Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home

[sally037]

Nigel Farage has doubled down on his attack on remote and hybrid working, calling it “a load of nonsense” and saying people are only productive when working face-to-face in the office. He argues we need an “attitudinal change to hard work” rather than focusing on work-life balance.

AIBU for thinking this idea is just bonkers and totally at odds with how most of the workforce actually wants to work now?

I can only think it appeals to the "pull the ladder up" generation. Don't give two fucks about anyone else as long as they are comfortable or those that are unable to wfh and want everyone else to be as miserable as them.

OK. Less angry thoughts.

I am delighted that workers are getting some power and agency back. Going to work is an exchange of value. 'Buy my skill for money'. The employer has, for too long, held all the cards in this dynamic, dictating ALL the terms of that value exchange - everything from the location to the pay and conditions. The worker had no agency at all and was expected to be grateful. But it is our labour lining the businesses' pockets - and yes, our own. A more equitable power dynamic is long overdue.

I am fully behind anyone who places conditions on their labour being available. Equally, I support any business that doesn't accept those conditions. Because it's an exchange of value that has to work for both parties.

It's depressing otherwise, to consider that for the vast majority of our lives, we are simply a unit of economic production without ANY control in that power dynamic. Capitalism is a neutral concept - neither good nor evil. Capitalism too heavily in favour of businesses - not cool.

So Rose and Farage can huff and bluster, but they might find that the best talent goes to work elsewhere. Market forces. Capitalism as it should be, in action.

I am a business owner. We are remote-first and always have been.

I wonder how many people factor their commute into their hourly/daily rate ?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
My son worked from home on a telephone helpline for a large retail company and was closely monitored to make sure he was up to quota on how many calls he took. He had timed ‘comfort’ breaks and often didn’t get his lunch break till about 4pm.

The reason nobody is answering your calls is because the companies employ fewer people to do that job, not because they are swanning around at home and only picking up the phone if they feel like it.

Great description of this person in my team who makes comments behind my back when I WFH and she's in the office. When we are both in the office , she gossips or complains non stop... all day long... and I find it quite tiring to be honest.

But it’s not as simple as WFH causing such change in productivity - correlation doesn’t mean causation.

It’s not exactly clear for example how ‘productivity’ is measured - what outputs are less and are they on exactly the same basis as before? Which is unlikely with digital changes, reduced staffing.
However, the main measures aimed at on your link do appear to be achieve the same for less funding - although again not clear what ‘the same’ is - just functional seems sufficient as long as it effectively costs less to provide the service year on year.

So basically what is happening is that as wages go up productivity effectively goes down on this measure - as each output costs a bit more - which would be an obvious conclusion anyway and actually maintaining any increases in productivity at all implies there must have been staff cuts (or wastages) and different ‘smarter’ working to try and keep up, just to keep functioning at some level.

From this then the one thing I can be sure of is that the phone doesn’t get answered due to WFH - but due to saving costs by not having nearly as many staff on the phones - to maintain productivity/output of staying functional and the ‘smarter’ bit is hoping digital is sufficient.

I’ve seen these cuts at councils, public authorities and charities - and every single place would be after your ass if you were failing to meet call stats - eg/ Ltd wrap time, Ltd toilet time, expected call answer time and expected call length time and this is all recorded by the telephony system used whether in or out of the office.
WFH is not the reason you haven’t got your call answered for sure.

I work in an NHS role and am at home 90% of the time. I am no less productive. I could however be a lot more productive, because all that time I used to spend answering other people's phones, making small talk, walking to and from meetings could now be spent working but isn't. I do life stuff instead and am grateful for the chance.

If Farage wants me to go back and work in the office full time then fair enough. It's taxpayers money. But I will be no more productive. And the more intriguing thing is how he will afford all the new office space required to accommodate my colleagues and me since my old offices are now used for clinical work. It would cost an arm and a leg to have us all back.

More ignorant posturing from Reform, I fear.

I work remotely and absolutely love it. Never worked harder. I am self-motivated and get a lot done, and it also means I can get in my exercise at lunchtime. There’s no way I want to return to the office.

My local authority has been selling off its buildings. Fewer desks available. There is no room to accommodate everyone.

Very true

We have seen how thin-skinned he is and how he becomes very ill-tempered when he is put under pressure.

He is a master at swerving any position of accountability. You can guarantee that as PM everything will be somebody elses fault.

Remember this is a man who insisted Liz Truss pension-shrinking budget was a work of genius.

I expect he will cancel all PMQs or he’d look dreadful (more dreadful) plus he’d actually have to turn upto work like the plebs.

My wages are higher because our small charity got rid of it's premises and decided to pay us more out of the rental savings. I get far more done from home. I work in social research so can sit and write a paper in peace without dozens of questions and tea rounds. People who take the piss are dealt with by management (to be honest the one time someone did this it was obvious, there was very little output, and they got their act together after a meeting!).

I will need to commute to Singapore to go to the office. I do several times a year, but daily 😆, nah. I’d have to set out before l left.

People like him ignore the benefits wfh brings to society. Other than work/life balance on an individual level, it also:

It reduces pollution and cars on the road. Less traffic means the people who actually need to be out can get to A to B quicker.

It helps people to shop local and support small businesses. Just because people aren’t popping in to Pret in the city doesn’t mean they’re not spending their money elsewhere. Lots of people pop in to their local bakery on their lunch break or can meet a friend at their local cafe. Rather than sitting in their office canteen.

Parents can spend more time with their children in the mornings and evenings rather than wasting that time on the commute. Helping children’s’ overall wellbeing.

Disabled people have more access to work, reducing the money the government would need to spend on benefits.

It reduces sickness. Both due to sickness spreading around the office (I was always catching things when I was in full time and there was no option to wfh when you had a cold) and reduces stress and mental health problems if people have a good work/life balance they’re happy with. People will also be spending less time on stressful commutes, making them healthier.

It is cheaper for businesses. They save money on office space, electricity, utilities etc. The money can be spent on hiring more staff instead.

much like his hero - Trump

He Needs to look for hybrid job. best of both

If Farage wants to tempt voters who aren’t his usual hotbed of support, he needs to bin rage baiting crap like this.

It’s not a vote winner, simple as that. It impacts women and disabled people particularly, and a lot of good people will simply move to the private sector, where presumably private employers can do what they like (and will continue with popular flexibility policies).

I think it should be left to the employer to decide if they wish to allow WFH. Each business is different to the next and only the employer knows if a job role can be performed adequately remotely. It certainly shouldn't be for politicians to interfere with policies either in favour of WFH or blanket ban of WFH.

I’d rather call for the end of Nigel Farage. The frog faced grifter.

This is absolutely trying to appeal to the ‘pull the ladder up behind us’ generation! I bet there are loads of retired people (men!) ranting on Facebook in support of this and saying about how people should get back to the office.

I know so many people now though who either WFH or hybrid and it has transformed their work life balance. My DB used to spend 4 hours a day commuting. Now he doesn’t has to do that anymore, it’s transformed him-it was such a waste of time. Now, he can go to the gym, see the kids after school and have dinner with his wife!

To the op who posted earlier saying her son was unhappy wfh as a youngster, then he needs to find a job that’s in the office, if that’s what he wants!

Council workers aren’t voting for him anyway, he can afford to lose their vote

He reminds me of this sneaky, snakey guy 😬

Maybe not, but if private sector workers hear he’s against working from home generally, it’s not going to go down particularly well with a lot of them.

If Reform do win the next election (🤑) all Farage will do is whine on about is the how hard it is to achieve anything due to the mess they inherited. I wonder how long that will wash with his supporters who will no doubt be expecting all their problems to be over the minute as Nige kicks Larry the cat out of the way as he enters No10. He's got those ex Tories who have held cabinet posts who assuming they are elected as Reform MPs
will be jostling to have the same status again,Then there will be the likes of Lee Anderson who lacks any sort of brain and abilty to think strategically, but will no doubt be hoping for a cabinet post too. I sometimes wonder if Farage really wants all the stress of being PM and secretly prefers standing on the sidelines stirring up trouble. The only real appeal of being PM for him is that moment of glory on election night and the chance to get even richer, he has no care for this country and its people at all

😪 I hope so