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

[R2221]

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.

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

how is it different? It will still involve spending all day in my house getting fed up of staring at the same 4 walls. And if I'm going to go and work in a cafe, why wouldn't I just go and work in my office, which is actually set up for people to work properly? And how on earth do you effectively manage wall to wall teleconferences in a cafe?

The main thing that will be different is that I can have some sort of social life after work, but I don't have the energy to go out every evening after an exhausting day at work, so still will be pretty isolated. One thing I enjoy about being in the office is the multiple low level interactions with a variety of people - it's a different type of socialising if you have to (say) plan to go to a friend's house.

@poppycat10 lockdown finishing is not going to make my house any bigger. Many of us cannot use coworking spaces. It isn't going to change the fact that 8 hours of back to back video calls stuck in the same room with no human interactions is shit. It is not going to make my children disappear so I can do all this wonderful socialising in the evening.

My DCs go to school near where I work...that means that I now have a 1.5 hour round trip every morning to WFH! I can’t wait to go back to the office.

I actually looked up where the nearest co-working space to me was because we were finding me working from home really difficult on the days where DH doesn't work and cares for our toddler - it was restricting what they could do and upsetting DS, who isn't old enough to really understand that mummy might be here but she isn't available. It turned out it was about 50m from my office. Bizarrely I wasn't that keen on the idea of spending £95 a month of my own money to travel to the same place where my employer used to provide me with office space...

I’ll agree working from home is more convenient.
But I can’t imagine myself working from home every day for the rest of my working life, or even for an extended period. I hate it. I really do.

If my employers said i had to wfh permanently, I would have to look for another job.

@JeanClaudeVanDammit

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.

But that’s only currently feasible because the rail network (and light rail and bus for that matter) are being completely propped up by huge payments from government. It’s not a realistic proposition in the longer term.

Indeed, that's what people don't realise. The franchise system is temporarily halted and the govt is paying the train operating companies to run trains around at very low capacities. Sooner or later that issue has to be addressed and the subsidies/grants will have to be put back to pre-covid levels. If passenger numbers don't recover, that means mass redundancies and fewer trains, maybe even fewer than today's reduced timetable.

Stuck in the house all day with no social interaction, no change of scenery, no break from the monotony...

If my employer told me I had to work from home permanently I'd be looking for a new job ASAP.

Sunak wants people back in the workplace just to keep Pret etc in business and rental incomes coming in for city centre offices.

Commuting to work seems so antiquated now we have the technology for many of us to work from home.

@Egghead68

Sunak wants people back in the workplace just to keep Pret etc in business and rental incomes coming in for city centre offices.

Commuting to work seems so antiquated now we have the technology for many of us to work from home.

You do realise that Pret etc. keep people in employment?

I’m with you OP, I much prefer wfh and I was annoyed by Sunak’s assertions, which are definitely driven by his mates worrying that their city centre building leases won’t be renewed, and the reduced incidental spending by office workers on food & drinks etc. I get it - we had a complex economy that has taken a kick to both shins... he’s trying to revive it, but he should know that companies will make decisions based on their pockets, not because their staff happen to support a car park, Costa, Pizza Express & Wetherspoons.
I hope that most people will be given a choice. Whilst I can do my job 95% from home, and I love not wasting 2 hrs a day commuting, I completely understand that none of the junior staff are growing properly. There are negative consequences for people not learning from their peers. I certainly learned a lot through listening and observing my senior colleagues and I’m mindful that we need to address this.
One thing that bothers/annoys me these days is that MH has become a weapon, “back to the office for MH”, “social interaction for MH” - misses the point that there’s no one size fits all & my MH suffers on a shitty, stressful commute & if I have to do a full day in a huge, noisy, open-plan office full of self-important twats. 😉

I am exercising more, getting a better work life balance, and am far less stressed by working at home. I am lucky because I have space to WFH and my children are grown up so I can work when I like.

I am very aware though that DH is about to go back to his normal hours so he will be out every day from 8am to 7pm, and I wont see anyone. I do also miss the interaction with colleagues so for me 3 days in the office and 2 at home is what I am working towards.

It's interesting to hear the difference of opinions, I feel sorry for anyone forced into a situation that they are not happy with, especially if they were enjoying their job previously.

I worked from home 2-3 days a week before covid, and every single working day since 16 March 2020. Before, i would schedule all meetings for my office days and would focus on “deep work” during my home days.
Of course during the pandemic, this went out of the window and the number of (online) meetings exploded as we were required to run daily meetings for our teams, to compensate for remoteness, as opposed to once a week/fortnight before.

I would appreciate a change of scene/catching up in person maybe once a week. But I live in a rural area and work in a city, and I am saving 3.5-4 hours/day on commute time plus the cost, plus I can walk the dog myself during the lunchtime now (win/win for both the dog and myself), and also collect kids from school at a reasonable time, not after supper as before (now that they are physically back to school). So more days per week WFH is like a win/win/win/win for me.

Interestingly, the only 2 people from my team who last summer were most vocal with threats of resigning if they cannot get back to the office, were same people who flatly refused to even consider taking public transport when talks started last autumn about returning to offices in some form.

So I suspect the only people who are throwing fits about continued WFH are the landlords/investors of those office blocks that are now being downsized or abandoned by tenants, and this explains why Rishi is so concerned, since the same people are likely to be Tory donors.

So I suspect the only people who are throwing fits about continued WFH are the landlords/investors of those office blocks that are now being downsized or abandoned by tenants

Apart, presumably, from all the people on this thread who have explained just how much they’re struggling with full time wfh? Or are we all corporate landlords in disguise infiltrating these threads to spread misinformation?

There's only 2 people in out dept who want to get back to the office. One lives on her own, and the other is the manager.
So yes, I think the majority of people are happy WFH and YANBU

So I suspect the only people who are throwing fits about continued WFH are the landlords/investors of those office blocks that are now being downsized or abandoned by tenants, and this explains why Rishi is so concerned, since the same people are likely to be Tory donors.

That’s total bollocks in fairness. Many, many people are struggling with wfh. Many more are struggling with the effects of wfh (poor customer service, future of small city centre businesses, anyone who works in transport).

I suspect the numbers for whom long term wfh is a positive are actually quite small, though waaaaay over represented on here.

Indeed, that's what people don't realise. The franchise system is temporarily halted and the govt is paying the train operating companies to run trains around at very low capacities. Sooner or later that issue has to be addressed and the subsidies/grants will have to be put back to pre-covid levels. If passenger numbers don't recover, that means mass redundancies and fewer trains, maybe even fewer than today's reduced timetable.

Far fewer, not to mention no new investment in fleet upgrades, improved routes, better technology etc. And that’s just the national network, regional light rail systems and the bus network are currently facing an incredibly uncertain future too. It’s not like their costs halve if they run half the services, even if that was desirable.

and the other is the manager.

Well that tells a tale, huh?

@Egghead68

Sunak wants people back in the workplace just to keep Pret etc in business and rental incomes coming in for city centre offices.

Commuting to work seems so antiquated now we have the technology for many of us to work from home.

Our office isn't even anywhere near a city or town centre, so we were doing nothing to keep the economy booming even when we weren't working in our houses

I actually looked up where the nearest co-working space to me was because we were finding me working from home really difficult on the days where DH doesn't work and cares for our toddler - it was restricting what they could do and upsetting DS, who isn't old enough to really understand that mummy might be here but she isn't available. It turned out it was about 50m from my office. Bizarrely I wasn't that keen on the idea of spending £95 a month of my own money to travel to the same place where my employer used to provide me with office space...

I’ve just looked up the nearest one to me, out of interest. It’s further away than my office and is only open at set times whereas my office is a 24 hour building. So that’s not an attractive option. But hey, I can just go and hang out in Costa all day: I’m sure they won’t mind my 2 monitors and back to back Teams meetings.

@poppycat10
What is this nonsense of "working from home is different in non pandemic times, when you can work from libraries/co working spaces."

These are only options if you don't need to make confidential calls or meetings. I'm a community mental health nurse. During the pandemic I've had to wfh and carry out telephone appointments. This is in no a e.g. feasible if I was to work in a public space. So if s home or work for me. I'd rather it was work tbh

So yes, I think the majority of people are happy WFH and YANBU

TBH, I think most people would prefer flexible working, so IMO, YABU.
I am fortunate to have enough space and no childcare issues to be able to work from home effectively, but even I am not so hard of thinking to appreciate that not everyone is as lucky. And I miss my workmates

@emsyj37

Not everyone loves working at home. Not everyone has space, not everyone enjoys being isolated, not everyone likes the intrusion of work into their home, some people enjoy the social contact of the workplace. Not everyone has a long commute that they hate. Young people in house shares don't necessarily want to spend all day in their bedroom at a desk looking at a screen. If my job became 100% work at home, I would quit and find a different job.

Well said and so true

Young people in house shares don't necessarily want to spend all day in their bedroom at a desk looking at a screen.

I can corroborate that. DD is a student in a house share of 8 students. They are all feeling demotivated and fed up.

My husband has been working from home pretty much solidly since March last year, apart from the odd day here and there and has hated every moment of it and found it a struggle. He actually admitted he is jealous of the fact I get to 'go out to work'. He even told me he paid for a funeral service, because he got so low at one point. He'd rather be back at the office but also have the flexibility to work from home if needed. I think many employers have realised working from can work, but would need to give employees the flexibility of both working from home and at the office. Many have found it tough, others have not.