To think WFH permanently is a game changer?

[MiaMarshmallows]

For working parents as it saves on childcare costs as well as commuting etc?
DP been told he can wfh indefinitely and it's going to improve his lifestyle so much more. For everyone saying he will be outsourced, not a chance. He is very specialised in what he does and earns a very good wage for it.
One good thing to come out of all this at least.

I've worked throughout and it's has saved my sanity while also driving me a bit round the bend (covid rules etc). I for one would not want to wfh. I need contact with human beings - isn't that part of what makes us human?

My company experimented with WFH in the 1990s. A couple of people left London and bought property in Suffolk and Herefordshire. Then the ethos and management changed, the experiment was abandoned and they were sidelined, both eventually leaving the company. I think if you are ambitious, you need to come into work. Similarly if you are top or near top executive tier. If you’re not bothered about advancing in an organisation or you work for yourself then maybe it’s different. My suspicion is that offices will revert to ore pandemic norms sooner than people think. At the moment WFH is about safety. I can’t see why employers would do it just to make people’s lives easier!

I really hope so. My team have working flexibly throughout the pandemic and get more work done than in the office. It's a win for the company as we are technically working slightly longer but are all having more free time as we close the computer and that's it...we're finished and don't have to waste time on a busy commute. Kind may wfh continue and if companies want to attract the best talent I think they're going to have to offer a mix of wfh and office to entice people

For us it has reduced childcare costs in that we don’t need to pay for before-school care - we can all get up, have breakfast, get washed and dressed and then one of us does the school run and drops DC2 at the childminder. That saves us the cost of four hours (two per child) of childcare each day. About £250 per month.

And it’s much more relaxing than waking everyone between 0600 and 0630 and the drop-off parent racing round trying to get two sleepy children washed and dressed and out by 0700 to drop off at the childminder before heading to the station. We can still be logged on and working by 0900. Add in the savings from not commuting/commuting less than previously and wfh is a total game changer for us. We absolutely still need childcare, and can’t wait till afternoon wraparound is available, but not needing morning wraparound works much better for us as a family.

I agree, I think there will be a real push to get people back in but I also think employers are going to have to offer more flexibility. My ideal would be an equal split between home working and office working, and I think employers are going to have to offer more WFH as routine, as people will vote with their feet in many professions.

I am the boss at my work.

At my workplace about two thirds of the jobs can be done from home. The rest are furloughed.

When we can, my plan is to give people the choice. People can wfh some or all of the time or return to the office.

Having surveyed the staff - 90% want to continue wfh at least some of the time.

We will reduce the office space as we wont need as much as before but will continue to provide a workplace for those who want/need it.

It has already allowed me to retain 2 members of staff who have relocated away from commutable distance because they can work from home.

Staff survey says that those who like wfh find they are more productive, that it is benefiting their family life, that they are saving money.

It doesn't suit everyone and not everyone does like it and that is why I will go with choice.

In my sector I find speaking to other senior leaders that this is the approach that most are taking.

Many people are being allowed to work from home permanently - the issue I have with it is the change to communities and housing prices. Rents have gone up by 30% in a year where I am and houses are being sold within 24 hours at ridiculous prices. This is impacting locals - who are having to move out of the area.

@csigeek

How are parents WFH saving on childcare? If they’re looking after their kids they’re not working, if they’re working they’re not looking after their kids.

Say you start work at 9 and have a 45 min commute, you need to leave at 8.15 at the very latest, which probably means dropping the kids at breakfast club at 8. If you’re working from home and their school is nearby then you can skip breakfast club, drop them at school at 8.45 and be back at your home desk to start work at 9.

@GintyMcGinty, can I ask how you are planning to deal with new staff, training and new graduates?

All the people I’ve talked to who have started a new job wfh have all said that

• very little training was ever offered
• they struggled to make sense of how things worked because they couldn’t just ask their colleague next to them
• a year on they still feel like an outsider and not part of the team
• they often have no idea who to ask for xxx information and dint feel they can keep asking said boss. Again the sort of thing you normally ask your colleagues when you start.

They all seem to have found that really hard and unfulfilling tbh.

We think they are going to offer flexibility for staff to work at home if they want to at my office. I don't work from home very often and find that those that do expect those of us in the office to do more work for them, admin tasks such as post, printing etc. It really annoys me. I'd like everyone back in. We were employed to work in the office. Not at home.

Being with your spouse 7 days a week isn’t normal

For a lot of people, it is now.

The company I work has decided that WFH has been so successful that they are planning on closing most offices, keeping only a few and the majority of people will continue WFH. Working in the office will be hot desking, no-one will have their own desk unless they have specialist equipment and meetings will be encouraged to be held via Teams and not face to face.

@BlueSoop

I would love to wfh but the fact is most employers want people in. Imo we will end up with a social divide where poorly paid workers are wfh and higher paid workers are required in the office.

To be honest I see it being the other way around : the poorer workers, generally considered key workers, will be the people forced to leave home in order to do their work through having no choice, whilst many of the better off will have the option of WFH and saving more money by doing so. There are exceptions of course, but this appears to be the trend. That said, this pandemic must be driving the 'micro managers' mad, so I wonder if the WFH concept will continue long-term? It will be interesting to see how this pans out beyond a couple of years.

@GintyMcGinty

I am the boss at my work.

At my workplace about two thirds of the jobs can be done from home. The rest are furloughed.

When we can, my plan is to give people the choice. People can wfh some or all of the time or return to the office.

Having surveyed the staff - 90% want to continue wfh at least some of the time.

We will reduce the office space as we wont need as much as before but will continue to provide a workplace for those who want/need it.

It has already allowed me to retain 2 members of staff who have relocated away from commutable distance because they can work from home.

Staff survey says that those who like wfh find they are more productive, that it is benefiting their family life, that they are saving money.

It doesn't suit everyone and not everyone does like it and that is why I will go with choice.

In my sector I find speaking to other senior leaders that this is the approach that most are taking.

I would love to work at your company, seriously I would. A very considerate employer that listens to their staff. Such employers are thin on the ground these days.😒

I have been retired for 13 years now and used to do part of my job from home. It was not a binary situation though. When WFH I had to be available as part of my job was managing a team of clinicians, but I didn't have to do my own work during my committed hours BUT I did have tight delivery timescales and clear and high performance expectations. It suited me very well indeed and suited my work but I had no kids.

I think there’s a big chance people will be mixing office and home working. If DS was younger prob wouldn’t save much on childcare, but generally spend £250 a month on wrap around we won’t need -he can look after himself do a couple of hours, no commenting means we can drop him at school. No dog Walker needed. No £100 per month train pass. No expensive lunches.

Feel for youngsters who won’t necessarily benefit from above and will miss out on office related social life and face to face guidance

@TrixieMixie

But there are definite benefits to the employers too. They can potentially reduce the cost of providing office space for the proportion of staff working from home. They can potentially increase the happiness index of valued staff without having to do so through increasing pay.

Staff for whom WFH works well with no reduction on efficiency/output get a better work life balance if they can cut down on time spent commuting. Sometimes valued employees hand in their notice because they have sought out a job nearer to home to achieve this.

Staff who save money on childcare will be less inclined to be looking elsewhere for a pay rise. Possibly less likely to ask for part time/condensed hours if they're making things work better for their family by cutting down on commuting.

If one member of staff comes down with a cold/virus, they won't be spreading it to others potentially decreasing productivity when it reaches that one person known for taking at least 2 days off each time they catch something like that.

Sadly some employers won't be able to adapt or will take the view, "why should we" (make life pleasanter for our employees). When other employers are willing to do this, having done the cost/benefit analysis, guess which will find it easier to recruit and retain staff.

[quote ParadiseIsland]@GintyMcGinty, can I ask how you are planning to deal with new staff, training and new graduates?

All the people I’ve talked to who have started a new job wfh have all said that

• very little training was ever offered
• they struggled to make sense of how things worked because they couldn’t just ask their colleague next to them
• a year on they still feel like an outsider and not part of the team
• they often have no idea who to ask for xxx information and dint feel they can keep asking said boss. Again the sort of thing you normally ask your colleagues when you start.

They all seem to have found that really hard and unfulfilling tbh.[/quote]
I started a new job in a new area in the middle of the pandemic, it’s been different but you just get on with it and accept it’s different from being in the office, I just call people via teams, not really that different and no pressure for all the water cooler talks

Not read the whole thread so I don’t know if it’s been mentioned, but what this whole situation has shown is just how easy WFH has been to implement when disabled and chronically ill people have always been told it’s not possible. So from that point of view I do sincerely hope that WFH is here to stay.

@ParadiseIsland

can I ask how you are planning to deal with new staff, training and new graduates?

New staff - we haven't recruited during this period - going forward if its a job that can wfh then it will be advertised as a choice wfh/office or mix. That way we can attract the best range of candidates.

Training - all our training has moved online. going forward I expect it to be a mix of online and face to face.

Just now it is rubbish because its only wfh. Going forward hopefully there will be a mix and new starters will be able to meet colleague's and many of the issues can be overcome.

I also started a completely new career last year, and have only met my colleagues a couple of times; some of them I'm still yet to meet 9 months later. Unfortunately management has been inconsistent with department moves etc and I have no idea if I'm doing the right thing 70% of the time and don't know who I'm supposed to ask what. It's been really hard and I spend most of the time worrying that when things are back to normal I'll be told I've been doing the wrong thing the whole time! I now manage to go to the office 2 times a week and it's been made such a difference. I'd love a mix of both thought to save money and childminder fees.

I work on site and have computer work I've always done at home with my current employer. I hated doing the work in an office with my previous employer.
The roads are still quieter than pre COVID and I hope it can stay that way. Some of us need to drive.

YANBU - I started a new role last October after being made redundant in the summer, I was in the office for 2 weeks before being sent to WFH because of the November lockdown and we haven’t been back since. I go in once a week usually to do things that need to be done in the office, but the company directors are actively switching everything over to a WFH basis going forwards, and we will likely give up the current office premises/sublet most of it and keep 1 of the rooms.

It will be a game changer for me in the long term - I’m only part time and when the kids are at secondary school it’ll mean I have the flexibility to be self employed and take on extra work.

and who has job where you can look after kids while working full time??

Who has suggested that ?? .

No-one. People are talking about shorter days in childcare (for pre-schoolers) as people don't have to add 3 hours a day commuting time, and also that older children who aren't old enough to let themselves in and be home alone, but are able to be at home after school, with parents in house, and entertain themselves, no longer needing to go to afterschool care.

Well said @SATSmadness (at 20:00:04)

My manager and I were having this discussion. Our company is completely comfortable with WFH being the norm and offices being used as a resource instead of a mandatory place to do work once things start normalising.

We both welcome the removal of strict terms on where we work and the focus to shifting to how we work.

Whilst working with children in the background has been nightmarish, it's proved quite conclusively that more flexibility doesn't not reduce quality or quantity of work. Removing the lost time and stress of commuting is probably the biggest game changer and one I'm happy to see the back of.

There have been many attempts to outsource my type of job to other cheaper countries but it always comes back so WFH does not spell an end to my career at all.