Get back to the office! But why?

Whitewavemark2, in regard to your post @06:15 today, you must be very lucky with whoever your local authority is. Here in North Somerset our Office Manager rang the local authority to inform them of a blocked drain in the road adjacent to the office.

On getting through all the pre-recorded information on Covid-19 and how it affects them, there then were three sections of "press one for whoever or press two for some other department". On navigating all that the phone began ringing and then the awful recorded music began.

The above was interrupted every few minutes with a break and a voice saying "your call is important to us so please stay on the line and one of our service agents will be with you as soon as possible".

Our manager put the phone on speaker and carried on with her own work. Fifty minutes later the phone went dead without anyone ever answering.

She has sent them several emails all of which have gone unanswered. So the drain in the street remains blocked, the road floods each time it rains and anyone walking passed that flooding risks getting soaked by vehicles driving through it and spraying anyone walking close by.

Great service. ???

gillybob

Barclays = call centre in India . Barclaycard = call centre in India

Our Local authority = no answer at all and not even an email reply to several emails . All working their socks off at home.

I think you must be unlucky in your LA.

I needed a new bus pass and phoned. Got through after a couple of rings of the phone, spoke to a very pleasant lady and received my card by return of post.

Excellent service!

I’m a cross between amused and baffled at the anecdotes going back and forth on this thread. It seems obvious that some roles can be carried out from home, some can’t and others could with a bit of imagination and flexibility.

In the end, it will be horses for courses, as those who prefer working at home will gravitate towards those jobs, and those who like to go into work will go for those ones, much as outdoor and indoor types do already.

Some roles will have changes thrust upon them, as Covid will prevent large gatherings of people. Universities, for instance, are probably looking at remote delivery until Christmas at least, so lecturers will use Zoom, record lectures, carry out tutorials online or by phone etc, and log into the server to do admin. Depending on the subject, much research has always been carried out off the premises and that will continue as far as possible, so staff will have (and have had to) adapt in some areas and carry on as before in others. I’m sure that this sort of blended model will work for others too - in general if not in the specifics.

When things settle down, a lot of people will know all too well which bits of the job the like doing at home and which they find more convenient in the workplace. Just because things have traditionally been done in one way is not a reason to keep doing them like that.

Yes, I agree, Growstuff. What’s important is how people do the job, not where they do the job. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve spent quite some time on phone calls this past couple of months and I have no clue whether the people I spoke to were in an office or at home (or sitting on the beach in Bournemouth, come to that!) And I don’t much care, so long as they’re efficient, which they were - even HMRC.

I really think most people have stepped up to the plate during this crisis. As far as I can tell, my LA has operated pretty well throughout. I don’t have many dealings with them, but our bins were emptied every week without fail, they repurposed their fleet to deliver services to the vulnerable and their website seems to be a vast improvement on what went before so you could access information easily. Independent businesses too have been innovative, coming up with clever ideas and reinventing themselves. I don’t see any slackers there, in fact it gives me hope for the future and for our young people. I’ve also noticed job vacancies have risen in this area this past few weeks, which is also good news.

Ps I’m not aware of disagreeing with you elsewhere!

My husband was home based for the last 20 years of his working life at an American corporation, only commuting (3.5 hours a day) into London for weekly meetings. I can categorically state he worked in the home office from 8am till 6pm daily with just a few minutes break for lunch. His choice. It drove me mad because he considered himself SO VERY IMPORTANT and it made it just about impossible for me to work as I had a child. My son, from an earlier marriage is just the same working even longer hours from home, abroad. ?‍♀️

gillybob

Barclays = call centre in India . Barclaycard = call centre in India

Our Local authority = no answer at all and not even an email reply to several emails . All working their socks off at home.

You have a cr*p local authority.

Change your bank if you're not happy with Indian call centres. Some have UK call centres.

SueDonim We don't often agree, but I do in this case.

Maybe in the case of a small company, human contact is important. For example, my car was serviced last week and I rang up at 3pm to ask if they knew when it would be ready. The lady who works in the office/reception popped into the workshop and found out.

However, a larger company doesn't work like that. Sometimes employees send each other internal emails to communicate. They possibly work in a different part of the building, in different buildings, in different parts of the country or even different countries for all I know. It doesn't really matter and those people could easily work at home. Their work can easily be monitored.

It's actually easier to monitor work online than it is in person. All the manager needs to do is to switch to monitoring mode and he/she can see exactly what work is being done and whether certain tasks have been completed. As a teacher, when pupils were using computers, I could log in to see what pupils were doing at any time and could see their progress. There are business models of the same system.

Barclays = call centre in India . Barclaycard = call centre in India

Our Local authority = no answer at all and not even an email reply to several emails . All working their socks off at home.

In any case, as those of us who’ve been kept dangling interminably on hold or have never received that promised call-back phone call from a company, my point is that working in an office does not equate with efficiency.

Candy6 How do you know that for a fact?

I've had reason to contact my local authority for different reasons during lockdown. My query on both occasions was dealt with promptly and efficiently. I assume the people involved were working from home and had picked up my enquiries via a networked system.

I also know people who work for the local authority, who have been working from home in much the same way that they would have done at their desks in the office. Meetings have been via Zoom and they communicate with each other in locked WhatsApp groups.

Some services weren't available for a few weeks, such as the council refuse site and onsite non-urgent maintenance, but they quickly adapted and those were back to normal (with social distancing) quite quickly.

Some departments have had more work than normal to do because they were responsible for providing support to people who were shielding and general advice to the public and more people have been applying for housing benefit and council tax support. They are now responsible for making sure that businesses comply with Covid regulations.

It doesn't sound to me as though people have been sitting at home with nothing to do.

And when you get through to the person you need and they are not there?

SueDonim, would you expect an employee who works in the accounts department office of an electrical retailer to be answering the phone from a customer who has problems with a fridge they had purchased.

Of course not, and that phone call would be diverted to customer services imeaditly it was received.

And that's the way it works.

Candy6, people with a tendency to be idle will be so, whether at home or in an office.

I wasn’t speaking of your situation, Grandad as I don’t know of it beyond what you say.

If it isn’t the role of certain office staff to deal with members of the public, why are they answering phones in the first place? You’re certainly not painting a great picture of efficiency in workplaces.

If you are part of a team such as that you concentrate on the job at hand and not be distracted whether that is in working from home or in the offices attached to the distribution centre.

Perhaps that person wasn't up to the job or conscientious enough to carry out their duties professionally whether at home or in the office.

Perhaps they were paid peanuts, which, as you know, often does not attract the right calibre of person for such a responsible job.

Don’t want to get involved with the politics here but I don’t see why people can’t get back to work. My son works for a large company in London and he’s gone back as he’s more productive there. He lives on his own and it’s important for his mental health. There are lots of independent food outlets around where he works and they absolutely depend on people being there to survive. People are so quick to slate the big companies but at the end of the day they employ a lot of people. My son has taken a risk in going back as he’s got an auto immune disease and is therefore at risk. I’m so proud of him. Lots of people are pro working from home because in reality they are not so accountable. I used to work for a local authority and I know for a fact there are hundreds if not thousands of people who are sitting at home with nothing to do whilst still picking up their normal salary every month. They haven’t even been furloughed and are not at risk of losing their jobs. It’s costing us all and we will all pay for it in the end.

SueDonim

So if it’s always known where workers are, why aren’t they told to attend to calls from members of the public?

And the thought of all messages being passed on in offices is hilarious! I bet there are countless GNetters who have tales of wrangling with officialdom because messages haven’t been passed on.

Galaxy my dd always took her own lunch to her office. It’s healthier and cheaper than anything she could buy locally.

I am afraid that it is your post that hilarious SueDonim. It is often that with many staff it is not their role to deal with members of the general public and therefore they are not trained to do so.

Also in regard to " officialdom" in passing messages to offices, the office involved was the loading dock office in a very large distribution centre. The persons in that office are twenty-four hours per day dealing with the movement of heavy pallets, cages and vehicles and the message that was not passed on greatly affected the safety in the handling and movement of all the foregoing.

If you are part of a team such as that you concentrate on the job at hand and not be distracted whether that is in working from home or in the offices attached to the distribution centre.

Grandad I know that a member of my family, when working from home, started at 6.30 am, an opportunity to deal with all the queries that had come in after 6.30 pm the night before. Time spent commuting was time spent working, before conference calls and online meetings, phone calls started later at about 8.30. The rest of the day was spent working as some problems are more difficult to deal with remotely than in person on site.

So if it’s always known where workers are, why aren’t they told to attend to calls from members of the public?

And the thought of all messages being passed on in offices is hilarious! I bet there are countless GNetters who have tales of wrangling with officialdom because messages haven’t been passed on.

Galaxy my dd always took her own lunch to her office. It’s healthier and cheaper than anything she could buy locally.

Galaxy

But apparently those in offices are single handedly saving the economy by popping out to sandwich shops, spending money in costa, etc. Sounds a lovely life, those who need them will just have to wait till they pick up their latte.

Yes I believe you have now got what is going on Galaxy with many of those supposedly working from home.

Grandad I can give numerous examples where people working in an office failed to pass on a message which resulted in serious issues. I am able to understand that this doesnt mean that working in an office is in itself the cause of the issue.

Children can still go to a childminder, nursery, family member, though.

SueDonim

Are office workers at their desk the entire time between 8am-5pm? Do they never go for lunch, or to the bathroom or talk to their colleagues or slip out to buy a birthday gift for their partner or buy the much-vaunted coffee and sandwiches?

I’d say that many of us who’ve had to call people in their offices have been fobbed off with excuses for why the person is not available such as ‘Sorry, they’re in a meeting or with the boss,’ or simply ‘Not at their desk.’

Yes but it is always known where they are and if necessary if its really important such as a safety issue they normally can be contacted in minutes directly or on their phones.

With what became a safety incident the person involved who was working from home could not be contacted even on their phone. When interviewed in regard to the matter it was stated that the children were causing problems and therefore an important message did not get passed to the loading dock office at the Distribution centre.

And there lays the great divide and in that the digressions that can occur from working in isolation at home when you are supposed to be an essential part of a full working team.

But apparently those in offices are single handedly saving the economy by popping out to sandwich shops, spending money in costa, etc. Sounds a lovely life, those who need them will just have to wait till they pick up their latte.

Grandad1943

Furret in regard to your post @20:56 today, you refer to persons working from home as having the flexibility to start early, break the day up into separate working sections, work outside standard office hours etc. That may well create a fine working and social life for them, but how about workers who have to collaborate with them or rely on being able to contact such persons for support.

In the above, how are those fellow workers supposed to know when that person working from home are at their desk and contactable. Freedom for the home worker can be loss of efficiency and work output for others.

I referred earlier in this thread to where on of our assignment teams attended a food distribution centre where the essential worker employees had Carrie out their duties throughout the crisis at that workplace to provide for the requirements of all of us. While they carried out that role many of the main office staff had been told to work from home.

Those working from home rapidly became difficult to contact by the distribution centre because they were then not at their desk on a set hour basis. The forging eventually led to a serious safety incident at the centre. When the loading dock staff and their supervisors were interviewed about the incident they all stated that the felt entirely abandoned by "their bosses" and the other office staff as they were at home uncontactable and inaccessible for large parts of each working shift at the distribution centre.

It would seem by reading this thread that many of those working from home rapidly get into a psychological state of isolation feeling that they are no longer a part of what should be a full working team.

Only they matter and no one else, and that is a very large problem in those working in isolation from their homes.

Stop being so negative. I worked in this way for six years. It’s not a ‘jolly’ as you seem to think for those working from home and there are many for whom this way of working is second nature. Try to think outside your own working situation. Your mention of distribution and loading dock mean nothing to me. These are probably not compatible with working from home.

I am talking about an entirely different scenario. Those who don’t have a ‘boss’ as such; a line manager possibly, at the end of a mobile, should they wish to discuss something with them.

Your working world is as alien to me as doubtless mine is to you. I accept that yours is probably not the sort of ‘job’ that can effectively operate from home 100%. Please do me the courtesy that there are many who can effectively, efficiently and happily work this way a large percentage of the time.