Get back to the office! But why?

To those who have mentioned councils not answering phones. This is nothing new and well before Covid it wasn't easy to get through. Council staff have been cut to the bone over the last few years with one person trying to do the job of at least three.
The management is poor and if they were a business they would have gone under years ago.
The problems are lack of staff not working from home.

Council staff have been cut to the bone over the last few years with one person trying to do the job of at least three.

The management is poor and if they were a business they would have gone under years ago.

Conflicting ideas there, surely, AGGA4?

Staff have been cut to the bone because councils have been kept short of money by tory governments. A decent business wouldn't have starved itself of cash...

The CEO of Pret has said, (i newspaper today), that no one has a duty to return to offices to save the sandwich chain. He says, and I agree, businesses have to adapt to new habits.

Maizie the council has been badly affected by government cuts but they do waste a lot of the money they are given. To give an example - each department is given an amount of money at the beginning of the year. Some don't spend it all but instead of that money being redirected to another dept. it is spent indiscriminately on items that aren't needed. This is done so they are given the same amount next year. This is wasteful.

Some don't spend it all but instead of that money being redirected to another dept. it is spent indiscriminately on items that aren't needed. This is done so they are given the same amount next year.

I'm familiar with that system from when I worked in the NHS 40+ years ago. It is deeply stupid. We had a little spending bonanza at the end of the financial year because it couldn't be carried over to finance a long term capital project and, as you say, if it wasn't spent it was lost. But it wasn't necessarily wasted...

I'm not familiar with local council budget management but I would suspect that in this day and age it would be very rare for a department to have anything left at the year end. However, perhaps you worked in an LA and know more about it than I do.

Remember this!!

Less than a month ago.

We knew then it was the wrong policy.

Today’s message?

Work from home.

Did I just hear Gove say on Today that we must listen to the experts.

Irony!!

Whitewavemark2

Remember this!!

Less than a month ago.

We knew then it was the wrong policy.

Today’s message?

Work from home.

And the veiled threats of

'if your job can be done from home, it can be done from India'

Yes, I'm revisiting this brilliant thread today too.

Like Whitewave, it's wonderful to hear Michael ("I think the people in this country have had enough of experts") Gove telling us to listen to the experts and that this isn't another u-turn by the Government when it clearly is.

I wonder if Bojo may send him out to deliver these pieces of news knowing the potential embarrassment they could cause him - after all they say revenge is a dish best served cold. But then, that's supposing that Mr G actually feels embarrassment at the irony in the first place!

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