To hate the Daily Mail and its anti WFH vendetta

[catsliketowearsocks]

There is yet another DM story doing the rounds today about people 'working from beach'. Apparently it's council worker this time rather than civil servants. I work for a council and we would not be able to live abroad as we have impromptu office meetings, but even if we wanted to for the short term (like, for a family emergency or flight issues) we would have to apply for permission due to cybersecurity rules.

The DM would like to ban WFH which is just nasty. There may be a small number who take the piss but I don't believe that's the norm. WFH has vastly improved my life and mental health.

I'm willing to bet many DM journalists work remotely.

If only I could have worked from home in my 12 hour shifts, that were nights, so that I could be home for my children. Unfortunately my manager, and my patients wouldn’t have been happy!

tbh I'd have been pleased when I was working at a local authority if one of my colleagues was working from home all the time - more chance of me getting a desk. (I did know at least one senior professional who worked from abroad for part of the year but it worked fine - it was work that could be done remotely, he had time with his family, and he was always available when we needed him.)

I don't live in London and what is happening with property prices seems to not be linked to what is happening in my local area. I think you need to provide a much better argument about why I should care about saving central London commercial property landlords in order for me to commute to my office 5 days a week in a small town in the Midlands.

Crikey this sounds like my mum, are you the sister I never knew I had?!

Financially transparent 😂😂😂 we're in Wales, it's all smoke and mirrors here.

It's very ableist. Well, if people are just talking about themselves and what they like it's ok. But beyond that, the total failure to acknowledge the increase in opportunities for disabled people is utterly depressing. The number of posters trotting out the ooh it's terrible for the young workers, clearly assuming that being young means having the same traits as they did, says it all.

Gosh you have got one looooong day ahead of you are going to police every thread you feel is pointless today

Why not boost the cafés etc near your house instead? That would boost commercial property prices outside central London.

Suggesting that people should divert money they can use for mortgage overpayments to prop up central London property owners is telling them to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. Frequently "Paul" is someone like the Duke of Westminster (Grosvenor in the street or building name means it's his) who has more money than the late Queen did. Why should working people pay money to support super-rich people like that?

With house prices so high that younguns can't get on the ladder, it would be painful in the medium term but beneficial in the long run to have a downward correction of house prices.

I do find it very odd why some people get so worked up and upset by people working from home. I can't work from home but I'm pleased for those who can and who enjoy it. it's such a race to the bottom and bitter country at the moment it's depressing. I'll be honest hadn't given it much headspace really but amazing if it makes such a positive difference to parents and people with disabilities as well as those who just enjoy it for the benefits- bloody brilliant!

Well said, Pink.

I am glad that we’re getting away from the “suck up to the boss in the pub on a Friday night” culture. It was pretty marginalising. And I say that as someone who benefited from it in the 1990s!

Some banks, Britain based, appear to be clamping down on WFH:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12477649/Bank-workers-given-bonus-ultimatum-working-home.html

I don't think most employers are worried whether Mrs Jones of 23 acacia avenue is frothing about homeworkers as she reads the daily mail.

The pull back to the office in my experience is coming partly due to seeing the benefits of hybrid rather than fully remote and partly due to piss takers and chancers who take advantage of the trust being placed in them. Or those who just whinge and cause endless difficulty each time they are asked to leave the house. (I am lucky to have a team of professionals but have seen it happen in other bits of our organisation and heard the chatter at management level)

It's really frustrating because I want hybrid working to work, it's great for so many people, not just parents but those with disabilities or caring responsibilities or time consuming hobbies etc. But we need to act like grown ups when given trust.

There was an astonishing thread on here a while back of people boasting about all the stuff they do when they are meant to be working from home

Yep, I WFH throughout the pandemic keeping a public service from basically collapsing. It now suits me to mostly stay at home and my organisation wouldn’t now have desks for us all anyway.

Both DH and I are both back in the office 3 days a week which I think works really well for both of us and the family. I do still think my WFH tend to be my most productive days though as I'm online from 8 and work until 6 whereas when I'm in the office I need to allow for commute times.

I actually really like being back in the office although I know some don't. DH's company have told all employees if they're not in 3 days a week then this will be counted as unauthorised leave and they could face a disciplinary (mine aren't being quite so hardline).

This made me chuckle- thank you.

Excellent post.

I have done both. Worked for a very large FTSE company before WFH was a thing. It worked for middle and senior managers who had the space to work quietly. It didnt work for the more junior members some of whom were living at home with parents and who were trying to work from their beds during the pandemic. There were many many piss takers who were never around after 1500 and when your line manager changes often its not addressed. You could of course blame the company but actually its the person who has seen a little weeze and taken advantage of it.

I worked for many years with government depts and doing the minimum was rife with outdated technology which they refused to change because 'they knew it'. I visited many many central government offices and saw often how little work the back office people did. During the pandemic Land Registry, Passport Agency and HMRC became as slow as snails whilst working at home and are now fighting to stay there. Sod their customers and having to wait weeks and weeks for any response. I have recently gone through Probate. You cannot chase before 16 weeks, but in that time often interest is payable on certain areas. Its ironic that one government dept is holding up releasing the money and another is chasing you for it! They dont make things easy with the many forms to fill in.

Please dont say that they have a backlog. People die all the time. Covid and the wfh actually slowed things down and three years later we are still using Covid as an excuse.

Friend WFH for a big bank is delighted to be hybrid working. Some of her teams fell apart WFH during covid and after. Productivity reduced. The bank sacked some which made it even harder. Now she's back to mentoring ftf, she's hoping it will improve.

Graduates need a helping hand especially

When I worked in retail, I had to go in. When I sorted post for Royal Mail, I had to go in. I now work in IT. I don't have to go in. Are you familiar with the phrase "horses for courses"?

It's very "dog in a manger" and "race to the bottom" thinking to demand that no one should benefit from WFH if you can't and we should all aspire to be as miserable at work as you.

I suggest that you take a Computing degree and get an IT job if you don't like your current position, instead of trying to drag others down to your misery level. It's what I did.

Agreed. And I say that as a homeowner. The idea we should prop up the insanely wealthy landowning interests in London is the weakest argument ever for returning to the office.

(I appreciate there will be pension funds owning property too and the picture is more complex, but this argument just isn't going to wash with the many people who work hard just to pay extortionate rent)

Agree. If I lived in London with great transport and bars maybe I too would work in the office four days a week for the moral good.

There was an astonishing thread on here a while back of people boasting about all the stuff they do when they are meant to be working from home
But pisstakers take the piss in the office.

I do find it very interesting the way piss taking when WFH is often interpreted as a negative of WFH generally and a legitimate reason for people to be brought back to the office, yet the same doesn't apply in reverse. People pissing around taking constant cig breaks, using the office as their social life, distracting others, playing on the internet, nicking stuff... none of this seems to be considered a reason why people who work in offices should go remote instead. People who want to take the piss can use whatever physical location they're doing their work in to enable it.

I agree too. It looks like hybrid working is here to stay, and is to the benefit of everyone, except commercial landlords, TFL and transport companies. Given how exploitative these entities have been over the years, through fare hikes and presumably rent increases for businesses, I don't see much sympathy being aimed in their direction.

From what I can see, employees benefit because they have a better work life balance. I have benefitted in countless ways. I gave birth in May 2020, so was WFH a little just before going on mat leave, and came back to a working world which was so much more accommodating of the needs of a working mother. I simply wouldn't have been able to return to work full time without the flexibility being able to WFH has provided me with, so would have been paying less tax etc.

I also think employers are benefiting through reduced rent/utility bills, and the higher productivity of their staff.

I'd say the Mail etc know they are fighting a losing battle, but have to throw these articles out every so often to appease their stakeholders. Ignore and enjoy your improved quality of life OP.

Daily Mail gets great reviews on glassdoor by its employees for the perks of working from home!
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Benefits/Daily-Mail-and-General-Trust-Work-From-Home-BNFT153_E10837_N2.htm