To think WFH is stupid on its own?

[zafferana]

To be clear, I think WFH again is stupid anyway and we have to just live with this fucking virus, but with everyone going out to bars, clubs, theatres, etc, what is the point of telling people to WFH again? It will just damage the economy and I doubt it will do much to stop the spread of Covid if everyone is still out partying and Christmas shopping.

London was HEAVING at the weekend, which WFH will do nothing to alleviate. I'm so sick of these stupid rules now. Before we could all get vaccinated, fine, we had nothing else did we, so WFH, SD, etc made sense, but now I think it's all stupid. We're going to get new iterations of this bloody virus every six months, so how about we sort out the NHS, since that's the perennial excuse for all these irritating rules, and then let people make their own judgement call on what they consider safe to do. And if you choose to get unvaccinated, on your head be it.

However, let’s be honest there is a witch hunt for the Tories. Wherever they do or do not do.

Are you serious?!

This govt has been the most entitled, slippery, immoral and law bending of any govt in living memory.

Just because I work from home, doesn’t mean I won’t spend the same amount of money I would normally, it’s just spent differently.

I still need to eat, shop for Christmas, my heating bill is going up, as is my electricity usage.

I am saving on fuel as I would normally drive into the office. But that’s probably offset by my huge gas bill!

Today I am getting lunch from a local sandwich shop. That money would of gone to Starbucks or a Pret if I was in a city.

WFH is here to stay, so businesses need to diversify.

I have loved how flexible WFH is, and has actually given me more time to shop local and independent rather than going to a large supermarket. I see local services and small shops coming back - which is a good thing!

Any money I am saving on fuel

@nanbread

However, let’s be honest there is a witch hunt for the Tories. Wherever they do or do not do.

Are you serious?!

This govt has been the most entitled, slippery, immoral and law bending of any govt in living memory.

And that's an achievement when you think about Tony Blair and his government!

But it is all about REDUCING the risk and potentially less strain on nhs

Working from home also means less traffic
Less accidents in the road

It’s all about the numbers . Even if 30% of the working population do it that’s millions of people not mixing and potentially spreading the virus until they establish the effects of the new variant

So you have masks proved to reduce risk
Wfh proved to reduce spread and other affects
Vaccine passports reducing spread

You should try living in other European countries some are even banning outside events and you can’t work without a green pass or a negative test every single day .

[quote Monday55]@zafferana working from home is not compulsory. If a business knows that they'll be affected negatively if they adapt working from home they can carry on in the office as they have a plausible reason to stay in the office. [/quote]
Exactly. Our company will have half in ( manufacturing) and the office staff on a rota to reduce spread .

Each company has to do their own assesment .

@Franklin12

I agree and if people knew fully the wages and money spent by the nhs trusts, many of whose leaders are paid more than the pm I think they would be shocked .

The nhs trusts to me have not achieved what they were supposed to do and it was actually a Labour government who approved them I believe.

Working in my very large well ventilated office with 3 other people is literally the least Covid risky thing I do.

But it's the only thing I have to now stop doing.

One size fits all remedies are ridiculous. But I guess things can't be assessed on a case by case basis.

It makes an impact on transmission without trashing the economy as much as other measures, like shutting down hospitality in their busiest month of the year.

@RandomLondoner

Why would it damage the economy? Working from home is more efficient.

I agree it probably won't make much difference, but it looks like a zero-cost option to me, so worth doing for the little good it will do.

Because people don't buy as much food from cafes etc as they aren't in town and they don't spend on trains/ buses/ petrol and parking to the same degree. Far fewer after work drinks, companies shutting city centre offices is loss of rental income. My DHs business shut down one office at the beinging of lockdown one (saving £10k per month, losing the landlord £10k per month) and reopened a new, smaller, office this summer. So over 1 year of not paying rent.

WFH is there to reduce the number of contacts people have. Reducing the amount of contact reduces the opportunities for the virus to spread and mutate.

Arguing that people shouldn't WFH because cinemas are open is like criticizing certain US states that ban fireworks because they allow guns. Having one area where harm can be done doesn't mean you can't try to reduce harm in other areas.

I don't agree that it is a big problem that WFH causes businesses that rely on office workers to fail. The money not spent in a cafe doesn't disappear, it is either spent on something else, or saved to be spent later. Businesses need to adapt to survive, that's always the case. If a business has to close because of WFH, so be it. When the pandemic is over, there will be a ready market for someone else to fill the gap.

Your argument isn’t exactly clear, but wfh means less people squeezed onto public transport & into large offices. Therefore it will help to reduce the spread.

I don’t understand the statement “choose to get unvaccinated.” It doesn’t make sense, as you can’t get unvaccinated.

And that's an achievement when you think about Tony Blair and his government!

At least in Blair's cabinet there were a few people with integrity...

So many good points MorningStarling

It sounds to me like they've taken action so they can say 'look, we've taken action' but yet it's not doing anything to prevent the main cause of spreading at this time of year - which is packed pubs and festive events, and schools.

It does seem strange that we are advised to work form home but tomorrow I have my works Xmas party that we are allowed to go to!

WFH is kind of hard to quantify imho. Depends on how you commute and where you work. How many actually catch covid on a train vs. through their kids, going out, etc.

I agree they should not go further unless deaths from Omicron are proved and sustained. You cannot batten down the hatches each time something MIGHT happen. Be sensible - sure. Take vaccines and wear masks - sure. Lock yourself indoors - no.

Neil Ferguson's models are hard numbers, not reflective of how people behave and how transmission works (and he himself broke lockdown to see the woman with whom he was having an affair when we were all rationing fucking walks, so he can gtfo.)

The city has been packed in the week if late, next week hopefully it will be really quiet, I’m sure this is representative of other business areas.

That has to be helpful? Think of all those people not travelling, not packing into busy areas, offices etc. It’s not a lockdown but it’s cutting out a significant amount of contact

WFH will damage the kind of businesses that benefit from people going into their places of work.

While I agree these will be impacted, I think that in the very big picture, that doesn't matter. The money people don't spend on transport and coffee/food will ultimately be spent on something more valuable to them. It will still end up in the economy, maybe only decades later if they use the savings to boost their pension, but it won't be spent on the costs associated with unnecessarily working away from home. I hope a lot of WFH becomes permanent.

It doesn't just stop spread in the office though, it helps with the commute too.

If an infected person isn't crammed into a train at 8am to go into the office, they're not infecting others on the train.

Exactly, we're fucking about purely because our NHS is so on its knees already that we can't make space for people. Instead of sinking money into the stupid app that was never going to work they need to be funding the NHS and making it worthwhile for people to actually want to work there.

It means we can reduce social contacts in areas of our life where being together might not be essential, while still allowing people to enjoy contacts with family and friends that they weren’t able to do last year. It’s sensible.

If you don’t want to WFH don’t but stop moaning about it to the rest of us. WFH stops virus transmission and helps the environment, which I am guessing from your rhetoric you don’t give a toss about.

WFH also helps those who find it very difficult to wear masks on the commute so don’t moan about stuff you clearly don’t care about

Why would it damage the economy? Working from home is more efficient.

To start with - because people wont grab a coffee on the way to work or nip out for lunch, or go for drinks after work.

@user7514254

WFH also helps those who find it very difficult to wear masks on the commute so don’t moan about stuff you clearly don’t care about

I can moan about what I like @user7514254! If you don't like it, don't come on my thread.