'We won't be back to 2019 for five years'

[RainbowParadise]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54661843

Has anyone else seen this? I feel completely on the edge after reading this, people surely will not comply with this shit show indefinitely?

Companies will eventually go back to being mostly in offices.

For some companies, that type of office setup has truly ended. Some companies will end up with some sort of hybrid. A smaller office base with desks being used as and when needed. Some will want / need to be in the office full time, others far less.

Even the most compliant people I know are now sick and fed up of the random and paradoxical rules.

It can’t last.

@KatherineJaneway

Companies will eventually go back to being mostly in offices.

For some companies, that type of office setup has truly ended. Some companies will end up with some sort of hybrid. A smaller office base with desks being used as and when needed. Some will want / need to be in the office full time, others far less.

There are so many "cracks" in areas like customer service, staff training, efficiency, etc., that quite a lot of firms/staff will need to go back towards the old ways. It will have highlighted which roles are ideally suited for homeworking, which roles need bums on seats in an office, and which roles can be done with a mixed working pattern.

People thinking/hoping that WFH will be the new normal across the board or that occasional popping in to a hotdesk environment for all office workers are in for a nasty surprise.

Customer satisfaction is at an all time low, efficiency is suffering, etc at many firms, especially B2C firms which deal with the general public. B2B firms, technical roles, and back office functions are more suited to WFH with occasional business trips/office visits as necessary.

People thinking/hoping that WFH will be the new normal across the board or that occasional popping in to a hotdesk environment for all office workers are in for a nasty surprise.

That's why I said some companies. For some it won't make sense as it won't be efficient. For mine, I know we will be hybrid with very few returning to the old model of 4 or 5 days in the office for a majority of roles.

@Caeruleanblue

All sounds very lovely except the isolation is much worse these days. I remember by council estate childhood and the sense of community, in and out of everyone’s houses etc. The mums would pop in for cups of tea after the school run... walk to the shops together etc etc.

Can’t compare then to now. It’s not just about deprivation, it’s the sense of isolation, lack of communities etc etc!

[quote BuffaloCauliflower]@midgebabe there’s still a choice going on there. They could choose to treat the cancer patients and not the covid patients couldn’t they? Why they assumption that is HAS to mean reducing services for everything except Covid? These lockdowns were meant to protect the NHS so it could continue vital services, not turn the NHS into a Covid only servicez[/quote]
The problem is of Covid is allowed to run free, how safe are other treatments with Covid running rife? I don't think Covid treatments should take precedence full stop, but if the virus is not suppressed, then nhs simply won't cope. A small percentage of people dying is a large number in a big population. I don't know what the answer is. I don't know how you truly make some hospitals Covid free. It feels like living just biding our time at the moment. Hoping a vaccine and decent mass testing can help get back towards our old lives.

People thinking/hoping that WFH will be the new normal across the board or that occasional popping in to a hotdesk environment for all office workers are in for a nasty surprise

I agree.

There's been an assumption on MN that the office era is over, that city centres are going to turn into residential zones, and that they'll be able to enjoy a perfect balance between WFH and going into the office one or two days a week to network. It might work for some, but many employers won't see the point in paying for premises to allow workers to 'pop in' once or twice a week. Not to mention that, while everyone insists they are 'so much more productive' WFH, employers and customers don't neccessarily agree. I wouldn't predict the end of the office just yet.

I am deeply concerned about the erosion of human rights and democracy and the moves towards a totalitarian police state.

These are way more terrifying to me than death by COVID. I also fear the results of our inadequate health services for non COVID and mental health provision. And the lack of decent education and jobs for so many young people. And the erosion of social and family lives and breakdown of community and future civil unrest.

And I feel powerless.

@IcedPurple

People thinking/hoping that WFH will be the new normal across the board or that occasional popping in to a hotdesk environment for all office workers are in for a nasty surprise

I agree.

There's been an assumption on MN that the office era is over, that city centres are going to turn into residential zones, and that they'll be able to enjoy a perfect balance between WFH and going into the office one or two days a week to network. It might work for some, but many employers won't see the point in paying for premises to allow workers to 'pop in' once or twice a week. Not to mention that, while everyone insists they are 'so much more productive' WFH, employers and customers don't neccessarily agree. I wouldn't predict the end of the office just yet.

I also agree. WFH seems fantastic at first - no commute, no need to wear fancy office clothes, your own comfortable surroundings - but for a lot of businesses, long term WFH means that staff lose touch with each other, start to get distant and separate, don't discuss things when they should, don't exchange ideas or help each other out in informal ways. For staff WFH can have a massively detrimental effect on their career by preventing them from feeling part of a team, and restricting their access to informal information-sharing and training. When you have to explicitly call someone to interact with them, there's no chance for casual networking and getting recognised by senior staff - the whole coherence of company can get lost and people can feel adrift and demotivated.

What surprises me is how little value people seem to put on just seeing other people in the flesh - that alone can give you energy and motivate you. If you're constantly alone in the same building all day, with no division between home and work you can really start to lose focus and start to feel things are a bit pointless. Being with other people is, for a lot of people, the main benefit of working. It can't just be removed with no consequences.

What surprises me is how little value people seem to put on just seeing other people in the flesh - that alone can give you energy and motivate you. If you're constantly alone in the same building all day, with no division between home and work you can really start to lose focus and start to feel things are a bit pointless. Being with other people is, for a lot of people, the main benefit of working. It can't just be removed with no consequences.

A lot of MNers live in comfy homes and have established families, careers and social lives. They forget what it's like to be a young, single person living in a poky flat and starting out on her working life without the normal human nteractions and support. Teams meetings are (just about) tolerable when you've already built up a relationship with your colleagues, but it's no way to start out on your working life. Not to mention that so many people make lifelong friendships and meet their partners through work.

A world where everyone sits in their living room and 'interacts' via Teams seems dystopian to me.

@Snog Completely agree.

I was born in the 1950s and much of the 'deprivation' people are angry about was just normal life. People didn't have cars so no popping to theatre or whatever. Or popping to relatives if they lived avdistance away. You walked/ bussed to the shops then carried it all home. Much plainer diet. Hardly anyone went to uni. You worked local to where you lived with wives often at home alone.

People lived much more collectively and had relatives close at hand! They shopped locally and knew the people at the shops. Women socialized in each others homes. Relatives very often lived walking distance or bus ride away. Kids played outdoors in the streets and parks. Nothing like today.