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.

Right but my point is that’s what we were told by our professional bodies.

He's either being lobbied by commercial property companies to make their office buildings more valuable, or he's just appealing to the older generation who will see it as 'In my day...'

Either way, he's completely out of touch and thankfully most voters won't agree.

But he could be our Prime Minister in 3 years, so this stuff does worry me.

He will lose a LOT of support if he pushes on with this.

But I can tell you it’s going to look like absolute shit!

Plus ca change ...

You haven't called a call centre in years? A) how would you know B) check you privilege.

Lowest common denominator populist policies work fine when you’re still a protest vote 3 years out from an election but eventually 2028 will roll around and they’ll need to have an actual manifesto.

Child benefit caps to get two pence off beer, scrapping WFH, and giving up on net-zero is all well and good when you don’t have to do any work and just talk but eventually they’ll need actual policies and the wheels will fall off if they haven’t already by then because you can trick DM readers into believing anything but you can’t trick the markets.

Also, the irony is, in the medieval age that Farage fantasises about, everyone "worked from home".. Another aspect of British history the Kremlin don't teach;

Exactly. And considering the state of the NHS where lots of people are waiting for appointments and surgeries there are people who are working from home due to dealing with various untreated or even undiagnosed issues.

There are a lot of office workers on MN, in the real world this wouldn't be any consequence for a lot of people who have to go out to work anyway or are retired and they may get a better service from some of the public services.

It’s not the same.

I work in architecture. You can do it remote. But design studio offers many things which you just can’t get virtually.

I have said it many different ways now so not sure there’s anymore point in going over it. But I do think it’s really important.

Not only the social, experience, wisdom, support, all of those things. I think it’s so important for safety and workers rights too.

You know you think of grenfell. I don’t know if they were in office or not, but let’s say those reports that showed it wasn’t up to spec were a conversation in an office rather than in a private email. Someone overheard. Whistle blowers aren’t usually whistle blowing their own failures.

I think it’s mainly the former that is driving him to say this, with the appeal to certain elders being a bonus.

He’s probably too busy wanking over flags and holly valance to read

Is it really necessary to be so offensive?

us 'old dinosaurs' (charming) are not about to 'die soon'

NF is 61, I'm 56. Hrs a twat, not a dinosaur about to die.

Well, if you didn't know to shun Farage by now... I hope it deters people from voting for this wankmuffin.

It seems to be men in their 60s who hate working from home the most. Working from home has given so many women (and men) opportunities that they might not have had re managing childcare and commutes.

I don’t think the fundamentals are going to stay at all! We are going to have upper echelon decision makers and we are going to have monkey workers. But middle expensive complex professional skill roles are going to disappear fast. How anyone’s going to bridge that gulf I don’t know.

Local authority worker here, our council have sold off buildings so we will not have enough space. I was the last person to want to WFH & as a Social Worker I am often out on visits & now I see that WFH makes perfect sensem I used to drive to work, go into the office, drive out to a visit (often past my house) then back to the office again! My mileage claim has reduced substantially since WFH & I even buy my own paper, pens etc

Precisely.

This is just another aspect of the same race to the bottom that was the real driver behind Brexit.

Remember all the nonsense about getting rid of foreign labour so Brits could benefit from increased wages to pick fruit?

Exactly the same drivel. It's about erosion of rights, and pandering to exploitative business.

Again, you'd have to have a zip up the back of your head to buy into the idea the solution to problems caused by neoliberal capitalism is turbo-charged neoliberal capitalism.

Will lose him a shed load of votes.

It would cost billions to buy sufficient office space, cause congestion and public transport capacity issues and wrap around childcare problems.

It's bollocks, as usual from that odious man. He's spouting it at a bunch of older, retired Reform voters, because he knows it will garner headlines. If we had some proper journalists they could ask him exactly how he would propose to make that happen in practice. He wouldn't have a clue. All shout and no substance. I'd say mouth-and-no-trousers, but the thought of him in his kecks turns my stomach.

That wasn't what I meant though.

I thought Reform were against the State interfering in private businesses? Isn’t that why they said they plan to remove most employment rights?

And the sheer irony of such a proclamation from a man whose constituents say he is never around…

I honestly can’t understand how people are taken in by this hate-filled untalented grifter.

I think that's a very separate issue.

If your MH is reliant on social interaction with other people and you have no people to interact with outside of work, that's not a WFH issue.

Local authority worker here, our council have sold off buildings so we will not have enough space.

But if the Reform government mandate back to office then the council will jolly well have to buy more buildings. Which - due to sudden demand - are now 10x more expensive than when Farages mates snapped them up.

You won't have to worry about the council affording it as they will have saved billions from scrapping SEND provision.