Why are certain newspapers so against WFH?

[Circlesandtriangles]

AIBU for seeing a persistent agenda in The Telegraph against working from home? It also has a completely misogynist undertone. Not everyone has to be a massive fan of it, but why work so hard to stoke up opinion against it??

Example headlines from November:

"If you want to lose your job, work from home"
"Just one in ten women working from home plan to return to office"
"Take it from a mother, working from home is a disaster for women"
"HMRC spends millions so staff can abandon offices"
"Afghan allies ‘left at the mercy of Taliban’ while civil servants worked from home"
"People working from home do half an hour less each day, study finds"
"It's high time staff returned to the office"

@manysummersago

It’s hard to say. I’m certainly hearing a lot of ‘our services may be reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic’ and I’m still waiting for a form from teachers pensions to arrive and I asked for it some three weeks ago.

this thread was quite a read, though!

I think you would get this in the office though on a Friday during December, our office is so quiet but you always get a higher level of noise on a Friday as people are more chatty, people bring in cakes and hover around them catching up, there is definitely a different vibe in the office on a Friday also.

WFH will cause career problems for women. I think in 5/10 years time we are going to see taltent pipelines that are very different because of it.

@Mittenmob

WFH will cause career problems for women. I think in 5/10 years time we are going to see taltent pipelines that are very different because of it.

How so?

Right then the ones that have to go to work should be paid a premium. We don’t get to have any of this lovely flexibility and most parents in my sector have to work part time so that they can be their for their kids at least a little bit. We are also the ones having to fork out childcare. If you want to have nurses and midwives in the futureetc then you need to make that attractive too. Just saying change your job then to someone in and established career is thoughtless.

There are good arguments for wfh and good arguments for working in the office depending on the job, person, and industry. It’s not one size fits all. But the OP specifically asked about The Telegraph and it’s decision to disparage wfh and link this with working mothers the scourge of all mankind naturally.

Let’s not forget that The Telegraph is the closest paper to state run media all the more given the love-fest between its former journalist and No 10, which has been trying to get everyone back to the office since Aug 2020. This to save Pret and Tory commercial property donors… Plus, the current cabinet do believe that we’re a national of wasters that require constant supervision to make us work.

@manysummersago

It’s hard to say. I’m certainly hearing a lot of ‘our services may be reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic’ and I’m still waiting for a form from teachers pensions to arrive and I asked for it some three weeks ago.

this thread was quite a read, though!

That thread was filled with people saying they were wfh but just happened to be on MN when that thread was posted 🙄 a self-selecting group with no eligibility parameters means their 'anecdotes' are statistically unimportant.

The same companies who want to dissuade the general population from wfh, and from moving to more community based initiatives etc are invested financially and emotionally in having a presence across social media.
There were and are fascinating discussions taking place about how work and society can change but you need to seek them out at universities, academic panels and political/community discussion groups.

I can't see wfh being effective long term, I agree with a pp that customer service has dropped.
I've had months of dealing with incompetence at social services sorting assistance for my mum. People ring me, then can't answer my questions so have to ring back, if they were in an office they would just ask a colleague, I get told " I can't ring back with the answer as I have to take my son somewhere "
Sorry if you can't do your job effectively at home you should be in the bloody office

Its nicknamed the Torygraph for a reason! City centre commercial prices, the lunchtime food sector, quite a lot of retail and hospitality is very reliant on everyone returning to work predominantly in offices away from home. The people who benefit most from those businesses are wealthy investors, including older people with large invested pensions.

It's a right wing newspaper. Flexibility helps women to work, and of course the Tories would like us all back in the kitchen with the baby on our hip.

I bloody wish DH would go back to the office. We don't have a spare room of study so he's been working in our kitchen or bedroom. If he's in meetings, which he frequently is, I can't get into our bedroom for most of the day.

But he's certainly not working fewer hours. In fact he's doing more, as he starts work at the time he'd usually leave the house and finishes at the time he'd normally be walking through the door, so they're gaining on average an extra 3 hours per day, minimum, from him.

I know @requiredusername and I do want to be fair. I suppose my issue with it is that while it’s probably good for the individual (though not in all cases) I’m not so sure if anyone else benefits. And wfh being heralded as this fabulous thing seems to put work as the central thing that matters in life, which I have probably explained badly, but it seems to expect that homes become workplaces and that this is a great thing. From the other side - DH works from home - it isn’t!

It's mixed at work, really productive at a certain stage of each project, a nightmare at others.
My manager likes us there as an audience, by Friday, I'd been shown countless memes, disappointed him that a video I watched was a product and not chainsaw goes wrong. He managed to MOT his wife's car one day and chat with clients and sales reps beyond duty.
It's a private, niche, company. You will have seen/ be aware of our work.
If your company or organisation employees humans it will be a mixed just like they are.

Don't think it's quite the conspiracy theory it's being made out to be, I'd hazard the guess that take up of the Telegraph's online content which is behind a pay wall is pretty low and they need commuters to buy the print version.

The Telegraph is also read by a lot of City types who tend to be resistant towards WFH culturally because they are used to "client facing" jobs where its all about presenteeism/networking etc.

They were the last parts of the industry to allow WFH before the pandemic hit and now they are among the most aggressively pushing people to go back in.

No surprise whatsoever that the senior jobs in these industries are dominated by men who have wives and partners at home to deal with the children. They've always scorned flexible working officially because its seen a sign of poor commitment but I suspect in reality its actually because its something which hands more power to women.

@olivehater

As someone who has never worked from home it pisses me off. I am still paying out childcare, petrol etc. I choose to work part time and take the equivalent pay cut that goes with that while I see people on the school run that then nip to activities/coffee shop/playground with their kids. Sure there are some that put all the hours in later but their are plenty more who don’t whilst taking a full time wage. Civil service appears to be the worst for it. If this is going to carry on then this that those that have to travel to work need to be paid a premium or no one is going to choose these careers going forward. And why the hell would you when this jobs that allow working from home have it so cushy?

Get a grip. "I'm paying out for childcare" first of all that's no one else's responsibility but yours. Secondly, if you really want to work from home, get off your arse and find a job that can accommodate that. Christ, talk about childish. The tabloids are only slating WFH because their mates have shares in all of the coffee shops etc so with their target market WFH their shares are going to decrease. Its all about money, Boris and his rich mates rolling in it but us peasants, God forbid you have to work from home to protect your family, this country is a disgrace.

@catgirl1976

The Daily Mail is at it today blaming the mess in Afghanistan squarely on home working 🙄. I assume their investors are city centre landlords

Anything to divert attention from 11 years of Tory cuts to civil service, foreign aid, local government, health, education, drug services, youth services...

The Tories cut everything, break everything then moan when nothing works

Because they have a vested interest in people going out to work and bumping the economy in the city.

Also because it’s The Telegraph and they’re arseholes.

@olivehater

Right then the ones that have to go to work should be paid a premium. We don’t get to have any of this lovely flexibility and most parents in my sector have to work part time so that they can be their for their kids at least a little bit. We are also the ones having to fork out childcare. If you want to have nurses and midwives in the futureetc then you need to make that attractive too. Just saying change your job then to someone in and established career is thoughtless.

But the way other people work doesn't make the working conditions of your job any better or worse. You are saying that because you can't work from home in your job, no one should be able to? How does that help you?

WFH is very niche middle class. As for the comments about a burnt out workforce, it’s as if some people aren’t aware that the majority of people can’t wfh. And wfh is great for older people with nice houses, not so much for many others, especially youngsters.

And no city centre landlords aren’t bothered, there is a huge need for housing, offices can be converted.

And silly dismissive comments about Pret really piss me off, people are employed by Pret, their jobs matter just as much as yours.

@FredaFox

I can't see wfh being effective long term, I agree with a pp that customer service has dropped. I've had months of dealing with incompetence at social services sorting assistance for my mum. People ring me, then can't answer my questions so have to ring back, if they were in an office they would just ask a colleague, I get told " I can't ring back with the answer as I have to take my son somewhere " Sorry if you can't do your job effectively at home you should be in the bloody office

Do you think, just perhaps, that a) reduced workforce due to ongoing cuts and b) increased workload due to cuts in other areas + COVID just might be the real cause?

Blame WFH if it suits you but that is a naive take.

And silly dismissive comments about Pret really piss me off, people are employed by Pret, their jobs matter just as much as yours

Exactly this.

Get off my arse. Wow. I’m never in my arse because a have Job that involves non stop work from The second I get to work till the second I leave home. A job that I haven’t stopped at throughout the pandemic. It’s a career and I am proud to work hard and not take the piss. If you want people to do the kind of job I do then we are going to need to be paid to attract us into it. Let’s be honest a lot of these work from home job could be done in the half the time they are claiming for. People are taking the piss left right and centre.

@MasterGland

I read The Telegraph, although I am not their target audience. I think there is a great hesitancy about WFH amongst the section of society that make money from other people working and consuming. I think many fear WFH will be a slippery slope to a low economic growth society, albeit probably a happier one. WFH, 4 day week and eventually a universal basic income. These ideas are being seriously discussed by many. It is probably quite scary to those who profit from the current status quo.

Off topic but I’m genuinely curious to know what anyone gets out of the telegraph these days. It seems to have gone really demented in the last 5 years, arguably surpassing the Mail.

There could also be more flexibility and part time arrangements in jobs that do have to be done out of the home as well. A move towards greater flexibility and fewer working hours could benefit everyone.

Feels like an appropriate place for a Yes Prime Minister quote.

Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country; the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; the Financial Times is read by people who own the country; the Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country, and the Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.

Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?

Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits.

@DeepaBeesKit

Its nicknamed the Torygraph for a reason! City centre commercial prices, the lunchtime food sector, quite a lot of retail and hospitality is very reliant on everyone returning to work predominantly in offices away from home. The people who benefit most from those businesses are wealthy investors, including older people with large invested pensions.

It's a right wing newspaper. Flexibility helps women to work, and of course the Tories would like us all back in the kitchen with the baby on our hip.

Ahh see I'd never heard the term "Torygraph" but all the pieces are clicking into place now!