Boris Johnson's comments on WFH

[username39583]

Sorry if this has already been done I have had a look expecting some threads on it.
I just get more angry the more I think about his comments about WFH not working and how people spend it going to fridge every 5 minutes.
From my experience of my team who I work this is extremely insulting and very untrue. For a start we are ridiculously busy and anyone slacking would quickly be noticed. It makes me wonder what he actually does day to day if he has time to keep going to the fridge.
For me and most of my team we actually get through more work at home. We actually did hybrid working with us all coming in twice a week. This was quickly reduced to once a week as many colleagues and I felt we were getting alot less work done. To many distractions/meetings running over/people late due to transport etc.
AIBU to say WFH does work? And would also like to know if other feel they are more productive in the office or at home?

I think people are too gung-ho one way or the other. I'm definitely a "lazy twat", but I'm still more productive working from home.

Fewer distractions (I've always worked in open plan offices), better workstation and I find I feel more enthusiasm for actual work when I can procrastinate in a fulfilling way, rather than clicking around in BBC news. When I am in the office, I'm actually more sociable (which I think is the point of office working) because I'm just a less miserable person than when I was commuting 5 days a week.

That's not the case for everybody and I hope a recognition of that fact is the real change. The idea that people can be economically productive without being miserable for the majority of most days seems to be quite radical for some people.

What @NumberCurtains said.
Every word.

Was chatting to one of our chief execs the other day and he certainly seemed to have the idea that people not going into the office were skiving. I suspect busy important people need minions around that they can bark orders at and it's not as much fun doing it on the phone or on Teams.

I'm pretty ambivalent- I do half home working, half in the office - there's pros and cons to both. Personally I'm not that fond of working full stop.

Meh. It's a cynical, classist dog whistle. He is seeking to pit a group of workers -those unable to WFH- against another -those who can. He's banking on manual labourers, those who work in manufacturing, tradesmen and women, hospitality workers, retail and warehouse workers, drivers and transport workers, beat officers, NHS and other emergency services frontline workers, carers etc, taking the bait, and turning on lazy white-collar workers who WFH in order to stoke his inverted, perverse class war. Find a common enemy, and all that. Distract everyone from seeing what the self-serving asshats are actually up to as they erode services, shaft the populace and wreck the planet right under our noses.

Bojo works from home at Downing St!!

it's nice to see your colleagues, nice to catch up, have a chat and have a more civilised, slower paced workday. It's nice to be in a different environment and be away from your family for a bit. But it's definitely not conducive to productivity

I agree with this completely. It’s been lovely to be back in the office a few days per week, but my entire team’s productivity has plummeted because of it.

Borris is an arse.

I've no doubt that a lot of people who work from home work extremely hard and are busy. My dsis worked from home through the pandemic as did her Dp and they barely came up for air. But then, I've seen threads on here where homeworkers readily admitted to taking long naps, doing yoga, going for a swim etc during the working day so I guess it is open to abuse by people who are naturally lazy.

He's getting pressure from the likes of TFL and Pret who's revenue are down due to people WFH. Nothing at all to do with worker productivity!

Because my OH can now work from home I can now work more hours as a nurse.
Pre pandemic I would work about 4 shifts a month now I’m doing about 4 a week.
works for us as a family and as a family we are more productive.

Most staff have performance targets to hit. If they aren't performing it's a management or disciplinary issue, whether at home or in the office.

I think that what Boris is saying is that he finds it very hard to distinguish between work and home, because he has a flat at work.
Sometimes he is just wandering around checking all the pot plants are suitably watered and he comes across a party and well it would be rude not to join in. It could happen to anyone who was working from home, so much better for people not to work from home.

God I had forgotten about that. The weird period between lockdowns where they tried to persuade everyone it was their patriotic duty to buy a rail ticket and get lunch from Pret! 😅

I'm not giving it air time. Its classic diversion from the Downing Street parties. Dont buy the papers or clock on he links and the papers will publish something that sells instead of the No10 agenda.

I'm sure it's the super wealthy (Tory donors) that own a lot of office estate and its beneficial for them to keep them.

Otherwise there is no logic to keeping office estate in prime city centre locations instead of flogging them for flats. Which solves loads of problems.

It seems to directly contradict his levelling up agenda. I could work anywhere in the country yet am forced to trek into central London only to spend all day on teams calls anyway.

I’m a civil servant and it’s really dispiriting to have worked bloody hard all through the pandemic only to constantly read in the papers that we’re lazy slackers and our jobs are at risk.

I agree with this.

But if Boris doesn't support his rich mates who have paid to fulfil his ambition to be Prime Minister, they may stop paying for him, and you know funding from Russia has dried up this year.

It’s yet another distraction to stop us all thinking about his government’s monumental fuck ups, partying and the Brexit fuckery.

But the oven ready Brexit has been such a tremendous success that they have a Minister wandering about looking for signs of this success and are trying to renegotiate it, because they didn't know they agreed to a border in the Irish Sea, even though that was obviously going to be the case from the beginning.

I worked from home, full time, for 4 years. Then 6 months ago I got a new job because I was attracted by the 3-days-in-the-office, 2-days-wfh routine. I thought I fancied a bit of commuting, going in to see colleagues and working face to face as a team, and maybe going for after work drinks occassionally.
Now that I'm 6 months in to my new job I've had a conversation with my manager and agreed that I'll secure a new flexible arrangement where I actually only go in once a week/on an as-needed basis.
The reason? I'm finding going in SO totally pointless!

• It's noisier and more distracting
• I'm still having Teams meetings in the office rather than face to face as people are now in a range of locations
• things like after work drinks dont happen now that everyone is hybrid
• I have to leave at an exact time to get my train, so have to abandon work that I'd like to continue with for another hour.

When I wfh I:

• am much more productive and get more done in the peace of my own office
• build relationships with people just as effectively
• can train new joiners just as effectively, with a properly thought through onboarding curriculum and daily check-ins

And from a personal life perspective:

• can fit exercise into my week more easily
• eat really well, don't snack and am always well hydrated
• don't get a bad back
• save £180 a month on (regularly late or cancelled) trains and £20 a month on coffees (that I'm too weak-willed to resist!)

I've experimented on all sides and for me personally, there are just so many benefits to wfh IF you have the required motivation, discipline and space.

People working from home is costing the economy money so he just wants revenues back to as they were and he's trying to do it in a jokey way, talking about raiding the fridge.
I can't believe how people allow themselves to get so aggravated by everything he says

I feel extremely insulted. I very much object to Mr Johnson judging all people WFH by the yardstick of his own work ethic and moral compass, and making out that we all have a low attention span, no self discipline and our faces in the fridge all day.

Putting it as nicely as possible, I prefer hybrid working but I can recognise that some extrovert, people-person, colleagues are energised by an office environment and struggle with being at home, and I wouldn't insist they WFH just because I work better there myself, or moan about the time they waste chatting and wandering about not working when they're in the office.

And if JRM had a shred of empathy he would figure out why workers without a ministerial car like he no doubt has at his beck and call, might choose to avoid the tube in a fecking heatwave (and no it's not so they can mitch work and sunbathe in the garden/watch sport).

Idiots.

I think WFH works better when roles don't require much team collaboration , or constant input from others. I also think it very much depends on individuals, some are very diligent at home, if not more productive- others seem to think it involves getting paid full time for a couple of hours of work around their domestic arrangements.

I totally agree with all the comments on here. Before Christmas I was regularly working 10 hour days at home, without breaks, in a very stressful public sector job, just because I could. I wouldn’t dream of doing this in the office unless it was absolutely necessary, especially with two hours of commute on top. I’m now in a new role which is hybrid and while it’s nice to go into the office one day a week, I’m both far more tired and far less productive when I do this. WFH is a win-win all round. Sadly, Boris’ demeaning and condescending remarks are reflected the attitude of a lot of the public. The number of times I’ve had friends/family/neighbours popping by unannounced and thinking that it’s perfectly acceptable, as “you work from home, wink”. It drives me nuts!

I ran a large team through Covid and in my experience wfh isn’t as productive. But that is just in my area.

people are working very hard, that’s not the issue. But the quality of work has dropped and I need to micro manage a lot more. People are much quicker to escalate things to me and cross organisation connects has been reduced.

new people aren’t learning as quickly.

I find the people in my team who argue the loudest that there are no disadvantages of WFH are those who prefer it because of long commutes and/or caring responsibilities.

no one in my team who lives close to the office and has no caring responsibilities is arguing that working from home is higher productivity.