Will your companies let you work from home after lockdown has ended

[Makinitrain]

I mean it's great being able to work from home, great for the planet, I suspect good for mental health.
However I imagine that many companies, including mine, will be quick to take it away as soon as they can. Is this because of productivity concerns? Any other reason?

I also imagine WFH isn't great for other businesses which rely on people commuting and meeting after work/ lunchtime.
Thoughts?

Risk assessments, DSEs and such can be done remotely via self serve assessment.

I wonder who has liability if the RA turns out to be inadequate and someone ends up with occupational injury.

where there are hardware issues IT teams will courier a replacement temp machine to you, collect yours, fix it then courier it back and take away the temp machine at the same time.

Will the temp machine have any bespoke software not normally supplied, with all appropriate license keys?

I have files I can literally only see on my desktop (only licensed to be viewed on that machine). I don't need to see them often, but could undermine productivity if I have to days or weeks for that machine to be returned. Especially if it came back without the bespoke software...

I guess printers/scanners could be supplied to homes with paper & ink cartridges. All that would be posted out, too. Who would do the hardware set up, know how to plug all the cables into each other and get the printer to talk to my home wifi.

Mentally I need a 'separate' space to get my head into work mode.  Every other room in this house has enormous distractions.  I've ended up painting the spare bedroom (my temp office) bc I couldn't stand the dirty walls any more.

How much space do you need to WFH?

Me and DH are doing it now, we don't have an office so are using the dining room table, we've borrowed a couple of office chairs, risers, keyboard & mice from my workplace so the laptop screens are higher up

This actually annoys me a lot. I'm self employed and I still don't like working from my dining room long term. My dining room is a family space. It's for us to eat in. It is not a workspace. I resent having to pack up and tidy everything away so that we can have dinner. And if I worked for a large corporate I'd take it vey badly if they thought I should just work from my dining room indefinitely and they'll save lots of money. And if they provided proper chairs and desks and screens, I wouldn't be able to use it as a dining room any more and instead my work would be getting a free office space for one of their employees while I'd be losing a room in my house.

I'm really really tired of this idea that WFH is the perfect solution for everyone. It's not. And we need to really think about how we can take the lessons from this period to change working environments but this assumption that WFH is the answer for everyone is not it.

@bling No-one’s saying WFH is for everyone, it won’t be compulsory, but for many it is well-suited to their tertiary sector work and is good for mental
health. It will be a while until it’s safe to return to “commute to the City” conditions and employers have litigation risks of forcing people back before a vaccine (imagine the level of damage of a 40 year old working parent in the City if covid death)

It’s the visual conferencing and how well www has stood up to this massive test which is revolutionary

Plus, Green issues are really driving many business values these days and just look at the clear skies and roads and air !!!!

I hope not as I hate WFH. I enjoy my 30 minute cycle commute to the office. Also enjoy the company of fellow workers.

Yes. My employer is going to close down at least two, maybe three of the offices in our region, keeping only two open. People will WFH or can travel to one of the two regional offices and hot desk (we all have work laptops and smartphones)

I usually spend about half my time on the road, visiting clients or having meetings offsite. One of the two offices that will remain is the one local to me.

I absolutely love working from home, and the evidence at my workplace is that people have been more productive because of less time lost commuting.

I would bet money the 'if you can work from home you must work from home' guidence will stay in place.

Any employee making peolle come back to an office that isn't social distancing or whose employees are Vale to work from home will find themselves wide open, for legal action if their employees catch them spread it round an office

@jjl
What sort of turnover does your business make if some footstands and chairs are such a massive part of your budget ? Or if they are then compare it with your electricity and heating bills, or imagine cutting your rent in half ?

@lljkk
One industry which has alot of helpful Health and Safety guidelines is the Sports industry - lots of the National Associations via their committees (alot of excellent knowhow) have developed and published H and S and safeguarding guidelines for their coaches doing all the virtual training with their teams.
Also, check out the H and S of the big 4 accountancy firms and in management consultancy and computing (Bain, oracle, ibm...) for extensive and pro H and S WFM

Visual conferencing hasn't worked for me -- not as a visual thing. The poota I can share files on doesn't have a webcam. No one has a budget they can use to buy me any equipment for home. I have dirty walls and a cluttered teenager's bedroom I didn't want other folk to see behind me, anyway. I know there are ways to do fancy backdrops, but obviously I haven't bothered since no webcam. I did a 'non-essential' trip to buy a paint colour I liked (so shoot me...)

Usually I can get the audio & screen sharing to work well, true. I am lucky to have some great headphones with microphone that I (illicitly?) kept from last job, though, or the audio would be horrid.

I DO appreciate the lack of commuting expenses, though, and lack of pollution my commuting normally generates. I'm saving up to £40/week. Doesn't make up for the ££££ that I'm owed in unpaid overtime, though.

RedRiver, my firfst investment when we moved here in 1997 was to get our lovely separate study kitted out for my homeworking which I had begun in our previous house in 1994 (previous house had a small study but it even had a door and small corridor from the kitchen and a separate entrance from the street so I used to share it with my husband who taught the piano at weekends out of school time at that stage. Here at the new house I had my room to myself. We particularly looked for a house with 4 separate living rooms off the downstairs hallway - hard to find but with 5 children and all that home working essential. Anyway yes have that set up. In fact I could not work with loads of legal files and papers on a kitchen table with people around or just on a lap top - I need the big screen, space to lay out papers and silence and privacy.

By the way those who are employees do claim any home adjustment costs from HMRC which fall within the criteria - I think 40,000 employees already have done who had to buy stuff- there is a form - you don't need to complete a tax return. You only can claim if you are required by the employer to work from home rather than choose to do so - of course presenting much of the work force have been forced to work from home so they are claiming this extra money left right and centre. - www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home (This is for PAYE people not self employed).

Ours will be very cautious, I can’t see me going back to the office this year to be honest, big office and they’ll only allow those back who are struggling at home all day or have key pieces of work that is easier in the office, even then it won’t be full time in the office

Lots of office jobs will be outsourced overseas. I know of some big firms that had already outsourced secretarial firms to Eastern Europe and India, China and the Philippines.

Why pay someone in the U.K. £30k to WFH when somebody overseas can do the same job for a fraction of £30k?

Yep, agreed Birdie. I think there are a lot of risks with companies moving towards fully remote working, alongside with a few positives. If people knew those risks I don't think they'd be so keen to push for it.

@marlboroughlemon

No-one’s saying WFH is for everyone, it won’t be compulsory, but for many it is well-suited to their tertiary sector work and is good for mental

Actually, some people are saying this. And the post I was quoting was asking how much space does WFH actually require etc.

Personally, I think more WFH is a good idea. I also think more options for flexible working is a good idea. I agree with a few PP who have said businesses need to look at options outside of big cities or rent desks in WeWork-style offices.

But there are definitely people who seem to think that a firm categorically saying all or some of its employees working from home long term is okay (obviously, during current situation there are bigger issues and I think most of us working from home realise whether we like it or not, it's better).

Some NHS trusts outsource all the audio typing abroad, it’s turned around overnight.

Just like many contact centres are outsourced overseas.

I’m hoping my job will be safe (civil servant, many of the jobs where I work are for British nationals only and need security clearance). I would be worried if I worked in a generic admin type job though.

I hope I can work at home for the period my DH has to remain at home. I really don't want to put him at more risk than I have to.

How much space do you need to WFH?

Well more than my dining room table! To pass the company risk assessment I need a desk, proper office chair and the lighting needs to be up to the job. I don't have any of that nor the space to put a desk and chair. I'm not prepared to turn the one room I have into an office, I need to separate work and home and I can't do that when I have to look at the office crap every time I'm in the living room.

If I'm expected to work from home full time they could always buy me a bigger house!

Employment lawyers are going to have a field day from Janice not allowed back in work because she weighs 30 stone when skinny Jane is allowed in to Mary who wants to work from home but is not allowed and Bert who wants to work in the office but they won't let him citing health and safety grounds when really they want to give up their expensive office lease.

I wfh 1-2 days a week often but can't permanently as I need to be there for clients and to use the copier/printer

No because I can’t really do my job from home. DH already worked from home ah hoc but plans to do so on most Mondays and Fridays once we go back.