools - why offices?! Why is the government so determined to keep all the worker bees in the group working environment when it's not necessary? Yes I know, save the sandwich shops, but tbh if people are working from home then local businesses are going to get a boost instead AND the public transport will be less crowded. Home working at least part of the time is the future, and trying to swim against the tide during a global pandemic seems pretty dim even for our shitshow of a government.

I agree. Where work can be done from home effectively and where it works for everyone - staff included - WFH needs to become far, far more common. COVID aside, losing the commute is going to have massive benefits for the environment.

There does need to be provision for people who struggle with home working though. I enjoy it, have been doing it since March and we have been told it's indefinite (NHS, not front line). But something needs to be in place for people who find it hard.

100% agree. We're not going back yet, unless individuals really want to.

Yes totally agree - LBC radio station is heavily pushing the go into the office mantra and I have no idea why. Sadly overpriced coffee purveyors and many lovely local sandwich makers are struggling and may have gone under, but wfh - if you can- is an easy way to reduce people's physical interactions.

I'd rather be back in the office - but the office as it was - where we chummed down to get coffee together and I had 15 people crammed into a meeting room for our planning sessions. I have no desire to go back in and sit 10 metres away with one or two folk who I can't have a normal range conversation with.

YANBU

Won’t make a difference. We still haven’t opened non essential offices here, but the vast majority of people I see on calls have gone back to the office. It’s selfish and stupid but they insist they have had enough of working from home so it is ok. My bosses don’t seem to have the nads to tell people to stop doing it.

Why does this need to come from the government? Surely any good company would still be offering wfh at the moment if people can easily? Why do people always need to be spoon fed, companies should use their common sense.

I have no interest in returning to the office. It has no impact on my job. It saves me money and probably 2 hrs a day of getting back on forth to the office on packed trains. I don't have to do face time because my boss does a cat bum face if I want to leave before 6...

YANBU. If everyone who is happy and able to wfh does so then it's safer for those who don't want to or can't.
My office days rarely contributed to the local economy as I took lunch.

I think we have an amazing opportunity to change our infrastructure in this country and we should take it.

So many people criss-crossing about the country - commuting to a computer just like the one at home.

Those that dislike WFH could co-hire offices with other like-minded local individuals.

People (and businesses) will save time and money and the lowered emissions would mean environment would be far better off too!

The big chains like pret will just need to scale back. I feel sorry for those individuals losing their jobs but many people have lost their job during this pandemic. You can’t fly in the face of common sense, purely to try and stop a few more job losses. I don’t see us all being encouraged to fly because airlines are struggling for example. It’s tough but that’s the way it is right now. More people wfh makes sense on so many levels.

In terms of getting things back to normal I think the government tried to run before they could walk and the result of that is more upcoming lockdowns. I think it was a big mistake. A slower more measured pace might have meant we aren’t facing another lockdown imminently.

YANBU. DP wfh very successfully from March, but last month his company demanded they all go back to the office. Just as local lockdowns were starting in the area where he works. The office is on an industrial estate and part of a manufacturing site - it’s adding absolutely nothing to the economy having people there, save the petrol/diesel of people commuting. And now we’re just worried our kids are going to end up sent home from school to self-isolate, because if they are, who’s going to look after them? Our only option will be my retired parents.

All this talk about sandwich shops and rail fares - even if you think that’s reasonable, surely that only applies to people who work in city centres? A significant amount of people don’t; they work nowhere near bloody sandwich shops or even adequate public transport. I can’t help but feel that this is just another example of the government forgetting that there is more to the country than London.

I agree OP. It is such an easy win for reducing contact between people.

YANBU. Despite feeling very sorry for the businesses in large city centres, I agree that people will use their income in other ways which add to the economy and are likely to spend in the local businesses instead. Even places like smaller local gyms and leisure facilities will get a boost hopefully as people can access these facilities easier as they have no commute and have more free time.

@eurochick

I agree OP. It is such an easy win for reducing contact between people.

And such an easy way to increase isolation and loneliness.

It’s all very well advocating working from home when you are secure in your job, when you have the space in your home and the facilities you need.

It’s a different matter if you are working from a bed sit, perhaps sitting on the sofa with an ironing board for a desk.

It’s a different matter if you’re at the start of your working life, unable to interact face to face with your peers or your line manager. How do you establish working relationships? How do you learn how to do your job when you’re sat at home at the kitchen table?
WFH may benefit many people but it disadvantages many others. It is also likely to have adverse impacts on health and the economy, so many jobs and transport options will disappear.

What people are forgetting is that, if you can do your job easily from home in say London, then someone can do your job at a vast reduction of the cost from home in say India. This is a dangerous consequence of everyone working from home. Why would an employer pay a London salary to someone if they don't need to? People need to be very careful about pushing working from home for everyone as it has dangerous implications and it's not just the death of the ancillary businesses and services in city centre hubs.

Agree @LimaFoxtrotCharlie - it's very hard for all those groups. And I definitely think some office jobs where people work in teams are better face to face. I do get it's hard and complex but this virus is clearly not going away and our kids have gone back!!

My concern particularly is how firms recruit new hirers, especially graduates etc - not everyone works for large companies with big training systems in place so I think it's going to be very hard for young people.

YANBU

It would be a very easy measure to put in place, and would help make it safer for those who can’t wfh by reducing numbers on public transport or in workplaces.

Sensible employers will push the wfh if you can message anyway. I work for a big private sector company who closed offices during lockdown but reopened when restrictions loosened, mainly for those who struggle to wfh either due to the type of work they’re doing or their personal circumstances. The office isn’t in a local lockdown area however lots of people commute in from one, so they have been pushing for people who can wfh to do so, to try and keep the office for those who can’t. They’re also encouraging people to walk, cycle or drive in as much as possible rather than use public transport.

I work for a local authority and I have a question about businesses. If you work for a business, are your businesses actually sending people back to work because Boris has guided them to? Fair enough the civil service following government guidance, but surely the rest of the country does whatever suits it.
My particular team isn't expecting to set foot in an office this year, we share our space with another team who actually need a presence in the office, so to preserve social distancing we are staying out. It is what it is, Boris saying stay home won't make them stay home, Boris saying go to work won't make me be allowed in. Surely business owners do what suits them? Even if that means allowing employees a certain amount of autonomy - my husbands big office aren't forcing any individuals in, they are asking for a presence from each team, and have got more volunteers than they need so you have to state your case if you want to go in more than twice a week. I like it when he goes in, there is one highly superior working space in our house and I feel guilty if he's working somewhere crap, and annoyed if he's got the good spot. I bet he wishes I'd bugger off to work occasionally too!

I don't work in a city, about as far from it as you can get, and I'm still WFH, but will be returning to the office in the next few weeks. We will all have to WFH on Fridays, and to start with we've been split into bubbles and each bubble is in alternate weeks. I'd like to think this is an experiment in flexible WFH for all of us - I loved it during lockdown, but now the rest of my house is back at school/work I'm finding it harder to stay motivated on my own in the house.

I can see both sides, I have colleagues who have really struggled with their mental health WFH, and I'm painfully aware of how lucky I am to have a separate room to work in when so many are stealing corners of rooms and having to pack everything away every night. I'm really nervous about going back because of the extra interactions I'm going to have with people. But we can't stay like this forever, and a blend of the two would be perfect once this has all settled down.

It is not just the local sandwich shop. It is the big City landlords (Canary Wharf etc) whose property portfolio devaluation would have a massive financial impact. On very few very rich people (who also happen to be large Tory donors).

Totally agree - and I personally dislike full-time working from home, think that there are disadvantages, especially for many younger employees, and full-time working from home is not a permanent shift I want to see. I was upset when told we wouldn't be back in the office until January. But given the current situation it seems like madness to encourage people back into offices, working from home is a very effective social distancing measure to limit the spread and even if - like me - you don't like it it's a reasonable measure to take to help to limit a second wave.

I agree, it's not the right time for people to go back yet if they don't need to due to work or not having social isolation. That means there's less people around for the people who NEED to work in the office for various reasons.

It's not fair for people who have businesses or jobs that rely on busy city centres, but then entire industries have gone pop.

And who is going to pay for the public transport to continue to operate, not just short term but keep companies going so they don't have to close permanently??

My daughter has been working from home for the full 6 months and she's bored of it. She works hard but it just isn't the same anymore and she'd love to get back into the office.

I work in an office too and travel there and back on the train. I don't honestly know what your problem with it is?? I haven't heard of any large outbreaks caused by office environments, or commuting so why is it such an issue??

I'm so sorry you aren't being allowed to wfh anymore but going back to work really isn't that bad.

I'm going back to the office because working from home has really impacted my mental health and is very lonely. I can't wait. I don't use transport though

@bestbefore

At what point should people go back then?

Maybe you should look Into your crystal ball and let us know.