Page 23 | SERIOUSLY??? People may quit if forced to work from home, Rishi Sunak warns ?

R2221 · 2021-03-26T14:13:38+00:00

No Mr Sunak. Working from home saves me 2 FUCKING HOURS of daily commute + rush hour stress + travel costs. I work from home now. I am more productive, less stressed and happier.

Flowers24 · 27/03/2021 11:17

Personally in my 40's i have no desire now for office 'banter' or mindless making conversation with colleagues.......if i was a lot younger say in my 20's i get it, they would want the social side but for me? Home working is the way forward.

trappedsincesundaymorn · 27/03/2021 11:18

I can't think of anything worst than coming home, pottering around and watching tv

Trust me after a day of driving to and from a client's house, back to the office, then off to see someone else, then back to the office, the above is my dream evening.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 27/03/2021 11:29

@Flowers24

Personally in my 40's i have no desire now for office 'banter' or mindless making conversation with colleagues.......if i was a lot younger say in my 20's i get it, they would want the social side but for me? Home working is the way forward.

I'm in my 40s but thankfully don't think I'm above talking to my colleagues

theleafandnotthetree · 27/03/2021 11:34

@Flowers24

Personally in my 40's i have no desire now for office 'banter' or mindless making conversation with colleagues.......if i was a lot younger say in my 20's i get it, they would want the social side but for me? Home working is the way forward.

I know you prefaced your comment with 'personally' but your comment contains more than a whiff of the suggestion that the desire to interact with other people is a sign of immaturity which is to be set aside once we reach the enlightened planes of our 40s? I'm 48, when should I expect to have arrived at the exact set of people who I only now have to meaningfully interact with so I can leave behind all l banter and 'mindless' conversation with those younger people and all other inferior beings outside my bubble?

JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil · 27/03/2021 11:35

I’m also in my 40s and enjoy talking to many of my colleagues

Kazzyhoward · 27/03/2021 11:35

@CuthbertDibbleandGrubb

With a bit of organisation and planning, I expect most people could get the benefits of being in an office from going in two days per week (discussing work issues, social contact for example). Though there are far too many people who lack basic planning and organisational skills, or the simple task of being on time.

The Chancellor does not care about this I expect, just property values.

Again, the existing public transport system won't survive with a 60% reduction in passenger numbers (i.e. 2 days per person instead of 5). That alone will make those 2 working days more expensive to travel on fewer trains/buses with probably longer journey times. If people are happy with that, then crack on, but don't be fooled into thinking there's still going to be the same bus/train timetable and you'll only be paying 2/5ths of your previous bus/train fares.

UserTwice · 27/03/2021 11:45

@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

I’m also in my 40s and enjoy talking to many of my colleagues

I'm also in my 40s and enjoy talking to my colleagues.

And when I was in my 20s I enjoyed talking to my older colleagues and finding out about their different life experiences and viewpoints. Yours 20s are the first time (due to the school system that partitions people by age group) that you really get the chance to talk to people who are not in your age group as equals.

Daydreamsinglorioustechnicolor · 27/03/2021 12:00

Yours 20s are the first time (due to the school system that partitions people by age group) that you really get the chance to talk to people who are not in your age group as equals.

That's a really great point. You learn so much from the informal interactions.

RampantIvy · 27/03/2021 12:02

Thank you @theleafandnotthetree.

I do wonder if a proportion of the people who seem to find their coworkers so almost uniformly tedious, annoying etc might need to look to themselves.

I'm afraid that this thought has also occurred to me.

When we were office based one of the women I worked with was pretty clear about not wanting to socialise with us, but she wasn't rude about it. She just said "I'm very much an introvert, and want to get on with my work, but feel free to ask me any work questions".

We all accepted her for who she is and let her get on with it. She is very good at her job, and everyone respects her for that and for being honest with us.

LuaDipa · 27/03/2021 12:08

Everyone is different. Some people love working from home, others hate it. I suppose ideally we would be given the choice but it’s a big ask for employers.

Betty000 · 27/03/2021 12:12

I’ve been working from home, it’s awful, we haven’t got the space, I’m cramped in a corner with the screen at an unsuitable height, wires everywhere, two ASD kids at home, ITS SHIT and I want to get back in the office!

DGRossetti · 27/03/2021 12:24

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SERIOUSLY??? People may quit if forced to work from home, Rishi Sunak warns ?

Skyliner001 · 27/03/2021 12:31

It's work from home all the way for me, absolutely love it, and will be continuing.

namechangeaga1n · 27/03/2021 12:36

Oddly enough I was saying the opposite to my DP, that if presenteeism is forced, good staff will leave to a more flexible working environment. I think a hybrid option would work for most people and most employers - sharing ideas, mentoring, learning how "not" to do a job from crap members of staff and learning how to do a good job from others. I imagine that where possible, progressive firms accept that some people may be in the office full time and some may be in only when necessary. Why on earth would firms retain more office space than they need?

poppycat10 · 27/03/2021 12:58

Again, the existing public transport system won't survive with a 60% reduction in passenger numbers (i.e. 2 days per person instead of 5

People DO know that. Why do MNers always assume everyone on here is stupid? We already have a (much) reduced timetable, but it works much better because it is much easier to recover a service when there are fewer trains. Yes you'll have a longer journey and there will be fewer trains, but that doesn't matter if it's (more) reliable and you (usually) get a seat.

poppycat10 · 27/03/2021 12:59

@Betty000

I’ve been working from home, it’s awful, we haven’t got the space, I’m cramped in a corner with the screen at an unsuitable height, wires everywhere, two ASD kids at home, ITS SHIT and I want to get back in the office!

I refer you to my first post on this thread.

I will SHOUT IT this time: home working in lockdown is not the same as remote working in normal times.

Abracadabra12345 · 27/03/2021 12:59

@BogRollBOGOF

WFH certainly works for many people, and there is space for more flexibility in workplace arrangements.

But
Some people have family life to consider. Conference calls with a spouse "encouraging" children out of the house, or an autistic meltdown in the backgrounf are not ideal. Or communal living for young people.
Internet strength.
Having safe, appropriate work space
"Living at work" rather than living at home.
Loss of social contacts, effective training, progression, teams.
Becoming sedentary, especially loss of incidental movement and work consuming the gained commute time.
Needing external motivation and social pressure for focus.
Added domestic distractions, cold callers, deliveries, neighbour's dogs/ DIY...
Getting time away from the work environment/ household members.
Employers passing the buck on creating an appropriate working environment onto their employees without compensation.

Most WFH social networks are still based on historic connections. As they change, they are hard to replace and are also getting harder to sustain as this situation limps on.

I'd be pretty pissed off if DH's company made WFH permanent and I lose autonomy on how I use my own home in space and behaviour around his company's needs without any choice.
Full time WFH would be a deal breaker for me as I need a focused environment without domestic distractions and with external professional expectation. I don't have the internal drive to self-motivate reliably. (Possibly neurodiverse, and many neuro diverse people would be negatively impacted by a lack of choice)

Great post

Gwenhwyfar · 27/03/2021 13:00

@LuaDipa

Everyone is different. Some people love working from home, others hate it. I suppose ideally we would be given the choice but it’s a big ask for employers.

Why is it a big ask? It's already the situation in a lot of workplaces.

DGRossetti · 27/03/2021 13:01

Oddly enough I was saying the opposite to my DP, that if presenteeism is forced

I wonder how many companies are actually able to determine staff and overall efficiency of wfh vs. office working ? You'd think it would be something available at the press of a button.

If I wanted to be a PITA employee, agitating one way or the other, I'd press senior management up to board level to know what the answer to that question is. Because if you can't answer it, you can't really say "this isn't working for us" - one way or the other.

Gwenhwyfar · 27/03/2021 13:01

" I also worked in places where I made no deep friendships but where I still learned a lot about myself and other people"

Yes, sometimes your colleagues aren't the same kind of people you'd be friends with so you actually learn a lot from being around different types of people. Everyone (except the nasty minority) brings something valuable.

Abracadabra12345 · 27/03/2021 13:04

@Flowers24

Personally in my 40's i have no desire now for office 'banter' or mindless making conversation with colleagues.......if i was a lot younger say in my 20's i get it, they would want the social side but for me? Home working is the way forward.

I’m 63 and mix with and talk to people I’d never normally have much to do with. It helps me see that others have lives and viewpoints different to mine. It takes me out of my house. I think there is something intrinsically unhealthy about living and working and sleeping and eating all in the same spaces. There needs to be separation.

Gwenhwyfar · 27/03/2021 13:05

"Betty000

I’ve been working from home, it’s awful, we haven’t got the space, I’m cramped in a corner with the screen at an unsuitable height, wires everywhere, two ASD kids at home, ITS SHIT and I want to get back in the office!

I refer you to my first post on this thread.

I will SHOUT IT this time: home working in lockdown is not the same as remote working in normal times."

Is her house going to be much bigger once lockdown is over???

Gwenhwyfar · 27/03/2021 13:07

"I agree with this. In real life most people I know seem to be welcoming of more flexibility but are looking forward to being back in the office. Especially for people new to a career."

Me too. I don't know ANYONE who wants to work from home 5 days a week. Even a friend who fought to be allowed to wfh one day a week is now desperate to go back.

Gwenhwyfar · 27/03/2021 13:10

"I would not be going out meeting friends every night of the week with work the next day so would be isolated for much of the week.

It's your choice, and it's perfectly valid."

No, it's not a choice. I just don't have the energy to go out every night during the week in my 40s and neither do my friends. I can do once a week and maybe one other evening or an activity like an evening class, but it would not be enough to make up for not speaking to anyone all day in the week.

Gwenhwyfar · 27/03/2021 13:13

"my point was only that many workers have no choice but WFH at some point and the separation work/home is not possible for the majority"

Yet, you give no evidence of this, only your own impression based on the people you know.
Did you notice that when wfh was first decided on, a lot of organisations had to quickly sort out laptops for all their staff because they didn't have them before?