Page 9 | Meeting: 'Working from home' - your vote needed!

coxesorangepippin · 2023-09-11T23:53:36+00:00

Got a meeting invite late tonight titled simply: Working from home'. Scheduled for half an hour. No additional info. What are they gonna say? Return to the office full time? Full time WFH??? Your guess is as good as mine. We're currently in once every two weeks. Results posted in here tomorrow once the meeting has been held. Yanbu = back to office Yabu = WFH

Coffeaddict · 12/09/2023 14:08

Following out of pure curiosity

LaffTaff · 12/09/2023 14:11

Coffeaddict · 12/09/2023 14:08

Following out of pure curiosity

Same 😂

Tracker1234 · 12/09/2023 14:18

When public sector are at home or indeed anyone who deals with customer data what are the checks on this? Thinking of Passport Agency people for example. They need to process very sensitive info. How do they manage this from home? Unless god forbid someone is sending the relevant documents to 36 Acacia Ave!

Yes I realise they have login’s and PIN numbers but who else is in the house with them? Cleaner’s, other children, workmen? All passing through!

adriftinadenofvipers · 12/09/2023 14:21

Viviennemary · 12/09/2023 06:52

About time this wfh nonsense was stopped.

The 20th century wants you back.

No idea why you deem it, "nonsense"!

adriftinadenofvipers · 12/09/2023 14:24

VisionsOfSplendour · 12/09/2023 07:13

It's not about being bothered by other people's choices its about the piss poor service from numerous organisations since they stopped having staff on site doing their jobs effectively - HMRC, DVLA, passport offices etc

I don't want to hear "background noise" when I'm trying to resolve something on the phone, poor quality connections and long wait times

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That's a management failure not a WFH failure.

I deal with confidential information. It's all online now. We can use a combination of Teams, Zoom, Jabber, phone, email for communication.

I work in my dining room where I can close the doors. The only parties to confidential conversations are my cats. I've sworn them to secrecy.

adriftinadenofvipers · 12/09/2023 14:27

VisionsOfSplendour · 12/09/2023 07:22

Personally I don't remembe hearing any background noise with call centres pre COVID and I'd rather the government uses the tech it already has in buildings rather than countless millions on reinventing the wheel in homes

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That ship has sailed. Plus we are using some of the tech we had in the office at home.

It all had to be set up at the height of Covid. Why waste that?

@coxesorangepippin my vote is more days in the office. Though there's already a proposal to close down one of our largest buildings permanently and relocate any staff who work in the office.

Mimmy352 · 12/09/2023 14:32

I’ve never been more invested in a meeting

TTCbaby2023 · 12/09/2023 14:34

@Coffeaddict Same here 😆

Coffeaddict · 12/09/2023 14:40

Tracker1234 · 12/09/2023 14:18

When public sector are at home or indeed anyone who deals with customer data what are the checks on this? Thinking of Passport Agency people for example. They need to process very sensitive info. How do they manage this from home? Unless god forbid someone is sending the relevant documents to 36 Acacia Ave!

Yes I realise they have login’s and PIN numbers but who else is in the house with them? Cleaner’s, other children, workmen? All passing through!

I work as a lecturer and have access to sensitive information on every student in my uni. Everything from home and term addresses. DOB, parents details plus loads more. The data is as secure at home as it is in work. My work laptop is not touched by any members of my family. It is pin and password protected. I don't do work when others are in the room so no one is looking over my shoulder and if I step out of the room for even a second to grab a drink of water my screen is locked. Just like on campus if I'm walking to the other side do the room to the stationary cupboard my screen gets locked.

My details got hacked and sold on the black market during a cyber attack on my pension.

YABU to assume WFH causes data breaches

SurprisedWithAHorse · 12/09/2023 14:40

I do really hope it is just a note that that person was WFH today.

ilovebrie8 · 12/09/2023 14:47

has the OP come back? curious to find out lol!

adriftinadenofvipers · 12/09/2023 14:49

Tracker1234 · 12/09/2023 11:34

Ditto to the people who say productivity has dropped especially with call centres and public sector.

If I am honest my view is that people have got used to no travelling costs, doing household tasks, 'nipping' out to collect kids etc and are conning themselves that they are working just as hard. In my previous role there wre certain women (sadly it was only women) who were never available after 1500 via email and almost always not immediately. I was customer facing in a senior role and when our clients needed us to respond we were unable to do so quickly. One particular lady had so many dentist appointments it got to be a stadning joke because we all knew she was collecting her two small children from nursery and couldnt take any live calls.

These instances need to be dealt with.

We are a small team of professionals and god forbid we're not available on Teams unless we have scheduled time for a task, meeting etc on our calendar. There is insistence that we always use the camera. If we're 'away' for any length of time, we'd be asked to explain.

I feel more tightly monitored than I was in the office.

Tiredalwaystired · 12/09/2023 14:53

Throwncrumbs · 12/09/2023 13:37

Council staff all working from home, not actually doing a lot but raking in massive salaries, are now wondering why the organisations they are employed by are all becoming bankrupt. No accountability for any of them. Take the money but not following through on anything. The moneys gone into peoples pockets but not in services. Big issues in lots of places with the same problems. WFH has become the biggest con/ scam ever imo!

And your evidence that this is all a direct result of WFH is where exactly? Financial mismanagement is not suddenly a new thing that has happened in the last three years.

(although the sustained erosion of funding from central government has gone on just as long)

adriftinadenofvipers · 12/09/2023 14:57

Echobelly · 12/09/2023 11:56

My guess is meeting will be to lay down law about minimum number of days in office, but not a wholesale RtO.

In my job I work on content about commercial office space, so I see a lot about this - a lot of businesses now and starting to rattle their sabres about coming in and there being consequences for those who don't often enough.

FWIW, I think there's no reason a lot of knowledge work can't be done remotely, but it's still good to go in a few times a week if you can and see people. I started a new role just over a year ago and I'm terrible with names, so it helps me to come in twice a week. If they were to insist on a third, that's OK, but I'd be annoyed if they asked for more than that.

I hate the way the newspapers have politicised it and decided it's 'woke' somehow, and to go on and on about the civil service, as if it's WFH's fault that everything's gone to hell rather than our godawful government!

There would be no point in my returning to the office even for a day or two a week, literally.

Our team was always based over five locations. It would be unlikely that everyone in each location would want to come into the office on the same day, and even if they did, we'd have meetings etc and wouldn't probably spend much if any time together in any case.

It's actually freed us up tremendously to work from home. Had this discussion with team manager only yesterday. Where we would previously spend up to 2 hours driving to a meeting and the same back, we can now fit 4 meetings into that day whereas before it would have been that single one. Plus you could have driven all that distance and the bloody meeting last half an hour!!

There are times and situations where we still have to do that but cutting down on travelling times to the extent we have been able to, has been game-changing.

SeptemberSuns · 12/09/2023 14:57

Customer service in the UK is virtually non-existent - I've personally found customer service workers WFH are even worse. As for civil servants WFH, get back to the bloody office! I worked throughout the pandemic in an office going in daily, I am not NHS, but have a boss who needed his business to continue running and to do that I had to be in office. I was lucky and have never had covid. I agree WFH is an enormous con.

TrashedSofa · 12/09/2023 14:58

Tiredalwaystired · 12/09/2023 14:53

And your evidence that this is all a direct result of WFH is where exactly? Financial mismanagement is not suddenly a new thing that has happened in the last three years.

(although the sustained erosion of funding from central government has gone on just as long)

Edited

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There is a tendency for some people to assume that any bad thing happening in an organisation since March 2020 must be down to remote working. Rather than any of the great number of things that have changed since then: shrinking workforce, more people too sick to work, recruitment freezes, galloping inflation, losing expensive equal pay cases etc... the list is lengthy.

Tiredalwaystired · 12/09/2023 15:03

Tracker1234 · 12/09/2023 14:18

When public sector are at home or indeed anyone who deals with customer data what are the checks on this? Thinking of Passport Agency people for example. They need to process very sensitive info. How do they manage this from home? Unless god forbid someone is sending the relevant documents to 36 Acacia Ave!

Yes I realise they have login’s and PIN numbers but who else is in the house with them? Cleaner’s, other children, workmen? All passing through!

I work in a hospital. We also have cleaners, delivery guys etc passing through the admin office. More than at home. So I don’t get your point here.

NearlyMonday · 12/09/2023 15:12

I work in my dining room where I can close the doors. The only parties to confidential conversations are my cats. I've sworn them to secrecy.

I think my cat may be something of a gossip .....

Original poster

coxesorangepippin · 12/09/2023 15:28

UPDATE

Meeting has just been held. We have to go in to the office twice per week.

The team are not happy.

OP posts:

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 12/09/2023 15:34

Two days out of 5 isn't too bad, I'd love that!

sparklefresh · 12/09/2023 15:35

Why aren't they happy?

BeeBelle16 · 12/09/2023 15:35

So many companies going this way, dh has recently gone from 1 to 2 days

What's a pain in the arse is that I am a contracted home worker and my company are saying to attend the office a day a week as its good for networking etc not only that but one of my direct reports also has a home contract and I've been asked to get them in the office more! Ridiculous- why give them a home contract if they want this now- so short sighted (this was before I took over the team) and now I'm facing a consultation period to change mine and my direct reports contracts because the business has "changed its mind" over our wfh policy over the last 12 months

Newpeep · 12/09/2023 15:36

SeptemberSuns · 12/09/2023 14:57

Customer service in the UK is virtually non-existent - I've personally found customer service workers WFH are even worse. As for civil servants WFH, get back to the bloody office! I worked throughout the pandemic in an office going in daily, I am not NHS, but have a boss who needed his business to continue running and to do that I had to be in office. I was lucky and have never had covid. I agree WFH is an enormous con.

Why? The tax payers save millions by not having physical office space. The work gets done. Stop being fed by the tabloids. Services are crap due to 12 years of Tory mismanagement. Not people working from home.

I’m unable to work from home. I’m fine with it. I’m fine with those who can WFH and have not felt I’ve been short changed by it.

Superstar22 · 12/09/2023 15:37

Urgh. I feel their/ your pain. So short sighted, feels micromanagey now, I don’t know why shit / lazy people can’t be sacked and everyone else crack on from home

NearlyMonday · 12/09/2023 15:37

coxesorangepippin · 12/09/2023 15:28

UPDATE

Meeting has just been held. We have to go in to the office twice per week.

The team are not happy.

That could have been an awful lot worse? 2 days in the office seems to be the 'standard' hybrid position. We do this, and it's fine.