Matt Hancock's statement on returning to work

[JS87]

So I've just read that Matt Hancock has said that there is no excuse not to return to work as there is little evidence of transmission at work and transmission is happening in homes. Given that most of the country has been furloughed/ is working from home then obviously transmission is likely to be happening at home rather than the work place. In workplaces that have stayed open people have either been using PPE (NHS) or social distancing or there have been large outbreaks (e.g. meat processing plants). Given there have been relatively few offices open with everyone crammed back in as normal then I can't understand why he thinks there is evidence that there would be no transmission in these situations. Does he not use his brain?

@WhyNotMe40

Oh look! Fantastic! As the "work from home if you can" policy has been so successful, that not many people are catching it at work - let's scrap that policy as obviously people don't catch it at work!

Just the sort of stupid things ministers say, like Give as education secretary saying that all schools must be above average....

Or when all non-essential shops were closed and Priti Patel talked about shop lifting was down

The company I work for has recently said none of their worldwide offices will reopen until January at the earliest. I’m very glad they have not listened to Wanksock.

If it's not an issue to wfh, I don't see why you wouldn't.

The reality is that we have no idea what happens when the schools go back. The more people me and OH physically see at work, the more chance of exposure not just for us but our children, who will then go to school and therefore expose it to everyone else.

Frazzled - I'd forgotten that one!

BTW I primarily say that because I like working from home. I’m not especially worried about the virus.

@Appuskidu

I can't go back yet because there's no room. If I did there would be less than 2m distancing

But that situation is fine for schools?

The issue for me with what Matt Hancock said is that the guidance for offices states there needs to be space for social distancing but I don't think the school guidance is the same? This is a whole separate issue of course, and not one I mean to diminish. But today the health minister said there is no excuse to not be back in the office, when the public health guidance gives several reasons. Is the guidance still to be followed? Is it necessary? Why is he seemingly contradicting it?

@Barbie222

Hmmm, that wasn't what the PHE surveillance reports said: more outbreaks in offices week on week, as more people went back to the office. Almost as many as schools, in fact. But who needs the PHE and all their silly data?

Not us. It’s just been axed.

@LimaFoxtrotCharlie

Most of the country furloughed or working from home? Do you have evidence to support that statement? All of my friends and family have been working throughout, outside the home, in shops, offices, hospitals and factories. I know nobody personally who has had covid, except for one friend’s mother, a pensioner who did not work.

Stats on a bbc4 programme state 75% of workers in London remain working from home and 65% rest of UK. A fifth were apparently furloughed. So yes as is the norm with this government, their statements are full of crap and yet again no doubt part of their get children back to school propoganda.

Their dispensing PHE.

I would imagine they'll now basically go against anything they suggest.

So yes as is the norm with this government, their statements are full of crap and yet again no doubt part of their get children back to school propoganda

Yes, definitely.

Will we be seeing all 600 odd members of Parliament be returning to work Shoulder to shoulder as normal any time soon? I want that to be in the news.

When do they start again after their nice holiday (for which teachers are always accused of being workshy part timers for having)?

@Appuskidu

So yes as is the norm with this government, their statements are full of crap and yet again no doubt part of their get children back to school propoganda

Yes, definitely.

Will we be seeing all 600 odd members of Parliament be returning to work Shoulder to shoulder as normal any time soon? I want that to be in the news.

When do they start again after their nice holiday (for which teachers are always accused of being workshy part timers for having)?

Parliament are work shy at the best of times!

If we go off the figures rather the sensationalism news they tell a different story.

599 people in hospital due to COVID including 56 on ventilators in the whole of England. 55 million people.

Infection rates are spiking up in certain places but hospital admissions are not. We are at the lowest we have been the entire period. 147,000 pubs alone,restaurants, offices, beauty salons, Huge shopping centres, hairdressers, play areas ect have all opened up.

People still need to cautious but not panic and get back to normality and that includes going back to the office if need be

So many organisations are playing the Covid card for shoddy service. Meanwhile on the real world, small businesses, like the fab one that repaired my phone screen this morning are working as normal.
Amazes me that people don't realise they in the short term you can work from home, in the long term your job is outsourced to highly educated and motivated people who first excellent English in lower/salary:costs parts of the world.

He’s just saying what he wants you to hear

Supermarket workers, NHS staff, TEACHERS cannot work from home. A lot of us can. Why increase the spread of coronavirus spreading by making those that can work from home go into the office. The kids needs to go back to school just like doctors are needed to work in hospitals, teachers are needed at school. Personally I think the GPs need to go back now, civil servants and MPs to follow and then the rest of us can follow if the numbers infected don't increase.

Aah it’s totally fine for teachers to go back with no ppe into conditions ripe for infection spread but now they want you to go back to an office it’s not?

@TheHoneyBadger I don't think anyone said that
Like I said I have no horse in the race as no DC but no, I don't agree with it either way. Both for vulnerable teachers and vulnerable children
But again my work can and is being done from home and there is no point me going back to the office just because teachers are going back to school. It's two separate arguments. Also if your job can't/doesn't want you back in then I can't just turn up!

Aah it’s totally fine for teachers to go back with no ppe into conditions ripe for infection spread but now they want you to go back to an office it’s not?

Genuine question, but wouldn't you rather teach children whose parents are wfh? My DD (14 months) has been back at nursery since they reopened, DH and I are wfh. We live in a big town, where lots of people commute to London. I work in a town centre office with no parking so have to get the bus which stops at the train station, lots of people on the bus will be commuting into London. Pre covid it was a rammed bus. I have no issue going back to work when asked, but I imagine that the nursery staff, who by the nature of their job have very close contact with DD, might prefer it if I wasn't on a busy commuter bus every day. We've been told for months that every little action adds up to reduce the spread, If I get the bus, catch it, spread it to DD, she spreads it to nursery staff, other children, who spread it to their parents etc etc. Why not cut that chain off transmission off and have people who can wfh continue to do so?

@RubyMuseday

There won’t be minimal social distancing in our school. There’ll be none.

Are you saying there will be absolutely zero modifications made for Covid? School will operate exactly as it always has done? I keep hearing about all sorts of things including no use of changing facilities for sport (or showers I would assume), lunch to be eaten in classrooms rather than canteens, or numerous lunch sittings to keep groups apart from, no wrap around care/after school clubs, water fountains switched off and water to be taken in, to mention a few.

I know I don't speak for all teachers here, but personally I have just been highlighting the hypocrisy of it being ok to send teachers back with no SD or masks, when it's not ok for everyone else
And yes if I have to teach 300 odd teenagers in stuffy rooms and no masks every week, I would much prefer that everyone else is doing everything they can to reduce community transmission. Including WFH, and encouraging their teenagers not to attend house parties.

Lilybet. All the modifications that the DfE are allowing are made moot by the ones they don't. So ythey are all window dressing as the teenagers will be shoulder to shoulder in stuffy classrooms with no masks and no social distancing or ventilation in "bubbles" of 200-300. While teachers (no masks or space to SD) teach across all the bubbles.

It is pointless to try to have SD by pupils in schools when they don't outside.
Masks have no proven benefit.
Instead of trying to set up unenforceable and ineffective restrictions, let's just get back to - y'know - actual teaching and learning.

Wrong.

Evidence for masks - and there are more such studies www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-07-08-oxford-covid-19-study-face-masks-and-coverings-work-act-now

Students don't hang around in groups of 300 put of school. They tend to stay in consistent friendship groups. Much more like a bubble than what we have in secondary school.

@lifeafter50

So many organisations are playing the Covid card for shoddy service. Meanwhile on the real world, small businesses, like the fab one that repaired my phone screen this morning are working as normal. Amazes me that people don't realise they in the short term you can work from home, in the long term your job is outsourced to highly educated and motivated people who first excellent English in lower/salary:costs parts of the world.

This is one of the few things that I agree with @lifeafter50. WFH long term can potentially lead to employers sourcing workers from the global workforce who will work for lower wages.

After all, why pay a London wage, for example, when someone can do the same job based in a more rural local for lower wage. Facebook have already stated that they will be reviewing salaries so that they are paid according to where the worker lives.

Yes, companies now realise people can work from home and they dont need so much office space. Great, that is a saving. The next saving is staff costs.

Nobody is irreplaceable.

@lifeafter50

It is pointless to try to have SD by pupils in schools when they don't outside. Masks have no proven benefit. Instead of trying to set up unenforceable and ineffective restrictions, let's just get back to - y'know - actual teaching and learning.

However, I do want restrictions in school. I do want masks, hand gel, one way systems in buildings, and windows that open enough to let in a breeze.

Those restrictions are enforceable with a can-do attitude from teaching staff and students will learn. It may be like an orc invasion on the first day but things will settle quickly.

Some kids do socially distance, if they understand enough of the science and are responsible.