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.

I think it’s due to a mixture of:

Jealousy - because it didn’t exist for most of their working life
Plus Inability to understand how it can work as they didn’t do it

I’m sure some older men hate wfh as they can’t flirt / perv over women in the office.

I voted "unreasonable" because I am fed up with being categorized by age. Not everyone over 60 votes Reform.

I’m perplexed as to why this would need government involvement anyway. Seems very nanny state.
And it really happened! (Albeit the other way round.) It was very nanny state indeed, when the government practically ordered us to work from home while they partied. Has everyone forgotten 2020? Has the Orwellian government successfully memory-holed it out of existence? Indeed, is Farage's proposal an Orwellian attempt to restore the status quo of "lockdown never happened"?

Farage is a grifter who will say any old rubbish that he thinks people want to hear. See also Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, and many others.

Ok 😂

You have given me precisely 3 words to express your view lol

No it won't and why would it?

It's nothing to do with WFH, it's to do with cutting staff because of online systems and AI being available so they assume fewer staff are needed.

Despite the bleating of the terminally envious / owners of big city offices who fear their buildings will lose value / standard twats, we cannot achieve net zero unless we get rid of the commute. That means everyone who can work remotely doing so or extreme (and I do mean extreme) flexitime. So suck it up, dinosaurs, you can't have it both ways.

Swings and roundabouts.

I'm autistic and really struggle with over-stimulation. Office environments just don't suit me, and previously caused a total mental-health disintegration that took me nearly a decade to recover from.

I can cope with small office working on a limited basis, but 40 hours per week in a noisy office, surrounded by ringing phones, people talking away, the commute etc, it would invariably lead to yet another catastrophic breakdown, so WFH is essential to my ability to do my job in the first place. I would resign and go onto benefits if office working became mandatory, because I value my mental wellbeing more than I do my salary.

It could also be used to prevent disabled people having WFH flexibility. This, added to Reforms likely punishment of the disabled who 'choose not to work' is a concerning spectre.

I couldn't give a rat's arse what he thinks on any subject. Plus, if I am willing to let my employees WFH what fucking business is that of Farage's????

I think working from home is good for parents and older people who are well established in their job role, seniors who have a lot of autonomy etc.
BUT I think we are all being quite selfish - the younger generation are not doing well with WFH in a big picture sense. Learning on the job is very hard to do when you are not in an office having face to face conversations and absorbing information through osmosis - hearing conversations happen around you, chats at the coffee machine, seeing things on other peoples screens etc. People are very much likely to have a teams to just inform a junior of what they are doing and why. Much harder to guage how someone is doing and if they look bit lost when you are not in regular contact. And there is not much point the juniors going into the office if there is no-one senior there to train them / interact with!!
Also when I think back to my early 20s a lot of my social life was based around going out for drinks after work with people from work, especially if you move to a new city away from uni and school friends.

I don't like working from home in this job. I did in a previous job and loved it as my kids were in primary school and it gave me some flexibility (only going into the office once a month or so) as it was very reports based and factual so easy to send emails with figures and actions in. I kno work for a creative agency and there is a lot of spitballing and conversations that happen around projects that are easier in person as part of the day to day chit chat - we all need to feed off each other. As a project manager it is helpful to be able to read the room and know where the pressures are. I also like the company. When I work from home it is very boring, if you lived alone you could go days without seeing someone!

It is a delicate balance but on the whole, having the entire workforce working from home is just going to be very isolating and I don't think it works for everyone and we cannot be selfish about it, there does needs to be some consideration about what is best for society as a whole.

It's a weird take, and quite literally none of his fucking business. Presumably he's playing to white van man or presenteeist office blurks that think being in the office and endless meetings about work is the same as actual work. Otherwise I have no idea why he's latched onto this as some kind of policy.

Plus ca change.

There were monks moaning about new practices in the 1300s.

There were weavers whining about new practices in the 1600s.

There were cast iron workers complaining about new practices in the 1800s

People catastrophising about change is as old as the hills.

Meanwhile you have weirdoes like me who say fuck all has changed in 50 years. Are we still using telephones to deal with companies. At their convenience ? Yes to both.

One think you need to bear in mind is that reform do not believe in climate change and want to scrap net zero.

Incidentally, this one single thread is now the most scrutiny Reform has had in the UK this year. Beating the BBC, ITV, Sky and all printed papers.

I work in the public sector. My team works exclusively from home. We couldn't return to an office as the local authority sold every viable office space that we could have used.

I think he says things out loud to see public reaction - if it is negative then it'll never be mentioned again. If whatever he says gets support then he will note that & discuss it more. In the event of being in a position to do something about it, he will be influenced only by those paying him either money or attention

How is he going to mandate this? Half of my friends now wfh full time because they companies got rid of their offices. There is literally no where for them to work, other than home. Because their companies realised it was much more profitable and the workforce was performing at home.

No, that’s not my issue - why did you think it was?

But even if loneliness was someone’s reason to not want to WFH, I’d say that’s more than fair enough and companies do have to be aware of it.

There are reasons people give for not wanting to be in the office that aren’t work/office issues, for example childcare and commuting time/costs, and they are seemingly accepted.

Well employers can’t have it both ways.

If you bring people back to the office say 3 days then they will work those hours on those days and no more.

The only reason for a company to do this is if the feel they are not getting enough productivity in the wfh days.

There is a trend whereby the wfh parents of young children go quiet in the afternoons. I think in some cases they don’t have childcare. They might log on at 7pm again but it’s up to the company to decide if this is effective and productive working. If not then back to the office, if it works well then leave as is

during Covid my husband had some of his staff begging to go back to the office. They’re classed as essential workers so he opened up the office for those who wanted to. A lot did and i definitely wouldn’t say the people who took the offer where lazy, they are the most productive. The lazier workers did stay at home though & after Covid he had a more relaxed attitude & allowed people to remote work. Well he’s had to recall some back into the office because they kept rescheduling meetings to fit round school runs (clients complained) he phoned someone to find they where in the gym & said I’ll catch up the time in the evening. He never logged back into his computer from 3.45pm. A woman never answered her phone and called everyone back, again meaning clients were calling the office as they could never reach her. (He nearly lost a customer over this as they were fuming). Not everyone takes the piss but some really did. He will consider remote learning for those who believes genuinely won’t mess around and will negotiate that in appraisals. But he as a business owner isn’t keen on it.

Once again, if ol' Nige gets his way they will have to buy more space then. From his mates. At inflated prices.

God that man is a fucking twat!

He’s a Luddite speaking to other Luddites who don’t accept that society is changing significantly. Automation, computerisation, now “AI”. Whole industries and jobs will disappear and new ones will appear over the next decade. The use of public spaces and town and city centres and buildings will alter thanks to the change in employment, shopping and leisure habits.

There’s too many variables for anyone to predict with certainty where it’s going - it could be great, it could be apocalyptic. In the UK it will probably end up middling as most things do these days. We don’t have the kind of society that encouraged the Victorian Industrial Revolution any more because we have laws regarding exploitation of people and the environment.

That’s a bit harsh. People are in different situations and career stages. Younger people might have rubbish set ups at home and appreciate the office more.

Not everyone, usually these threads are 50/50 and there’s no point in telling people they’re wrong over preferring wfh or not.

Proverb. plus ça change. (literally) The more it changes, the more it's the same thing (sometimes loosely translated as the more things change, the more they stay the same). Although the outward appearance may change, fundamentals are constant.

So you could see it like you see it. Thanks for expanding. I also don’t think my response was a bad one to that phrase.

In my industry (Architecture) things have changed exponentially in the last 50 years!!

How do I know this? From office chat and the wisdom of the oldies imparted. It does sound lovely 😅 quite jealous at times!