Employers hell bent on working in the office full time

[NewDayNewLife25]

Anyone else currently job searching and noticed the same thing?

I'm utterly miserable in my current role which is unfortunate as I've been there for 4 years and use to love it, but a new manager has changed things. I've always worked from home.

Anyway, I've been applying for jobs, mainly remote/hybrid working but also a few office based roles. I always state in my cover letter what I'm looking for, and my address is on my CV too.

A few employers have contacted me, saying that I'm perfect for the role, have all the experience/skills that's required and that they think I would make a great addition to the team. But as soon as I've asked about the working set up, that's it, done. They won't entertain it and decline my application.

I just think it's a shame. I know that they probably have plenty of applications, but surely it's more important to hire the right person, with the right skills and experience. Not just because that person happens to live near the office. Half the time they can't even explain why they need the person in the office. Is it control?

I'm fed up already!

During and after Covid the dial turned very much to working from home and kept businesses especially Government Depts going and functioning which was super important re UC, CMS, and State pension payments flowing. Can it be imagined if these had failed? We successfully WFH and productivity was shown to have increased.
Furlough was put in place to stop an ALMIGHTY swamp of people claiming Gov help, re lockdown, Gov Depts would have found these numbers impossible to cope with so Sunak etc looked like a caring Gov as they realised sweeping action was needed asap.
WFH has suited/suits a very substantial amount of women with kids and carers/men too who had previously no choice but to go part-time (yes..I kno) and resulting outcome was a lot couldn’t keep up with pension contributions etc so very much lost out. So now ‘the party’s over back to normal’ back to old fashioned previous work patterns set by men, for men and all people to slot back into…i believe its muscle flexing/control again…lets consider modern living now instead and NOT go backwards…

Let me explain this as simply as possible to you.

The NHS is bust and not working.

Therefore clearly the systems they have set up are not working.

This is a simple one to answer.

You don’t and I don’t know the justification behind why they want everyone back in the office, we don’t know the business model, we could poke at about twenty reasons. But they’ve made that decision, and there will be a queue of happy people wanting that job, happy to commute, if it doesn’t suit the lady to continue.

So there’s the logic.

Proponents of wfh cannot seem to comprehend that there are real issues being thrown up with wfh model. It can work very well for some organisations or in some roles.

I think, though, that it does impact very negatively on some things- workplace relationships and training (especially for more junior members of staff). Obviously more important in some fields than others, but there is evidence supporting this beginning to emerge. It’s also not true that productivity is universally improved by allowing wfh.

At the end of the day, if it were a universally positive thing, improving productivity and boosting profit, happier employees etc, I think most employers would be happy to do it. I think that we should acknowledge that some employers have not found wfh to work for them so aren’t continuing down that route. If they are wrong, presumably they will all soon alter course as their organisations will suffer the fallout. Or they will fail and the business will go bust.

And therein lies the problem. Of course it makes a difference and that fact you can’t see that is quite frankly bizzare

its the business that dictates where the staff member should work. It’s not for you to dictate or throw your toys out of the pram because you are not getting what you want. The business does not have to fit in with you.

Of course but 30 or so hours alone 5 days a week plus eating and sleeping means there isn't a lot of time for seeing people in these other activities and hour or so a day isn't that great. Most people who go out to work get those 30 hours plus other times. We are social beings hence why solitary confinement is a punishment.

And since COVID a growing number have taken the piss especially with childcare of preschool children, and despite evidence showing the lack of attention given to young children by parents struggling to work and childcare damaged those children permanently new parents are insisting they can do it to save money.

Yes, we know the husiness gets to decide. The point of this post, though, as I understand it, is that the business also benefits if employees are well motivated and have goodwill towards their employer. This ensures a good quality of output and that employees will, eg work beyond their hours if necessary. So an astute business owner/manager will pay attention to creating good conditions for their staff, that the staff value and feel valued in.

It’s one thing if the business relies on people physically being there - eg retail staff. Where it’s not physically necessary it then comes down to things like the competence of management, the calibre of the people they hire (is the recruitment process working effectively), policies and procedures that support WFH/hybrid being effective, etc. It can be done very well, so where there are issues with poor performance, I would be looking to rectify management failings and put the employee on a performance improvement plan, just like with any other performance issue.

I wouldn’t be assuming that all WFH/hybrid doesn’t work at all, ever, and start banging the table to get all employees in come what may, just because I can. That very old fashioned approach to management, that doesn’t take account of human psychology, won’t pay off for the business in the long run.

It's called having a better work/life balance as opposed to pointlessly commuting to sit in an office in a role that can be done from home.

There have been dozens of threads on here over recent years about the decline in customer service provision, most of which is provided by call centres, many of the staff in call centre roles wfh.

I’m in my 50s and I don’t see a decline in call centre standards - because in my experience it’s never been very good!

Hanging on waiting for 30 minutes plus to be answered, while listening to ‘due to higher call volumes than usual’ - that is actually the case every time you call, so in fact a deliberate management decision to save money by understaffing - is nothing new. It has got no better or worse since Covid. Some call centres I deal with are actually better, eg my local council, where Covid forced them to move with the times and set up more automation, which they could have done years before but didn’t bother with. I can now get through to a person far quicker than I used to and they no longer require me to go into the town hall for anything.

Once you speak to someone, I don’t notice any difference in quality of response. Most people are helpful, British Gas and Ocado being two recent ones where the staff were great. Not everyone is, but that’s always been the case. Let’s face it, call centre staff are paid really badly, so you can’t expect a stellar service every time. Pay peanuts and get monkeys is a stereotype for a reason.

Oh come on. Changes to contracts are made all the time and if the person doesn’t like the changes they are free to leave and find something else that fits their needs more.

A business can make their staff feel valued and appreciated and still want them in the office.

Exactly. Customer service has sharply declined since Covid.

A better work balance to enable staff to take a teams call whilst still in bed as one poster deemed as perfectly acceptable? It’s not up to a business to deal with your commute. That’s life.

Some businesses NEED staff in the office. That’s not in issue. Others WANT them. Why? Just because they can? Because otherwise they don’t feel they’re getting their money’s worth? They had to, so why shouldn’t others?

If there’s not a tangible, quantifiable benefit to having staff in, then, knowing just how many staff value at least some time in the week working from home and not wasting time in a commute, then it’s pretty short sighted, and poor management practice, to stubbornly dig heels in and insist beyond what’s actually, objectively, necessary. You piss your staff off for no actual real gain for you. Bad move.

But then, the UK is renowned both for low productivity and poor management/ low level of management skills, so it doesn’t surprise me that so many businesses are insisting on bums on office seats just because/they’re not confident in their own management or the calibre of the staff they’ve hired.

Productivity (I think) is determined to a great degree by how much people enjoy what they do.

Not really.

Overall productivity is the amount of work done divided by the time spent doing it.

For an individual employer that looks fine. Managers tend to like simple numbers for reasons that needn't detain us here. That's because they can
ignore anything outside of 9-5 (for example)

However, as a country that figure is subtly (or not so subtly different). It becomes he amount of work done divided by the time spent doing it. Not at the company level, but at the country level. And that figure suddenly includes commuting time. And when you add that in (because people commuting cannot do any other work) you get a pisspoor productivity figure.

And anyone who knows how numbers work, could see that even a small shift in the unproductive time would lead to a large increase in overall productivity.

If everyone could shave 10 minutes off their commute the UK could have an extra 12 million person-hours a day available to harness into other areas.

It’s not difficult to understand. If businesses want their staff in the office they want them in. It’s only your opinion that says otherwise and until you are a business owner or director then you don’t get to decide the business case for wanting staff in.

Business can want what they want. Don't necessarily make it so.

Most businesses would love to run their business paying staff nothing. They would also like to pay no tax and have no competitors. It's only when the cold air of reality hits their bubble that they have to adapt - using as little energy as possible (because that's science) to the environment.

If a business can find enough people to fill a role in accordance with that businesses culture. Bravo. If it can't then rather than bleating to the press about a "skills shortage" maybe they should consider a "culture clash".

A study of life in England after the black death reveals some interesting precedents. And despite employers even getting a law saying you couldn't change jobs, feudalism collapsed. Putting England on the road to becoming a European and then global player.

So why is productivity still in decline given the number of people now wfh?

When it comes to productivity, working from home even part time (key industry do some had to be in) reduced it at dh's work, and when he announced all back in May 21 then only 2 employees complaining were the two main culprits of poor productivity when wfh (and this who he ended wfh so early) both left within 3 months and their replacements are far more productive!

Rubbish

Because despite some sample points being zero, they are offset by other sample points increasing.

Commuting isn't the sole reason for poor productivity. There is also the more intractable fact that currently it seems there is little point in doing that much more for the little to no benefit it brings. Generally as a mass people respond as a mass. Why would anyone put that much more effort in when it clearly brings no reward ?

The TL;DR is if you want better productivity, then you need to show people that it's worth it. Not just personally. But overall.

Right now, I live in Birmingham. Where despite council tax going up, services going to hell in an extraordinarily visible manner. And if you are unlucky to trip over a bin that has been left out uncollected for 6 weeks you know you are in for an equally shit time in A&E. Despite having a lot stolen from your wages monthly.

In that kind of environment, what is the point ?

And that isn't "just me". That is the majority. Just read MN. That persistent low level of overall depression is the biggest drag on productivity. And it's what you get when - again as a mass - everyone is out for themselves.

Garbage