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 can see how it is an attractive option to wfh.

I do feel that a lot of companies are offering substandard service since covid though.

That requires your colleagues to check their email and accept the meeting invite.
Yes, I have tried it.

Basically wfh allows you to avoid speaking to people you don't want to speak to. If you're so minded of course. Unfortunately I have a job that requires me to collaborate with more people than most, and I have way too many colleagues of this type. (And a manager also of the avoidance ilk, so he ignores me when I escalate the issue to him). I should say I also have lots of colleagues who are fantastic, but the ones that aren't have just been slowly grinding me down.

OP, I think if it's a job that can be done from home well then fine. Some jobs can, some jobs can't.

In my experience, people that work hard in the office also work hard at home and vice versa. I think there are benefits of going into the office - hear about other projects, easier access to people you wouldn't normally deal with, junior staff can learn ways to do (and not do) certain tasks, team bonding, team able to finalise bits of work for a deadline. It can waste a lot of time too though - being dragged into additional meetings, people popping over for a quick five minutes which is never five minutes to clarify something (can also be helpful though), printing spare copies for meetings with others, travel/contingency time for travelling to different client offices, commuting time etc.

For many, wfh or hybrid works well (before pandemic too). For some, they need to be in office full time, for others wfh full time is as beneficial. One size does not fit all. No idea where paras are!

Oh, if only I'd thought about just organising a Teams meeting!

My issue is that I have colleagues who will basically ignore emails , IMs , phone calls or meeting invites where they do not directly impact their own work. This means they think that wfh is great as they can do their own work free of distractions. In the office I would have given up trying to be polite about it and caught them at their desk, ideally at a time when they weren't busy. I don't have any similar option when everyone is wfh.

I keep my questions to a minimum, and I'm more than patient over response timescales. My colleagues simply don't want to engage with me because they would prefer not to.

Hence, when someone tells me that they like working at home as there are fewer distractions, I always wonder what this means for the poor person that was "distracting" them. I accept a lot of this is a "my colleagues" problem; but I don't suppose my colleagues are massively different to a lot of other people's colleagues.

f(My manager is useless and also ignores me when I escalate to him.)

The other effect of making people go back to the office full time is how they would afford child care. I work in early years & many parents use their free 30hrs childcare hours to wfh. If they had to add a commute on to their working day that would exceed the allowance. Several parents collect the children then complete their work in the evening when the children are in bed. These parents are worried about how they will manage if they are forced to go back into the office full time.

To say nothing of the amount of time people used to take combining fag breaks with gossip sessions.

This really isn't what happens nowadays. Availability of emails is pretty crucial, and if the minister can't read an urgent document until some minion has printed it out for him he is going to be extremely inefficient. It also makes no sense having to go to another office for every online meeting.

It depends how efficient his private office is. Just because he doesn’t have a computer doesn’t mean there isn’t a video conferencing area in his suite of offices for his use.

I don’t have working knowledge of his private office arrangements but I think most would agree that he works! He reviews and approves ministerial submissions, he attends meetings, gives evidence at committees, attends commons debates.

he will have a private secretary and special advisor with him pretty much constantly who will show him urgent messages. He will be given stacks of papers to review and approve in his ministerial box every evening.

every private office operates differently around the needs and preferences of their minister.

however I confess I don’t work in this private office - perhaps you do?

Then look for a new job - you’re obviously working for a rubbish organisation and the problems you’re experiencing have nothing to do with people wfh.

Here’s a little back.

Well I really think it is great that JRM is providing employment to people by letting them print stuff off for them. His benevolence and wisdom no no bounds.

Another week, another Tory distraction tactic. This time it’s aimed at WFH, because a huge chunk of their voters are retired and no longer work at all.

I am in no way commenting on the individual minister. I am simply saying that a private office is a large machine around the minister - he will be ushered from one meeting to the next and surrounded by a team who are there to manage his correspondence and diaries.

There is a long tradition of the Ministerial box - which is the ministers papers that he or she takes home every evening and over the weekend to read and consider. Saying this individual does no work brocade he doesn’t have a computer in his office is just barmy. Assuming a Minister sorts through the Ministerial email account - which will receive hundreds if not thousands of emails a day - is also barmy.

he is not a regional manager for a mid level firm! Of course he has a team to print of documents, set up video conferences, manage his diary, sort though emails and identify those that require immediate attention. A lot of people have secretaries. He will probably have a team of at least five people managing the office

This for me as well.

I get more work done at home, but I do not have the office infrastructure of serious photocopiers that print 1000 page documents (for example). at home.

Through 2020 I would work from home then go into the office Sunday mornings to do stuff that simply could not be done at home.

We now have a hybrid arrangement with 3 days a fortnight in the office on a rotating basis. I prefer on the whole being in the office. But others don't. As i work in a profession where we are literally paid by results I can say that productivity has not gone down.

And all this support means that Jacob has time to wander about posting notes on peoples desks.

I think you are letting your dislike of the individual cloud your judgement here!!!

I have a secretary. I couldn’t manage my emails without help.that’s the reality of a senior position.

is your argument that a Minister or CEO shouldn’t have time to walk around the office. Just because you don’t like the massage he goals while he did this?

it’s a very confused argument, and you really don’t seem to understand the reality of senior office.

just say you are annoyed about position on working from and you disagree. But claiming he shouldn’t have secretarial support or special advisors is a completely different - and frankly bonkers - argument.

There's also the question of whether that childcare actually exists. We've seen a contraction in provision since early 2020. Obviously that was a long term trend anyway, but the pandemic had a big impact. There are going to be parents of school age children for whom the childcare to work a commute away no longer exists.

Well maybe he could do his own printing and trim the fat in his own office 😂

I'm not as confused as Jacob who thinks he has common sense and is in the 19th century.

I love that people on mumsnet think Ministers, CEOs and probably the prime Minister are answering phones, photocopying, printing, scheduling zoom meetings, notifying the front desk about visitors, managing email accounts, booking refreshments etc!!

its like the people who come and laugh because they understand excel better than the CEO!!

It was established at the height of partygate earlier in the year that the Prime Minister is solely responsible for the pot plants and providing entertainment in work breaks.

It would of course help our understanding it someone more knowledgeable explained whether this applies to other Ministers as well.

It's an interesting perspective. It reminds me of an old boss who said he wouldn't allow me (or anyone else) to work from home because he didn't trust us to do any work (but he'd trust me with the company bank account login 🙄). I think he spent too many of his own WFH days lazing around! His attitude was one of the reasons I left, I didn't appreciate the lack of trust/respect.

I am going to be totally honest and say I like working from home more because it is easier and more relaxing, but I am more productive in the office. If I am really busy, both places are equal, but in a slower patch I find more work focussed constructive things to do in the office compared to non work things when I am at home.

I work bloody hard whether it's at home or in the office. But I work more at home because I don't have to spend at least 90 minutes a day travelling.

I love the irony of people claiming to be so very senior but also have the time to be fannying about on mumsnet.

Not everyone works 9-5 though
I finished work at 11 today. And there's annual leave, breaks, lunches...