Get back to the office! But why?

That example is someone failing to do their job, which can happen in an office, and does on numerous occasions. We can all give personal anecdotes to back up a theory. I am part of two teams one has returned to the office one hasnt, the team still home based is much more efficient than the one in the office, and collaborates much better as a team. This anecdote doesnt prove that people in offices arent doing their job.

Working from home IS NOT INEFFICIENT IN MOST CASES.

Having worked in an office I know how distracting it can be. People chatting, coming in and out, phones ringing. Talking to people wfh they say that they can get on much better at home without all those distractions and many spend their previous commute time working.

Why are so many of you opposed to working from home? Is it because the govt says that office workers must return to work?

No one is saying that all office workers must go back to their offices. There are many good reasons on here why people can continue to work from home and the anti's come up with statements like police and and nurses can't work from home. What's that got to do with anything? If they had wanted to work in an office they wouldn't have chosen those jobs. People that do those jobs tend to live reasonably close to their place of employment. I doubt that there's many health workers or police living in Hampshire, or Dorset or Norfolk who work in London.

There is more awareness now of mental health issues and it would be interesting to know whether people who suffer have found their health slightly improved because the stresses and strains of commuting have been eased during lockdown.

In the old, British Rail days, if you couldn't find a seat in second class you were entitled to go into the first class compartments. I don't think that rule applies anymore. I'd like to see how those complaining would cope with regular commuting.

The Covid crisis and lockdown has demonstrated conclusively who is essential in the world of work and who that world can manage without.

In the distribution centre I sited in my above post and in very many similar centres those essential manual workers on the loading dock and throughout the centre often see the office staff in the course of their work. In booking holidays, training sessions, pay queries and many other matters those manual workers often visit the attached offices to see the appropriate office based worker to resolve or clarify such matters.

Office staff very often come into the various operating sectors within the centres to speak to team leaders and supervisors directly and in that are visible to all. However, when those office staffs are no longer on site and the support they provide is no longer available but at the end of a phone or email then it can be seen why those essential manual workers stated they felt completely abandoned by their bosses and those office staff who should be on site in support of their work.

I believe that senior management in many essential industries have become aware of that reality and I believe that there are those posting in this thread that should also become aware of that circumstance.

I believe there are many managers looking at the expenditure on city centre offices and considering whether that expenditure is worthwhile. I believe that there are those posting on this thread who should be aware of this consideration.
You see we can all play that game.

I wonder how much time office workers will need to spend on sanitising their environment? A friend working temporarily as a guide welcoming people to a hospital (giving out masks, advice on wearing them safely etc) says so much time is spent on cleaning touch points such as lift buttons, doors, lavatories and so on.

My dd estimated that for her return to the office, she would have to touch five doors and use hand rails (as advised by H&S) to reach her 2nd floor office. The desk & chair would need to be wiped and then tech equipment needs to be plugged in, too so also requires cleaning.

There’s no canteen, just one hot water urn and two fridges with shared milk which will all be touched by multiple people. There are also the bathrooms to be considered.

It will either mean having a constantly rotating set of cleaners (job creation!) or requiring staff to carry sanitising equipment with them and cleaning multiple times a day, cutting into productive work time.

Galaxy

I believe there are many managers looking at the expenditure on city centre offices and considering whether that expenditure is worthwhile. I believe that there are those posting on this thread who should be aware of this consideration.
You see we can all play that game.

Galaxy????????

Some office staff may need to be at their place of work but many don't. The job gets done just as efficiently if not more so by working from home. Things have to change. If the Luddites had had their way we would still be working without machinery as they were afraid of change.

AGAA4

Some office staff may need to be at their place of work but many don't. The job gets done just as efficiently if not more so by working from home. Things have to change. If the Luddites had had their way we would still be working without machinery as they were afraid of change.

Many office staff need to be at their places of work. Others seem very keen to demonstrate to their employers that they do not need to physically be there.

In that that they demonstrate their job role can be carried out just as well from a house in New Deli as it can from a house in Barking. In other instances, they demonstrate their work can be shared between others actually working "much nearer the coal face".

With Britain now facing the perfect storm of the ongoing Covid crisis and the now serious prospect of a no-deal exit from the European Union, employers will be looking to drastically cleave costs and if sharing a single job role between several others or exporting that job role overseas then those will be the options that will be taken up.

Rather than trying to convince their employers that they are not required to be in the office, I believe that many would do better to try to convince their employers they and their job role are absolutely essential in the office.

Grandad1943

Galaxy

I believe there are many managers looking at the expenditure on city centre offices and considering whether that expenditure is worthwhile. I believe that there are those posting on this thread who should be aware of this consideration.
You see we can all play that game.

Galaxy????????

I don't see what you're having a problem with there, Grandad.

It's not just employees not rushing back to their offices; it's employers who have found that their staff are as productive, or more productive, working from home and who are happy to continue with it where it is feasible to do so.

For those bewailing the fate of the sandwich makers I'll just remind them about whole industries being chopped in the 70s and 80s, steel, coal, shipbuilding for example, without much wailing and gnashing of teeth about the displaced workers...

Anyway, it's more about the property companies losing rental income than concern for the sandwich makers...

If I were the owner of an office block in London, currently let out to one company, I might be planning for a better use of my building more suited to the 21st century.

Possibly I could let my building to five companies instead of one. Each company could have one small office for five days a week where they would keep confidential material.

The rest of the building would be let on the basis of one day a week occupancy where companies could bring in staff occasionally. The rest of the time their staff would be working from home.The companies who rented office accomodation on this basis would make considerable savings.

The other building owners who did not adapt may have to convert their buildings to other purposes - for instance to accommodation, bringing life back to the redundant city office areas.

In what way does where you sit affect whether your job will be outsourced. People in offices could have their job outsourced.

Exactly Galaxy! Companies who think jobs could be outsourced have already thought about it and, in some cases, already done it. They didn't need Covid as a catalyst. Conversely, they might see working from home as an alternative to outsourcing.

Duncan Raab on Andrew Marr this morning said it was essential for people to get back to work in order for the economy to recover. And if you don't go back then the peripheral businesses will suffer.

And if you do go back, your local businesses will suffer because they are not supplying you with packets of teabags and snacks.

It isn't either/or - it doesn't have to be every office worker in an office or every office worker in their own home. It is places for cases.

I wonder if they will suffer anyway, habits change, I am back in the office for parts of the week, I dont use any of the cafes shops that I used to. I realised during home working that I was eating better than anything I could get in Starbucks etc, well actually I realised that most of what is on offer is awful, and I have saved a fortune. The only services benefitting from me being back in the office part time are those flogging petrol.

Elegran and Galaxy I totally agree with you. Sadly this govt doesn't get it. They are starting to demonize those people who are working from home.

Grandad re. your post 5/9 @18.10. The former chief of the Civil Service on BBC news this morning doesn't need to be convinced that staff wfm are doing a good job. He knows they are. He thinks it is irresponsible to try to to get everyone back to the office when those working from home are delivering an excellent service.
Coffee shops etc in city centres will lose out but those wfh are shopping in their local areas and supporting those businesses.

Dinahmo

Elegran and Galaxy I totally agree with you. Sadly this govt doesn't get it. They are starting to demonize those people who are working from home.

I guess it makes a change from teachers.

I see the unions are saying that the government is behind the times and that wfh is the way forward.

And how would the former chief of the Civil Service be aware of what is happening in private commercial industry at this point in time when it comes to employees working from home???????

Many of us are aware from our own experiences that local council employees working from home are providing little or no service whatsoever to their council taxpayers. Just try ringing one of their service lines.

Apologies my above post was meant to be linked to AGAA4 post @15:04 today.

Whitewavemark2

I see the unions are saying that the government is behind the times and that wfh is the way forward.

Whitewavemark2 can you provide a link to who in the trade union movement made the above statement.

I can think of no quicker way to destroy the unions that represent white-collar workers than to have large numbers of employees working from home.

In the above, how can such workers be recruited into a union when workplace activists can gain no access to those employees. Indeed those activists may not even be aware that such employees even exist.

Employees working from home are isolated and vulnerable to unfair action by their employer and not covered by much of the employment legislation that is in existence for employees in designated workplaces.

And there are those on this forum who claim to be Labour Party/ movement supporters who wish to see that home-based working and employee vulnerability extended.

People are telling you that they are not more vulnerable at home, or dont the experience of the workers matter? I am much more vulnerable in my office than working from home. If the unions are unable to think of ways to access workers who are at home well I dont even know how to deal with that lack of initiative.