Get back to the office! But why?

"nobody seemed particularly worried about town centres when they were being destroyed by out of town shopping centres"

Well I was! I think large shopping malls often suck the guts out of the high street, I always thought those humongous malls I encountered when I first went to the US awful, exhausting even then when I was younger, but I think they appeal to a young demographic, hence the two Westfields in London and now there's a third in the pipeline I gather. Not for me, but even they must be suffering right now.

I have recently gone down to three days a week and am loving my days at home. However as an NHS admin worker I had to go in to work. I actually realised I prefer to go in to work, though could perhaps do one day at home. I think people need to actually “go to work”, to interact with others, and generally to have the discipline it takes to get out of bed in the morning and to have a certain ritual. I have noticed that some of the people I know who have been working at home have become very insular and Inward looking. I’m not saying how others should live their lives, people must do what they think best, though I can see the demands and cost of public transport might be a deterrent to going in to work. The roads have been lovely and empty the last few months (I live in London), not looking forward to the traffic next week!

Ilovecheese

Anyone can get distracted by anything and forget to pass a message on, whether they are on the work premises or at home.

That person was being employed and paid to pass on that message and could not have become distracted in the way they had if they had been in the office that is attached to the Distribution centre in that case.

Instead of doing that work proficiently in a correct setting, a serious safety incident was brought about.

Your post about the night supervisor Grandad1948 illustrates what I meant by saying the return from home working will depend on what the employer decides. The workplace that you describe will want all the employees back on site because that suits their business.
Other companies will prefer their employees to continue to work from home because that will suit their business better.

Companies will make their own decisions with no regard to how it will impact other companies.

Chewbacca

^nobody seemed particularly worried about town centres when they were being destroyed by^ out of town shopping complexes.

I don't know whereabouts you live MaisieD but there was outrage and protests for months when our local council published plans for an out of town retail complex; for exactly the reasons that you describe. Nobody wanted it, stating that people's shopping preferences have changed so much and they'd prefer a cinema complex with places to eat out. We were ignored and got the retail complex instead. And it's now empty.

It's too late for my area, Chebacca, home to the first UK out of town shopping centre (1986), which is huge. Local town centres are dead.

I think that one benefit of working from home might be in fewer sick days being taken.

Less contact on public transport and with colleagues might mean fewer coughs and colds, and hopefully if WFH means a less stressful life, fewer mental health issues.

I've experienced similar problems gillybob long wait for service because "colleagues are working from home" it either works or it doesn't and a lot of the time it doesn't.
I think there needs to be a mix of office and home working. People will become quite isolated.

Grandad the person working from home was inefficient and negligent and their inattention to their job role should be addressed in accordance with disciplinary procedures. The person who took it upon themselves to drive a 40foot refrigerated truck, whilst knowing that they were neither qualified nor authorised to do, should be similarly dealt with. Surely his first thought would have been to call an agency himself as soon as it became apparent that his expected driver wasn't coming? Whilst I can see your problem in your scenario, I feel that you've been unlucky with 2 employees who failed to do their jobs properly and didn't think proactively.

This wretched government never gets it right.

We know that a second wave as well as flu is a real and existential threat this autumn/winter.

So what do the utterly incompetence of government do? Encourage crowded travel, offices etc.

Anyone can get distracted by anything and forget to pass a message on, whether they are on the work premises or at home.

People with caring responsibilities will be more able to incorporate them into their day.
Getting children to school, popping in to see elderly relatives.

In addition Chewbacca we shouldn't forget the transport workers who serve office personnel. TfL is in big trouble because fares income has fallen by 90 per cent during covid. Londoners have done the right thing and stayed at home – so there simply isn’t enough money coming in to pay for the services. I forget the exact amount but they are several billion short. This could result in laying off many many staff.

nobody seemed particularly worried about town centres when they were being destroyed by out of town shopping complexes.

I don't know whereabouts you live MaisieD but there was outrage and protests for months when our local council published plans for an out of town retail complex; for exactly the reasons that you describe. Nobody wanted it, stating that people's shopping preferences have changed so much and they'd prefer a cinema complex with places to eat out. We were ignored and got the retail complex instead. And it's now empty.

Let me give an example of the problems someone working from home can case to others.

In my post @17:05 I referred to a safety incident where a person working from home was responsible for. That incident involved the person working from home not informing a Loading dock supervisor that a yard vehicle shunter had reported in as sick.

Therefore no agency shunter was booked by the day shift dock supervisor and when no one turned up on the night shift to carry out the shunting the night supervisor decided he would have to do the work himself if any vehicles were to get loaded even though he had not been properly trained to do so.

While manoeuvring one forty foot refrigerated trailer onto the loading dock he collided with another parked trailer causing considerable damage to both vehicles.

The investigation into the incident found that the person working from home on that day had problems with the children, who were not at school, and had forgotten in all that to report the matter of the shunter being absent to the loading dock office.

As was concluded by the investigation, the trailer that was hit could just as easily been a person standing or walking in that yard.

So much for the efficiency of home working.

Surely whether workers keep their jobs is entirely up to the employers. The government should butt out.

Chewbacca

^They can’t complain when people use their freedom to decide where to work. Cummings can’t^ direct everything especially individual choice.

With respect Whitewave, it's not really individual choice that's driving people working from home, as opposed to going into the office. Many offices are unable to accommodate all of their staff safely, following COVID safety guidelines information, and so have no choice but to ask them to remain at home for the time being. Some employers, like mine, are offering their staff a staged return, so that just 1 person in each department is working in the office on any one day. So it's not really "freedom to work where they want to", it's more a matter of "working where it's safe to do so."

Yes that’s true as well. But many of those able to choose will choose to continue working at home.

Both my two are revelling in the freedom to work where they like and when they like without interruption. Consequently everything is getting done much quicker and more efficiently.
Zoom is used for meetings. They are able to continue to monitor their projects and in one case continues to make site visits etc.

One of them sub contract work to consultants and it is noticeable that these people are entirely giving up their offices to work at home.

Change is coming.

Workers are happy to embrace it.

Threatening workers with headlines like the Telegraph won’t cut it.

Just a thought, but nobody seemed particularly worried about town centres when they were being destroyed by out of town shopping complexes.

I don't see that it's any of the government's business to dictate to private enterprises where their employees should be working from.

I'm finding these responses very interesting because it was reported on twitter this morning that Yougov had run a poll on whether workers should return to their offices and it was the age 65+ respondents who were the most in favour. We're clearly bucking the trend on here

There are a whole host of support workers to offices and shops that are being affected: office cleaners, water cooler companies, personal hygiene companies, window cleaners, office management companies, insurance companies, milk deliveries, outside catering, electricians, fire alarm engineers, air conditioning engineers, confidential office waste management, heating engineers.....
So for those who ^don't care about overpriced coffee shops and sandwich shops^; they are just the tip of the iceberg of people who's businesses, and employees livelihoods, depend on offices.

Surely people would still spend the same?
Working from home needn't stop people from going out - in fact, more might decide to, if they don't have to be up at 5am for a long commute.

If empty offices could be converted into affordable housing it would keep the city centres alive, perhaps even more so, as people wouldn't need to commute to bars, theatres etc.
The trouble with that, AGAA4, is that those living in affordable housing might not be the ones who could afford theatre tickets and eating out in restaurants. Up until a year ago I was occasionally meeting my husband after work in London and spending nearly £300 of an evening on seeing a play and dining out. Most city centres couldn't flourish without the extravagant spending habits of their high earning inhabitants.
Also quite a lot of business transactions take place over long lunches or over after work drinks. It will be interesting to see what effect the lack of face to face contact has on the business world.

EllanVannin If those immigrants were receiving any official money at all, they were not here illegally. If their presence were not legally sanctioned, they would be trying to find casual work paid for out the till, and keeping a very low profile if any government officials came by.

Everyone has the right to request flexible hours, even though it may not be feasible, but the last few months have shown that in a lot of cases, it can be more than accommodated.

According to the FT 100,000 cleaners are employed at Canary Wharf. If just half of those are made unemployed that still leaves an enormous amount of people claiming universal credit. Added to that, many of these cleaners will be working under the rada. They will be left with nothing
How will these people survive? I know what I think.

There's no such thing as an illegal immigrant. Just sayin......

Why is everyone so hung up on coffee shops? There are very few independents in city centres, and the chains can easily relocate. It is likely that people will need (or want) to meet colleagues even if they are working from home, and coffee shops could provide venues for that to happen, as well as be places where local residents can go instead of shopping, if High Streets change their focus to become community hubs.