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?

This🙄

I’m sure someone has said this already but…

Boris’s comments say more about himself and his total lack of impulse control than any normal person who’s been WFH.

Also Jacob Rees-Mogg doesn’t have a computer in his office. How the fuck does he get any work done? Or is he just too busy walking around Whitehall with a pad of leaflets?

Theres no more to it than this.

him & his mate Nick Ferrari can go & whinge about it over a pint & STFU about it.

pret either will or won't survive, I can't say it's my biggest worry.

Yup. Quite the self own.

The work of a minister it primarily reading and approving documents and attending meetings. He will have a team printing out folders for him. He will have hundreds of submissions to review each week.

you are incredibly naive if you think Ministers don’t do any work unless they are infront of a computer!!

A couple of anecdotal examples really aren't. You've got three people plus departments whose lower productivity is going to have been impacted by employees being ill with covid, some of them having had to work alongside childcare and the general recruitment issues the UK has been experiencing for a while now. That's nowhere near enough for that kind of sweeping conclusion.

Obese oaf Boris accuses others of too many trips to the fridge? Haha brilliant, he’s comedy gold. I mean he’s running the country which is tragic and terrifying in equal measures but he is a hoot. 😭

Since Johnson basically works from home and parliament restaurants are subsidised I'm not sure he really has the moral high ground on this topic.

Amazingly not all jobs are the same. Some work as well or better from home, others don't. If an employer (including the government ie civil service) can show there is a reason they need people in the office that's one thing. If there is none then why should people waste time and money commuting to work? Boris wants people in the office so that shareholders of Pret and similar, and the rail companies make money. Nothing to do with productivity.

This ^^

We all know the motive for this push to get people back to offices is because it benefits Tory donors/supporters who own office buildings etc. Johnson doesn’t actually give a shit whether people wfh or not. He’s just so transparent and self serving.

These kinds of threads usually attract people who blame others for their inability to work from home, or in other words, for their career choices. Those who were key workers during the pandemic for example.
Others who are opposed to WFH are those of an older traditional generation who may not be as familiar with , or use, the multitude of tools that enable us to work just as effectively from home.
Also men - its men who are the most vocal in the media, and its men who don't have to worry as much about childcare costs / responsibilities etc.
WFH not only suits working parents who previously had to pay for childcare not just for working hours but for commuting hours, but also those like me who are disabled and who find the travel to work, the noise, the stress etc difficult.
My physical and mental health has improved enormously since I became permanent homebased.
And there's the cost of living. How stupid can politicians be not to see that if we were all commuting again and paying train fares, extra childcare costs on top of increasing energy bills, we'd be even more fucked?
Who even eats cheese when WFH? I'll stick to my chocolate biscuits, thanks!

Yanbu , worked well in my company pre covid , though never worked ft from home. Workloads increased over covid so getting much more done at home , and doing more hours than I would in the office as not having to factor in commute and having to leave for train.

There wouldn't be a cost of living crisis if people just used a bit more common sense and cooked healthy meals for 30p or less.

If you'd read my post, you'll see I tried not to disturb them. That meant grabbing them after they'd just been for a meeting, or for a coffee so they were definitely not in the middle of something. Or when they were having a conversation that was clearly about football. That's the beauty of actually seeing someone - you can look and assess if you're likely to be disturbing them. Can I ask how you would suggest I scheduled my "asking a quick question" better?

I take it you think it's ok for a colleague to not answer my 5 minute question (that I am not asking for fun, but because I need to know for my job, and I've exhausted all other avenues of finding out myself) until I have emailed them 8 times, IM'ed them 6 times and they've ignored my verbal requests to contact me at their convenience when I happen to be in virtual meetings about other things? I have colleagues who openly tell me that they ignore communications from me because they find them "distracting". As per above, I am not asking things for fun, and I don't see why their desire not to be disturbed means I have to spend hours of my time chasing them up. I can only assume that you must be one of my colleagues to think that it's fine to ignore other people's questions so you can do your own work undisturbed. I have colleagues who have literally not responded to a single email from me since lockdown started.

I agree with most above - it’s nice to see people occasionally and catch up but in the office I get SO little work done. Probably not the healthiest but for sure everyone in my company is now starting on time (no traffic or public transport issues), having working lunches when it fits around meetings which are often less than an hour (instead of bang on 12), not wasting time walking between meetings (big site) and most are flexible on finish times (instead of running out the door at 5pm). My company are gaining SO much more of our time. I would never work for a role that was 100% back in the office again, such a waste of my time and mental health. Good enough for us all to be working from home for two years, what’s changed now?

Boris can absolutely do one.

Lots of people are quite wedded to wfh because it suits them and their situation. I think people should be more honest about this rather than pretending that they are always more productive at home.

But then I do think that work is more than a series of tasks you tick off a list and for most of us some face time with colleagues is helpful to the way we do our jobs and to how the company functions as a whole.

Yet the evidence is that actually a lot of people are more productive at home

Yes it also suits many , especially people who are more introverted , but you can't deny that also it can be and often is more productive for lots of jobs

Yes. The actual civil service policies bang on about ‘smaller, better, greener’ estates. Mostly they mean smaller though. Fewer buildings, less space, activity based working.

They are absolutely not planning to have the capacity to have everyone ‘back in the office’ FT.

@redskyatnight
Look for a calendar gap and send a meeting invite. That's what I tell people to do if they have "a quick question". It's never than quick.
If it only needs 5 minutes then schedule a 5 minute meeting.

If you're getting your work done to the same or better standard than when you were in the office then wfh is obviously working effectively.

My DH is extremely clinically vulnerable & has been wfh the whole time. He is at his desk by 8.30am, has meetings via teams, and works into the evening (has his hour lunch break). His employer is happy that he can work effectively without risking his health or having time off sick.

The BJ comments are more revealing about how lazy & unfocused BJ is rather than how other people spend their time.

*Can I ask how you would suggest I scheduled my "asking a quick question" better^

Do what the rest of us do and ask when they’re free for a quick Teams call? 20 people asking “quick questions “ can very quickly mean you get FA done in your working day.

It sounds like your problem is not wfh though - it’s your colleagues. If they are routinely ignoring you then perhaps they feel you’re asking too many questions, or their workload is too much to be reply as quickly as you’d like, or they’re genuinely feckless and lazy. You should raise your concerns with your manager.

I agree wfh can be more productive for some jobs.

But not for almost every job the way it is being made out on this thread. I think there are many home workers in denial about how what suits them doesn't necessarily suit their customers and colleagues but I guess that is human nature to some extent.

Hybrid all the way 😀

😂😂😂