Get back to the office! But why?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. ?‍♀️

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!

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.

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!

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.

Our local Barclays, only 3 staff at the most, sometimes 2, this in normal times.

I know for a fact that the ‘manager’, or whatever she is now called, has been seconded onto call centre duties for some of the lockdown, particularly when they were working reduced hours. I think at one stage the call centres in India were closed due to Covid, and many UK staff answered mortgage and other queries.
Some worked from home, some preferred to go in to the office.

I assume it’s more business as usual now.

Definitely not business as usual in Barclays. I left my 10 year old grandson on hold to them on Thursday and it was 90 before anyone picked up. Shock horror it was in the U.K. too.

Trying to speak to Barclaycard is like banging your head against a wall.

Our LA is as diabolical as it always was but 10 times worse with everyone “working” from home . About 20 minutes before someone picks up but they can’t put you through to anyone because there’s no one there. I tried several times last week to speak to someone in licensing and although the department were supposed to be working from home they did not pick up and I got the usual Covid message . I was eventually put back to reception and was told it might be easier to send emails . Still waiting for those to be acknowledged too.

A similar story with the finance department, the reception picks up your call but can’t put you through to anyone .

A completely different story with my business insurance brokers (a local company) who are all back working as normal and providing their usual excellent service .

It’s fine for those who don’t need to use these services on a regular basis but unfortunately some of us do.

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.

gillybob I expect that the local authority has employees who are well aware of what the OP describes as the "benefits" of working from home.

In that case you have to allow for the fact that when you ring that home worker they may have gone to take the dog for a walk, or a jog and then a shower, a shopping trip to the local mall or even decided that they will work from 7pm to 10pm in the evening and obviously you should be well aware of that.

Without doubt it is us who are at fault for not being fully abreast of all these modern methods of working. ???

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
Such a good point Doodledog but I am afraid typical of many discussions on GN.
Personal anecdotes do little towards a genuine conversation about why the working population are being encouraged to return to the workplace and the ramifications of WFH.
The end of furlough was a similar turning point as however obvious it was to some that the long lasting effects on the economy would be catastrophic, again the “excuses” for not returning to work were trotted out.
I suspect for some older people, it can be hard to see the bigger picture particularly those who may have been shielding. We own our houses, mostly, we have pensions, of a sort and we are not at risk of redundancy or bankruptcy because of the aftermath of the Covid crisis. We may not even have seen the boarded up shops and sandwich bars or dry cleaners on the High Street.
But what about our AC? What about our grandchildren growing up? The discussion has to be taken beyond the boundaries of what Bob down the road does or the cliched view of office workers sitting around clutching their Starbucks disposable cup.

I wonder how many people working from home are actually doing their contracted hours? I personally know people who are and I also know people who are definitely not, whacking out a few emails while they are out and about. Overall I suspect that there will be an drop in productivity but if companies start to fold then it's a lose lose situation. I also think that it's possibility more prevalent in the public sector who lets face it are providing public services, but don't tell my local council that.

Maybe if you are the sort who enjoys a desk type job, you are happy to do it anywhere ... on the 15th Floor of One Canada Square or in the garden shed. I can see it would work in either place.
What is a bit of a concern is when the worker in the garden shed needs their skills updating or training on a new system. Offices will still need to exist to meet these requirements and to interview and train new staff. Otherwise won't the world of home office workers will consist of a load of behind the times keyboard users?The issue will be how to keep those working from home enthusiastic and dynamic.
Moreover, when you are physically isolated, it becomes very easy to get set in one's own ways which don't always confirm to a common ethos.

conform

Boarded up shops were a feature of many high streets before the pandemic and need long-term strategic thinking, not threatening people with job losses for not returning to office working. Wasn't it an election promise to "level up" and breathe life back into some if these places?

Does that count on both sides maw b because what I can see is mostly people telling cliched anecdotes about home workers jogging and skiving. I do wonder too if it is the age range on the board, most of the young people I know are used to some element of home working. It is important to think of the nuances on both sides, the benefits on mental health, the impact on the environment, the impact on those who have caring responsibilities, the impact for women in the workplace.

Daisymae

I wonder how many people working from home are actually doing their contracted hours? I personally know people who are and I also know people who are definitely not, whacking out a few emails while they are out and about. Overall I suspect that there will be an drop in productivity but if companies start to fold then it's a lose lose situation. I also think that it's possibility more prevalent in the public sector who lets face it are providing public services, but don't tell my local council that.

Apparently it's a mixed picture with about a third of people being more productive and a third less productive. Part of that could be because the business itself hasn't adapted to managing staff working remotely and holding them accountable.

Businesses will come to their own decisions about what works best for them. I don't think threatening people with redundancy (as the Telegraph headline from a few days ago did) is relevant.

growstuff

Boarded up shops were a feature of many high streets before the pandemic and need long-term strategic thinking, not threatening people with job losses for not returning to office working. Wasn't it an election promise to "level up" and breathe life back into some if these places?

Have you seen Central London recently? Have you been in your local shopping centre?
Things are far, far worse than before.

Galaxy

Does that count on both sides maw b because what I can see is mostly people telling cliched anecdotes about home workers jogging and skiving. I do wonder too if it is the age range on the board, most of the young people I know are used to some element of home working. It is important to think of the nuances on both sides, the benefits on mental health, the impact on the environment, the impact on those who have caring responsibilities, the impact for women in the workplace.

As a former teacher, I was used to working at home for as many hours as I worked in the classroom, as I expect most teachers are. If teachers don't do the work which needs doing, it won't be long before they are found out. There are advantages in terms of flexibility, but you do have to have self-discipline and organisation.

Most local authorities are making completely different plans for town centres, I am not talking about London that is a separate situation, those changes may have been accelerated but they were coming anyway.

MawB2

growstuff

Boarded up shops were a feature of many high streets before the pandemic and need long-term strategic thinking, not threatening people with job losses for not returning to office working. Wasn't it an election promise to "level up" and breathe life back into some if these places?

Have you seen Central London recently? Have you been in your local shopping centre?
Things are far, far worse than before.

No, I haven't, but I've seen pictures and I believe what it's like, but I don't think it's the moral duty of commuters to bring them back to life.

However, I have ventured into my own small market town and it's heaving.