to think what Boris Johnson has said today is unacceptable?

[NoviceNewMN]

first he has said (I'm guessing as a sop to commercial landlords complaining about properties being abandoned by businesses) that everyone needs to go back to work because they will be gossiped about:

"You have got to be able to come in, you have got to know what everyone else is talking about – otherwise you are going to be gossiped about and you are going to lose out"

Really? Firstly so what? and secondly, it's basically condoning bullying as a reason to get back to work.

Then he has said

'It's not the job of government to come in and try and fix every problem in business and industry."

Boris says it is 'not my job to fix all of the UK's problems': PM’s astonishing claim as he denies nation is in 'crisis' and DISMISSES inflation spike fears, fuel shortages and empty supermarket shelves as 'just part of his new approach'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10060043/Boris-denies-claims-supply-chain-chaos-just-ending-UKs-low-wage-economy.html

Oh, and you are absolutely not being unreasonable. I wish there was a voting option.

He also made disgusting comments about exchanging bodily fluids at the conference. I find it so depressing that we have such a vulgar, spoilt, entitled boor as our Prime Minister.

Gossipping? Are we all still at school? Who cares if someone is in the office or at home, if they're getting their job done?

No-one in my department is back in the office yet, other than the odd day for those who live nearby. We're all waiting until it's mandated in March next year. No reason to go in - we all worked at home regularly before the pandemic, and our productivity has increased since 2019.

My workplace stamps heavily on gossiping. Lots of staff when they join say it is lovely to work somewhere where people do not gossip.

@Porfre

So it's not the job of the government to ensure the population have food, that there is energy and basic amenities like fuel are available?

What is their job then?

Well Johnson's take on it appears to be:

• to give a peerage to his sibling
• to decorate his apartment with £500 rolls of wallpaper
• to threaten the French fishermen with a gunboat near Jersey
• to form a square around 'the Prittser' despite Sir Alex Allan - who had conducted the civil service inquiry - finding Ms Patel’s behaviour could be seen as bullying resulting in Sir Allen's resignation(so that's how he knows about workplace bullying!)
• to not sack Matt Hancock when he was found to have breached social distancing rules by conducting an affair in the workplace and then to pretend that he had actually sacked him when it went down like a ton of bricks with the public *to not have to isolate when in contact with a Covid positive case as he was too special was on a special pilot scheme which he promptly came off when it went down like a ton of bricks with the public *to shout 'let the bodies pile high' as his preferred public health response to Covid *to brag about shaking hands with patients on the Covid ward, shortly afterwards contracting Covid

He really is a special kind of leader.

I have to be honest though, if I did work in a gossipy workplace I would rather work from home. Such workplaces are toxic.

Also, I take issue with the implications of "going back to work", which suggests that those of us who have been working from home have been doing nothing for the last 18 months. What utter, offensive, tripe!

He’s not talking about going back to work he is talking about people who have been working throughout from home going back to the office.

As far as I can tell most office based businesses have realised the can save a lot of overheads through remote working and aren’t bothered about getting back in.

@Tilltheend99

He’s not talking about going back to work he is talking about people who have been working throughout from home going back to the office.

As far as I can tell most office based businesses have realised the can save a lot of overheads through remote working and aren’t bothered about getting back in.

Indeed. His choice of words is very telling though.

I see a lot of BJ sympathisers and anti lockdown folk are out in force on this one OP, best of luck.

Totally unacceptable what he said, the man is an absolute catastrophe. The country is going to be in ruins by the end of his reign, we think it’s bad now….just wait.

I find it hard one one hand its not his job to fix everything but in the other hand hes telling businessess they need to operate as they did before the pandemic even if they have found they prefer it the way it is now

Never a great fan of Boris and the random stuff that falls out of his mouth!

But we as a company have started going back with a mix of WFH and office. A few people have pushed back as they used to travel distance for work (usually in the office mon-thur) and would stay in a hotel locally in the past but they are now unwilling to come in - which seems unfair as it was their choice to accept a role so far away!! Same as the people that have moved away, our company always said they would do a hybrid working arrangement and it seems to be have taken as permanent WFH so they also pushing back about coming in!

We’ve closed our local office so I do have to travel further and spoke to my LM with balancing school drop off with the impact of travel and they’ve been ok and I make my hours up on the days I WFH.

That’s terrible. I read yesterday that the female director of Octopus Energy was assaulted by a male Tory activist at the bar at the conference. It’s not a great start to their attempts to get tough on violence against women.

Agreed!

Fair enough if he hadn't caused the problems.

And people WFH is none of his business, hre's parroting that for the benefit of his commercial property owning paylords. At least people WFH ARE working, unlike him.

@Franklin12

People do need to be going back into the offices. I work with local authorities and various large suppliers. There is a lot of skivving going on. People who are hiding at home, who refuse to come in because its not 'safe' yet they go on holiday, meet up with friends etc.

I worked for over 30 years for a FTSE company who did embrace home working but only for the ones to be frank were to be trusted. Too many people took advantage of this and they learnt to pick and choose who to allow to wfh.

Now that everyone was doing it during the pandemic surprise, surprise productivity has gone down. You can often take upwards of 45 mins to an hour to get through to certain institutions. Look at how well the working at home for GP's (and hiding behind 'we will call you some time on Tuesday type appointments has worked out'.)

My DS had lectures on line and pre-recorded at university by some lecturers who often couldnt give a stuff.

There is a weird acceptance in Britain that it is impossible to manage people, and that skiving reflects just as badly on manager and management systems as it does on the individuals. There is a culture of 'oh it's inevitable that some people will skive so rather than learn to manage them properly I'll just have them where I can see them, where their productivity probably still won't be great'.

Just because people WFH doesn't mean that active management stops.

In my team, and in my organisation, productivity has risen. In my own team, we've smashed our targets and gone significantly beyond. Demand in our sector hasn't changed, we haven't taken on additional staff. We do, however, have systems that enable us to manage people appropriately when they are remote as well as when they are in eyeshot.

Yes, management is appallingly bad in many places in the UK - it's recognised as one of the main causes of the productivity crisis. But it isn't inevitable.

What if the organisations whose only option is to have everyone back in the office instead invested in training and supporting managers to manage properly?

@Porfre
So it's not the job of the government to ensure the population have food, that there is energy and basic amenities like fuel are available? What is their job then?

The job of a Tory government is to make sure the top 5% increase their slice of the pie every year. For this group to get richer exponentially it is necessary that most other people do not. Fortunately for the Tories, in today’s already vastly economically unequal society, all they usually need do in order to achieve this exponential rise in wealth of top 5% is sit on their hands and do nothing. So, the job of a Tory Government is, most of the time, to do nothing. It wasn’t a gaffe - Boris Johnson was actually being honest for once.

I can’t stand him but no it’s not the government’s job to fix everything. Most people I know are back in their offices at least half of the time, the vast majority of workers could never work from home anyway so seeing people moaning that they have to leave their house is a bit weird to be honest.

For example, refusal to come in for the minimum set in our return to work pathway because it's not 'safe' would either need medical evidence, or disciplinary action would be taken.

Those whose productivity is not measuring up would be on a performance pathway, and if WFH was a major contributor, then special actions would be taken around it.

But taking a blanket approach to 'everyone must be in the office all the time or they'll skive' or 'productivity has fallen, what an inevitability of home working' is just papering over the cracks of pisspoor management.

I can’t stand him but no it’s not the government’s job to fix everything.

It'd be super if they could at least have a bit of a look at the problems they created themselves, though.

He’s right about the fact that it’s n the government’s job to fix everything. The more they meddle, the more stuff breaks.

Management in the UK isn’t a profession. It’s just something people who aren’t good at anything fall into. Until we start professionalising management in the way other countries have we will never improve productivity.

And yes I can absolutely believe poor managers would use bullying and gossp to try and get people in the office where they can see them. Poor managers don’t care about productivity or what’s best for their company / employees, they just care about their best interests.

Working from home can lead to lower productivity in some businesses, got nothing to do with management. Not all businesses are exactly the same.

Management in the UK isn’t a profession. It’s just something people who aren’t good at anything fall into. Until we start professionalising management in the way other countries have we will never improve productivity.

Or, to be fair, are good at their actual area of expertise, but to progress their roles almost automatically include people management, with minimal training or support.

But yes, agree on the professionalisation of management - both people and other forms of management.

I think what Boris Johnson says most days is unacceptable 🤷‍♀️

As a previous poster said the Tory politi s aren't to micromanage peoples lives for them. That's socialism and they are not socialists. You want thr state to basically do everything for you go vote Labour in and see how you like being molly coddled.

Some of you would probably like it if the government paid for everything, dealt with everything and gave you xx amount to spend on whatever you like without having to worry about paying bills etc.