AIBU in thinking they should get back to work?

Many office workers don't need to work in offices. The more who can stay at home keep infection in a confined space. Community transmission is reduced and allow those who do need to work outside the home to socially distance and breathe in less infected air.

Everybody has a choice to avoid busy shops and pubs.

It's not preferential treatment. It's pragmaticism and thinking about public health as part of a big picture.

All essential workers, hospital staff, transport workers, nursing assistants, home helps, restaurants shops and warehouses, hairdressers are working, and most if tgem all tge ways through when we wouldn’t let our own families into our homes,
. What makes office workers so special. Everyone needed the supermarkets and petrol stations etc all thee way through Covid why are they worth less than us. Trying to see a doctor face to face is nigh on impossible but apparently for those that work in hospitals on the front line and the staff it’s ok for them It’s all so unfair. Everybody back and do your bit.
Why do you think certain sectors should have preferential treatment ?
You can tell when you ring for help on anything if they are working from home, in most cases their mind isn’t on it. If everyone is jabbed, I’m sorry but they have as much chance of getting it when out in the very busy shops and pubs as being in the office.

My son in law works for a large mobile phone company and was requested to go back to work 2 days a week he completed the first 2 days Mon and thursday by Sunday him my daughter and both children have covid. I cannot visit to help out and SIL very poorly he has had asthma since childhood and is type 1 diabetic. DD very worried about him. She phoned this morning to say she is feeling much worse hacking cough and temperature and she trying to cope with an 8yr and a 2 yr old. The children are just off colour and have temperatures she is really struggling. All I can do is take shopping etc. Hope they turn a corner soon. They have kept their family safe all this time and now this. He works for a call centre and could easily have continued to take calls from home.

It is quite clear that thew huge upsuge of covid infection in the UK means that we need to increase our defenses.

Slightly different to speak to someone in Eire rather than someone in India for example. A well known credit card company has a call centre in India and I found it very difficult to deal with. Often having to restrain myself from being rude - it wasn't the staff's fault that they couldn't deal with my problems but the company's fault for not having more offices in England.

Speaking as someone who set up a new call centre in an Asian country, the location of the call centre is irrelevant. With the right training and recruitment practices, a good call centre can be in Tottenham or Timbuctoo.

Gabrielle56

Hmm it's a toughie! How are they able to open and process all the physical mail and personal documents that arrives each day at the DVLA offices If they're at their homes? I had to send birth certificate marriage certificate decree absolute.... previous licence all to change to my married name and change address in 1999. THEY LOST THE BLOODY LOT! They were missing ONE signature so posted ALL docs. Back to my OLD address!!!!!!! Although they had actually scanned all docs on to their system they told me that they still needed physical paper docs!!!!! I now have cheap and nasty 'copies' of all my precious docs.Total incompetence. So I'm at a complete and utter loss to grasp how the they're managing? Are personal docs being chucked around in their houses in front of who knows who? I'd love someone to explain this to me, maybe the backlog has something to do with this issue?......

That was 1999!!!! Things have changed haven't they?

nandad

Galaxy

Also if jobs can be done in an office in England why cant they be done in an office in India .

Indeed, they are. It’s called ‘outsourcing’. My point is that if an employer can pay less for the same quality and it doesn’t matter where the employee is, why pay pay more to employ someone in the UK?

I worked for a council, during the pandemic they employed a permanent advisor living in Eire as her job could be done remotely. She was a mentor for people living in South East England. No need to find her an office space or pay travelling expenses.

Slightly different to speak to someone in Eire rather than someone in India for example. A well known credit card company has a call centre in India and I found it very difficult to deal with. Often having to restrain myself from being rude - it wasn't the staff's fault that they couldn't deal with my problems but the company's fault for not having more offices in England.

nandad

growstuff

Why shouldn't pension investors find somewhere else to invest funds? Nothing is set in stone.

No, it’s not set in stone, but that is where they have already invested our pensions. If they try to get rid of town centre premises now they are likely to make a loss, meaning there is less money in the total pension pot. This means that there is less likely to be a pension increase for pensioners.

There are empty premises all over the place, not just office blocks, that pension companies may need to get rid of. Alternatively they could find other uses for some of the empty blocks.

During lockdown I was dealing with an HMRC enquiry that required submission of documents. It was easier for me to post them rather than scan. They were sent to an HMRC office who did scan them and then sent the scans out to the relevant Inspector who was working from home. So no documents laying around elsewhere.

Many people can from home. I work from home. It's where my office is. Most of my work is sent via the internet. Some still comes by post. There's absolutely no reason why many people can't work from home if they want to. For about 6 months when I first moved out from London I left home at 6.30am and arrived back at about 8.15pm. provided there were no problems with the trains.

Took over 5 months to get a change of address done on my driving license when we moved in June so something isn't working right. Having said that I think working from home is a good thing smaller offices, less cars on the road, and shorter working hours if there's less traveling. Probably best if people are given the choice as its not good for everyone.

For those people who are concerned about whether or not people are working as hard at home as they do in the workplace I can only say it’s down to the ethics of the person -and that won’t change. Work-shy people will continue to be lazy wherever they’re working and grafters will probably work harder.

I can truthfully say that all of my immediate family have a very well developed work ethic and the problem I have had during their time working from home is to try and persuade them to not put in too much extra (unpaid) time!

But businesses are not there to protect people's pension entitlements. They are there to make money for their shareholders and that is what they will do. If they can make more profit if their employees work from home they will not give two hoots what happens to the city centres or the pension schemes. Employees are not the ones who hold all the cards in this situation, whether people return to working in offices will ultimately be in the hands of the employer.

My driving license was due to be renewed in May , I applied for it once it ran out (forgot about it) and it arrived within a week .
I bought a new car last month and V5 arrived within days . Bought a personalised number plate for DGD and paperwork for that arrived within a week. Refund on car tax was received within a week .
They seem to be working as normal .
Maybe any problems should be chased up be email?

Galaxy

Also if jobs can be done in an office in England why cant they be done in an office in India .

Indeed, they are. It’s called ‘outsourcing’. My point is that if an employer can pay less for the same quality and it doesn’t matter where the employee is, why pay pay more to employ someone in the UK?

I worked for a council, during the pandemic they employed a permanent advisor living in Eire as her job could be done remotely. She was a mentor for people living in South East England. No need to find her an office space or pay travelling expenses.

growstuff

Why shouldn't pension investors find somewhere else to invest funds? Nothing is set in stone.

No, it’s not set in stone, but that is where they have already invested our pensions. If they try to get rid of town centre premises now they are likely to make a loss, meaning there is less money in the total pension pot. This means that there is less likely to be a pension increase for pensioners.

Also if jobs can be done in an office in England why cant they be done in an office in India .

Whitewavemark2

Yes because she was replying to the previous post which was trying to link pensions to office work etc??

Sorry, I thought she was responding to something I said on another thread in the Coronavirus forum

In the light of what she was responding to, I agree with her.

Yes because she was replying to the previous post which was trying to link pensions to office work etc??

growstuff

Why shouldn't pension investors find somewhere else to invest funds? Nothing is set in stone.

Are you on the right thread here, growstuff?

Why shouldn't pension investors find somewhere else to invest funds? Nothing is set in stone.

If a job can be done from home, that home can be anywhere in the world. Why employ someone in the UK to do it when it can be done more cheaply elsewhere? Outsourcing Call Centres and Customer Services to overseas is the norm now. Solicitors, accountants, even GPs - bet they are paid less in India.
Also, where do people think the funds come from to pay our private pensions? The majority comes from the rental paid on business premises which pension investors own a lot of!
It’s a very short sighted view to say working from home is the better option.

I don't know if the delays are connected with working from home, the strikes can't be helping, but I do know that the delays for those renewing where medical conditions are involved are totally unacceptable. DH applied in early June, no response, finally put something on Twitter in August, and DVLA came back with a number to ring. On one lucky occasion it was answered (never is now, standard 'We are busy, try later' and line cut off when ever you ring.) Not even a chance to hang on. That is completely unreasonable. After that contact he had a letter saying was now allowed to book his eye test (you have to wait for DVLA authorisation first) Optician said he had passed and was safe to drive, result sent to DVLA straight away, and nothing! Section 88 which supposedly allows you to drive is not recognised by car hire companies. How long would you consider a delay to be 'reasonable'. Is it unreasonable to expect phones to at least put you in a queue?

Incidentally the majority of DVLA work, applications or renewals are either done online or in the post office now, so I very much doubt ANY documents are “hanging around” at peoples homes! They will be opened, processed and scanned online by those in the office. As with all government and council departments now the preferred option is online applications.

Hmm it's a toughie! How are they able to open and process all the physical mail and personal documents that arrives each day at the DVLA offices If they're at their homes? I had to send birth certificate marriage certificate decree absolute.... previous licence all to change to my married name and change address in 1999. THEY LOST THE BLOODY LOT! They were missing ONE signature so posted ALL docs. Back to my OLD address!!!!!!! Although they had actually scanned all docs on to their system they told me that they still needed physical paper docs!!!!! I now have cheap and nasty 'copies' of all my precious docs.Total incompetence. So I'm at a complete and utter loss to grasp how the they're managing? Are personal docs being chucked around in their houses in front of who knows who? I'd love someone to explain this to me, maybe the backlog has something to do with this issue?......

I had my first week back in the office this week and I got through much less work than I would have done at home. There are so many distractions, & remembering to put a mask on to speak to someone or put rubbish on the bin all takes time.I got very tired because of the commute, making me slower.We can't go back fulltime as there isn't the space with social distancing. There is no problem with processing confidential information from home as the security on the work hub- home work connection is much tighter than the average level of security customers are using to apply for their licenses (or whatever) on line.I applied for a new driving licence 7 days ago online and received it 3 days ago- perhaps just lucky. But at least my DH realises I'm working when I'm in the office & doesn't expect me to work 7.5 hrs and shop cook garden and run his errands.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/14/dvla-staff-to-get-payments-worth-735-as-government-seeks-to-avoid-strikes

Industrial action has been going on for months at the DVLA