Will we simply return to a presenteeism work culture?

I really hope there won't be a flood of workers returning to the city. Surely the past 3 years has taught us much about flexibility and adaptability. Yes you will get the stubborn stuck in the mud employers mulishly insisting that everyone returns to the office. And you will get the narrow minded 'I rang the credit union and the girl's dog was barking in the background so no one should work from home' mindset.
But I hope we will also see an adaptable, balanced, and imaginative look at how we can reconstruct our work model to ensure it leads to healthier and better work/life balance, childhoods, family lives and communities.

Namsnanny

Sorry I dont see it in the same light. So far as I understand only those with decent salaries and a home big enough, will benefit.

Just to add, my SonIL works from home, he, my DD and their four children live in a small 2-bed, where their front room has become their office as well as their bedroom, but they absolutely love the extra time together.

SIL now gets to put the children to bed and have lunch with his family either at home or at the park, he is no longer shattered from the commute, he's helping the planet not adding to the traffic jams, and he has recently been promoted, so his work can't be slipping.

All in all, they are so much happier, not much richer, certainly no extra space, but all the other extras make it so much better for them as a family, and the happier the worker, the better the work!

If I ever go back to an office rather than my study, I’m going to have a hard time adjusting to not being able to burn luxurious scented candles and wear velvet slippers.

I do not think there will necessarily be a flood of office workers returning to work. I was discussing this with DD. She has been WFH for 10 years, first with a teleworking type job - specialist equipment and a shift system, then she moved to a job that was mainly office based but she sometimes chose to work from home - when writing.reports and the like. She changed jobs again last summer, working again in an office environment and from home.

I asked her what would happen once restrictions were lifted, and she said there was going to be little change. People were going to be left to make their own decisions as to how often they came in. The team she is part of, are going to have a day once a fortnight when everyone will be encouraged to come in so that they can see, talk and network together and have team meetings. She thinks she may otherwise go into the office once a week.

The pandemic has caused a sea change in attitudes to where you work, and how you do it. Obviously there are plenty of jobs where this kind of working is not appropriate.

The other change it will make is in the amount of business travel. A lot of DD's new job was meant to be working away in a client's office for weeks at a time, with travel costs, hotels, subsistence etc etc. The last 2 years have shown that much of this work can now be done remotely, leading to a significant drop in costs.

While these changes will be bad for city centre areas, it may lead to a revival of smaller towns and centres, with more people using them. Starbucks has come to our local small town. It is next door to Costa Coffee and there is an independent coffee bar/samdwich bar next but one and a small chain light bite/eatery as well. This collection of coffee sellers are actually engendering quite a cafe culture. There are always people there sitting outside as well as in, with people constantly moving round chatting , meeting friends etc. It is more lively than I have seen the town in 25 years.

It seems to me that 'Teleworking" as it was once known, and now WFH does only benefit/serve those whose employer's work is mainly office based.

The impact of the growth in town/city centre business like coffee shops and cafes has largely been driven by office based working. Presenteeism has been introduced by copying the bullying mentality of American management styles perhaps.

Presenteeism is both arriving first and leaving late, as the boss watches over in a paternalistic gaze. (Sorry, slipped into Dickens techniques there!)

The importance of commuting, office based working and presenteeism has been exacerbated largely by the UK's economic model being changed from a mixed and industrial base to a service base economy.

An interesting way of looking at how the economy has changed might be to look at how the plethora of "energy companies" in the "energy market" have generated office based activities to manage the bureaucracy it has created.

But as I'm sure someone will point out - we are, where we are - and cannot now return to a more mixed economy, so I guess the flood of office workers in and out of towns and cities will simply resume. But will "presenteeism"?

katy1950

What about the person to person contact that what I miss the chats at lunch time the birthday celebration in the pub etc

I prefer having the time to meet outside friends for mid week coffee, lunch, a late afternoon walk etc

I had never encountered working from home until I became an academic (1990s) and then used a hybrid moel of going into work for lectures, meetings etc. One downside of WFH is that if you have a needy whiny NDN/relative/friend they may think that working from home means you are there to have coffee, chat and attend to their needs. I allowed one such to get her claws in. Eventually I told her that the uni had stopped the practice and that we all had to go into our offices.

Now I run a home business and never answer to door unless I have an appointment or delivery.

There are jobs I’ve had where working from home and missing out on IRL interaction would have been absolute bliss, and ones where it would have been a huge loss.

Ha ha me too Lizy, going to work costs a blooming fortune.

I am retired so donthave a problem but I cane see it will suit a lot of people and not others,personally I have never had a job where I could work from home, I see the advantages of not having to commute, find parking places have longer days because of travelling to work, but at the same time being isolated daily is no good for anyones mental health, we need company in work friends, also we need breaks every now and then, and have a chat to our friends it is not the same digitally in my humble opinion.

Many firms in including those of my DH and DD have jettisoned some of their office space which is saving them a great deal on rent and rates with no loss of revenue. They will stick with an arrangement which suits them.

katy1950

What about the person to person contact that what I miss the chats at lunch time the birthday celebration in the pub etc

This is exactly what I DON'T miss ?.

In my company we can apply to work from home 2 days a week max. It is not automatically granted ( experience, autonomy etc) and can be revoked at any time if it is not working for the employer. We must be available during normal working hours and state officially that we have hugh speed internet etc. Computer, phone, extra screen, office chair etc are provided. Seeme to work pretty well for the great majority of colleagues and myself : reduction in petrol costs, four hours less travelling, wear and tear on car, cheaper lunches ...but higher heating bill..

What about the person to person contact that what I miss the chats at lunch time the birthday celebration in the pub etc

My oldest also had a new job just before covid hit us. So he never actually got to meet any of his work colleagues. Only via zoom meetings. He went into work a few times since but his company have decided it makes sense for them to work from home and only go into office couple of days a week. Which means he doesn’t have a 3hr round trip drive everyday. His youngest brother is jealous because he can’t stay at home with his job. But as I said him working from home saves his company money. No electrical etc being used.

My daughter lives on her own and during the lockdowns found it was quite lonely and isolating even though she interacted with work colleagues online. She found a way to resolve this by taking her laptop to the stables where she keeps her horse and working from there some days. She sat at the back of the stable in a small storage area and her horse used to poke his head over the dividing wall! She did get permission from her manager first.

My employer had already started to implement a hybrid mode before lockdown. The investment in IT stood us in good stead. We didn't work from home before but can do so now and will be able to book desks and meeting rooms for training or collaborative team working days or half days. I don't want to go back tbh

I remember reading years ago that Boots the chemist were a great company for mums to work for.
They accommodated start times that allowed for taking children to school first, and flexible working for school holidays.

They said that it was worthwhile for them to be so accommodating, as employees making use of it were the most productive and loyal.

Over 40 years ago I was head of a communicatons network including in those days telephones, telex and some translation work as well. Had many friends who at that time were starting families and came from many parts of the world so that family members were not available to do childcare. Good women with high abilities were being turned down if they had children, from mostly male bosses who gave the excuse that they needed full time staff . So I set up a scheme - this was pre mobile phones, or computers - and what I did was put women, with usually similar backgrounds, sometimes varied backgrounds together. The idea was that they could work in couples and arrive at their own mutual set up. So it could be that they would work a week and week turnround, or often one would do monday tuesday and wednesday morning. The other would come in wednesday lunchtime which they used to liaise and check things through and then she would do wednesday pm thursday and friday. When they had worked out what suited their needs then I used to present the proposals to firms for this to be a job share . The carrot for the firm was that you could see that the two people were paid equally , but they were autonomous. So long as the job was covered all week, and an efficiently set up communications scheme was run, it didnt matter who was actually working that day. Both women would then understand the working of the company and they could arrange to cover for holidays and sickness for most of the time. The firm didnt have to retrain other people , or spend time trying to explain how their systems worked. The women were able to swap times when necessary such as dentist appointments or school nativity plays or whatever. so long as they were fair to each other it was a great system. The stress level of worrying what you would do if your child was ill and no cover went. It was often good when their children were different ages, so one would want to see infants nativity play or sports day and someone with teenagers would have quite different needs. Even had one woman who was having problems with teenage son , at school and whether he was bunking off etc. She organised it with her other half to cover for her one morning; dressed as if she was going to work and then followed said son and found out what he was up to and who he was with and confronted him and was able to sort things out. He then never quite knew if she was just around the corner, gave him quite a wake up call! For it to work you really need to be fair and have a good equal attitude. Dont allow grievances to build up, perhaps today sent a text on the tuesday to say we need to sort out x if possible tomorrow, Then you can be presented as a package. The occasional extra bonus was that I would sometimes be able to put 2 women together , who had different languages, so you got say a german and an italian translator for the price of one! Miserable stodgy male managers who didnt want to lose any authority over staff, were then begrudgingly prepared to give it a go as they got the benefit. Over years the firms also kept staff for much longer as changing family circumstances could be accommodated. I see with modern phones, emails etc working in a joint way could allow something similar being a possibility, so that people still have the input and contact with others from the office, but yet not go into the office so much. So if you had that core meeting perhaps again the lunchtime idea which would be like the flexible working ideas. But to work well I think people to discuss how, and if ,t would work for them and be ready to cover all the negative blocking they will get thrown at them. Then you might have someone who has run a small business or I was head of communications for the country, so when I was retired it was a bit like dragons den style, that we would have a trial idea where I would play devils advocate and throw all the awkward questions and put blocks against the idea so that they would have chance to work out answers for those areas and not be caught on the hop. Something alone these lines seems to give people the opportunity to have their cake and eat it. So you might earn less money but have less stress and in the years to come be glad that you were able to do things with your children. If it doesnt work out you can always go back to looking for a full time jobs. At least you will have given your ideas a go, and we all know how much this last two years has cost people . It has given some people the opportunity to give things a go, but sadly others will wish that they had had more time with loved people that they cannot get back. The great benefit is that however the stick in the muds did not want any change this pandemic has forced them to have a go. If it has worked quite well over this last dreadful months, why shouldnt it work in the future given the will to make it work. They wont be able to come out with the old chestnut that it would work for such and such but wouldnt be able to do so in their industry.

Saggi

It's natural for some people. Many take advantage of the time saved commuting to meet up with friends locally for coffee, go for walks in the park, pursue other interests and hobbies and have a better work life balance.

I totally get that a lot of younger people in particular see work as a way to broaden their circle, get out of cramped flats or childhood bedrooms for a few hours a day, or get hands on training and opportunities to network with like minded people.

But for others it limits where they can live, drastically reduces time spent with their children or they are just drained and exhausted from years of gruelling commutes and office politics and want a better life.

I remember that and the prediction that we'd all be retiring in our 50s.

Sociology reading at college in 70s suggested that we would enjoy a shorter working week in the not too distant future.. That was pre computers. It has been a long time coming and taken a pandemic to shift us into a another orbit

Could your son not still do a 6 mile walk a day?
If he isn't spending that amount of time getting to and from work, then it leaves time for him to do other fitness related activities.

Like isummer…: my son is on. his own in a flat 24/7 ….he comes to dinner once a fortnight … and sees friends at least once a week. He used to walk to work and back ( 6 miles a day) so has put on a stone and half in 2 years. He can’t wait to get back to work at least 2/3 days a week, but at the moment his very big company, isn’t even talking about a return to work. They surely have a ‘duty of care’ to their staff and that should include their mental health surely!? It’s not a natural thing to be ‘working from home’

The building I worked in is now 90% shut to employees, in the process of being sold, and currently being used as a Covid vaccination centre.

Before this sale, we were being asked to attend one day a week (more if we wanted to), but now the building isn't actually available to us, we will be using our other office, which is on the other side of the county, and not accessible by public transport. So now, we are being asked to attend one day a month. This is when we will hold our Team Meeting, and have a chance to interact with our workmates.

I have absolutely loved working from home, and I am fortunate to be able to use one of the bedrooms in our almost-empty-nest home for my office.

When WFH I am much more productive and confident in my job as there aren't the many distractions that you find in an office, and during my breaks I can get on with bits of household chores, leaving me more free time at weekends.