Working from Home

Yes I thought that about hot-desking in the Civil Setvice too Whitewave, so nobody would be at "their desk" anyway.
Also happily for them JRM does not line manage the Civil Service.

Catterygirl

I got my 70+ driving licence back by return of post. Applied online though.

I had to go through their online complaint form before I got mine way after the date I needed it. It had been posted weeks in advance.

JenniferEccles

Just a quick question….
If ‘working’ from home is deemed to be just as productive as going into the office, why have we all been driven half mad over the past two years, stuck on the phone to businesses for hours waiting for some lazy devil to pick up the phone from their sofa?

I haven't had this happen to me in the general way you describe it. Maybe your experience is less frequent than you believe. After all, you, like me, can only quote one person's experience.

The only time I have had to wait on the phone has been when contacting either a government or local authority department. Their standard of customer service isn't a change that's happened in the last two years; it has always been the case. It seems to be more likely to be the level of staffing and/or the quality of their systems that is at fault not the place where they work.

Working "from home" and working "at home" is not the same thing. Many people work "from home" and always have. Their work may sometimes be at home but they may also be visiting customers or clients, researching or away from home for other purposes. A mobile hairdresser works "from home" but only a small proportion of her work will be "at" home.

If people can't even differentiate between these two things, I wonder what the rest of the evidence they produce - usually against those working "at home" - is worth.

There has always been a tranch of those both working "at home" and those working "from home". The attacks we see seem to be on any possiblity of change, even a change for the better.

I got my 70+ driving licence back by return of post. Applied online though.

A little reminder of working from the office for certain people.

I've just watched a programme on TV about the effect working from home is having on our backs. There are a lot more people suffering from bad backs than before and some of them looked quite young. My previous post on desk and chair positioning is now proven to be correct. People are spending longer sitting than before and not always in a good position. They are also not moving about as much and all this is having a very bad effect on their backs.

I can’t help thinking that the assumption that someone is a ‘lazy devil’ sitting on a sofa, and not an employee working at a desk in their own home, doing their best to keep a service going through a lockdown speaks volumes, though.

I agree Doodledog

Well I for one am fed up with waiting on the telephone for 40 minutes ‘ because of the current situation’ , what situation? As far as I’m aware we are all back to ‘normal’

This is the same message that we got during the lockdown months, are these Companies short of staff ? Even working from home must mean that someone is able to pick the phone up?

If my call was that important to them they would answer it, not just Government, Civil Service, Council, GP surgeries, Hospital department phone calls, but other Companies as well and when they do answer they won’t say why the call took so long, only that they are very busy at this time of day ( no matter what time of day you eventually get through) .

Take on more staff then , it’s bad customer service to keep people hanging on the phone for nearly an hour.

Rant over……

Both my children work from home as do all their office co -workers.

Those suggesting that it is neither as efficient or productive as attending an office are I am afraid speaking from ignorance. Those who wish to go into the office do so, but those working at home do so without interruption giving them much concentration to read complicated legal reports or scientific papers. It is far less stressful as thought processes can proceed without hinderance.

JRM shows himself for the fool he is.

The ridiculous thing is that civil servants “hot desk” so no one has a desk of their own anymore.

JRMs nasty little note not only missed the point but aims to patronise a non-existing person.

What a fool he is.

Summerlove

JenniferEccles

Just a quick question….
If ‘working’ from home is deemed to be just as productive as going into the office, why have we all been driven half mad over the past two years, stuck on the phone to businesses for hours waiting for some lazy devil to pick up the phone from their sofa?

That’s not been my experience at all

Nor mine.

I can’t help thinking that the assumption that someone is a ‘lazy devil’ sitting on a sofa, and not an employee working at a desk in their own home, doing their best to keep a service going through a lockdown speaks volumes, though.

JenniferEccles

Just a quick question….
If ‘working’ from home is deemed to be just as productive as going into the office, why have we all been driven half mad over the past two years, stuck on the phone to businesses for hours waiting for some lazy devil to pick up the phone from their sofa?

That’s not been my experience at all

ayse Having said that I applied for my 70+ driving licence online and received it within a week.
You are very lucky. I applied for mine March 2020 and they never sent it. You couldn't phone to ask for help as the phone lines were closed, and there was no way to ask online. In the end I gave up and never had it. Thankfully I don't have a car any more.

type 'ill' when it changes it to I'll
Oh yes, .. thought it was only mine.

My two younger DDs both work from home and both go to the office one day per week. Neither of them waste time doing other things but if they have to they work into the evening. One works as a software tester and the other for an auditing company. Meetings are conducted by Zoom or other conferencing device online. It seems to work well for both of them plus of course their employers. Both are single parents and it gives some flexibility should there be a family emergency.

The efficiency of WFH depends on good computer systems, fast and reliable internet and the type of employment.

I don’t know if anyone here saw the post concerning claiming Universal Credit? As an ex Employment Service/Job Centre civil servant I fail to see how online claims can be equated with customer service. This faceless bureaucracy makes claiming difficult in the extreme for those most in need of face to face help. The Ukrainian visa system is suffering the same faceless bureaucracy. Theses systems are not fit for purpose and do not offer a public service. In my experience most junior civil servants want to do a good job but are hampered by ill thought out computer systems. Having said that I applied for my 70+ driving licence online and received it within a week.

A hybrid system of WFH and going to work can offer the best of both for both employers and employees. It just needs good organisation and commitment from all concerned.

Some MPs think it quite acceptable to work for their constituents from overseas! Not sure how that works, though!

mokryna

Callistemon21

Autocorrect didn't like it but I insisted.

You can have your device accept both languages but there is still a fight. Eg thé nearly always comes up just as I am posting. I also have a problem with the American spellings’ even though I request British English, it ignores me.

Do you remember the threads in Vietnamese and Portuguese?
?

Mine doesn't like apostrophes unless I want to type 'ill' when it changes it to I'll

spellings,

Callistemon21

Autocorrect didn't like it but I insisted.

You can have your device accept both languages but there is still a fight. Eg thé nearly always comes up just as I am posting. I also have a problem with the American spellings’ even though I request British English, it ignores me.

As a disclaimer, we have staff who work from home and only come into the office two/three days per month.

We purchased suitable laptop, pay for secure high speed internet and a chair (already had a desk)

It works because we communicate…

Many years ago Lloyds Bank decided as a cost-cutting measure to sell off some of their office buildings.
His team had a phone call to say come into the office and pick up some furniture, then you're all working from home as of Monday.
All we could accommodate was a chair, their desks were huge and we had no room.
I was childminding at home full-time downstairs, our three children were still at school and living at home, so he had to work in our bedroom. Not an ideal situation for all sorts of reasons.

After debating the cost of building an extension, instead we installed a 6' x 8' summer house as a garden office and he worked in that. At least when he'd finished for the day he could lock it up and come back into the house.
When our daughter left home he set up an office in her bedroom. The problem there was being disciplined enough not to switch the laptop on as soon as he got up, before he even got dressed.

My daughter is working from home now, but she has had the choice and it suits her.
She's had to create office space in a corner of the dining room though.

That's why I think that employers should be legally responsible for ensuring that people have the right desk/chair/lighting etc, and that there should be an option to go in if possible

Yes it is not either/or.

A lot of larger employers are looking to downsize their office accommodation, reducing their overheads, but still maintaining an office base. Staff hot-desking is the way forward, with each desk space earning its keep by having multiple users over the course of the week. That way, staff have the best of both worlds because they still have contact with their colleagues as well as the benefits of working from home, and teams can work together on a set day each week. It seems eminently sensible to me..

Up to a point, yes. That's why I think that employers should be legally responsible for ensuring that people have the right desk/chair/lighting etc, and that there should be an option to go in if possible, as that is important for the mental health of a lot of people.

Financially, though, wfh can be beneficial. If people had an expensive commute they can save a lot. Lunches and so on can be expensive, too. I found that when I left work I (obviously) had far less coming in, but I also had significant savings on outgoings.

If there was a national strategic overview and drive re hybrid working then it would be possible to address issues that might be a problem. An obvious one would be investing in co working spaces ...some of those high street empty buildings maybe, where "desk pods" are set up for people to "hire" when WFH! So maybe if working 2 days a week they might hire a desk pod for those days if their home is not suitable.

This may well not be affordable for all but then strategically there could be a government drive on enabling both the creation of such hubs in local areas and subsidising for those on lower incomes etc etc. I am sure there would need to be much worked through on this, but the potential for genuine "levelling up" and improving family and working life is huge.

But it really does need a national drive, some creative thinking "out of the box" (sorry for the cliche) rather than Rees Mogg's unimaginative "lets return to the status quo as I might earn more money from my investments in all those empty buildings in the City!!"

I guess it comes down to how wealthy you are as to whether you can afford a suitable room and desk or are stuck in the same room as other family members and with no workstation. It would be very unfair to expect anyone to work from home when they are not comfortable. So WFH favours the well off over those who are poorer and that's not fair.