[Misc] Working from Home - Have we seen a sea change ?

[Gwylan]

Many, many years ago, I wrote an article in which I set out a future where people would use the office less and less but be reluctant to work from home. I proposed a series of local hubs where people would work, saving themselves a long commute but with all the sociability of working in an office.

The idea being that these local hubs may have, say, 50 people in them and they'd work for a variety of employers: you could be working for NatWest say and be sitting next to someone who worked for Barclays or Ladbrokes or whoever.

This was written in the mid-90s and I was postulating what work would look like in 30 or 40 years: I wonder how far off I'll be.

 

[LlcoolJ]

At my place, we’ve announced that when CV-19 is over, staff will have the choice of working from the office (and roughly 10% say they want to do so 5 days/wk) or split between the office and wfh - with a maximum of 3 days/wk wfh. Everyone in the office on a Monday, the other day being up to the employee - being a fixed day/wk for the next 3 months. They can change the second day for the following quarter on the quarter days.

We’ve also said that we’re bound to get it wrong to start with as it’s a new situation, but we’d expect to get it right in 6 months from commencement.

Everyone in on a Monday? You ********! That's the best bit about WFH (well and working for yourself). [emoji23]

 

[ManOfSussex]

Over 75% of my company when surveyed prefer WFH. 'Mobile working' and offices becoming 'hubs' for 'brainstorming, meetings, training and development, meetings and fun' is the vision for our future office estate, which is planned to be reduced. There's lip service consultation planned, but ultimately it reduces costs and the powers that be like WFH.

We have recently made available very limited desk space at a couple of sites initially for staff for whom WFH has been identified as having an impact on their health, but it's a sea change for us. I can also see anyone experiencing Wi-Fi or company equipment issues to be asked to go into the office in the future, rather then get unpaid leave for the former and paid leave for the latter in the future too.

 

[Simster]

My office is a powered cabin at the bottom of the garden. I don't mind it, and like most I loved it initially but not so much now. When we return, I would prefer to work in the office - but only between 1 and 3 days a week. Anecdotally, I'd say most people feel the same way.

What was interesting was that I had to work 3 days in the office Monday to Wednesday this week for the first time in months. By Wednesday, I realised just how shit commuting to London really was. Even with the trains running at 15% capacity, the useless twunts still couldn't run trains on time.

 

[Frutos]

Prior to lockdown, no one on my team worked from home - we were all in the office, using desktop computers, 5 days a week.

It took a while to get things organised when lockdown kicked in, but we now all use laptops and work from home apart from one person who pops into the office a couple of times a week to deal with any physical post that has arrived etc...

The indications are that we won't be back in the office on any significant level for some time, and even when it does happen it is very likely that we will have the flexibility to work from home for perhaps 2 or 3 days a week.

They've even gone to the extent of allowing people to order desks and office chairs at the employer's expense to use at home if they don't have their own, to ensure people have a comfortable working environment.

On a personal level, it works well for my partner and I in our respective jobs - we save about £100 a month each in travel costs and 90 mins a day in commuting time.

Obviously I'd rather this shift had come about a different way, but I think and hope it will be a permanent one now that it is here.

 

[AmexRuislip]

I used to do a mixture of on site with clients, working from home and working from an office that was over two hours away.

At first I loved not having to get up at 4am to go to Gatwick for a flight or spending half my evening traipsing round London and Surrey on trains that were always mysteriously delayed whilst some bloke with halitosis and BO settled down into the seat next to me and snored.

I still don't miss any of that but I do miss face to face with my colleagues and clients, particularly the latter. We used to do a lot of demos, training and workshops face to face. Not only have they all been screen sharing calls over Teams / Skype but I also need to get on calls whenever my team or boss need me, which is always. I've spent an average of six hours a day on organised Teams calls. Everyone agrees it's far too much and no one will do anything about it.

However, the lease on the office over two hours away expired in June. We've taken a small room in a shared space for "essential" staff now but only three or four count as essential. I will be working from home for the rest of the year and probably well into next. By the end of that I'll be craving a 4am cab to Gatwick.

Andy Naylor

 

[A1X]

As with others, my company put out feelers and the feeling was most people now want to work in a mixed way (possibly a 3/2 split in terms of Office / Home days). Personally I'm delighted as it's saved me a fortune in petrol costs and meant I've been able to pay off a few credit card bills. Having a designated "office" has helped, and investing in a decent chair and desk did too. It's also been useful as I've been able to crack on with a few longer term, lower priority projects which I was constantly struggling to find the time for in the office with people coming to the desk / incessant meetings on the other side of the building / "oh could you just take a look at..." people, all of which are obviously no longer a thing.

TBH the worst thing about the en masse WFH is it's killed the "Bell cheeses at work" thread stone-dead.

 

[WATFORD zero]

As with others, my company put out feelers and the feeling was most people now want to work in a mixed way (possibly a 3/2 split in terms of Office / Home days). Personally I'm delighted as it's saved me a fortune in petrol costs and meant I've been able to pay off a few credit card bills. Having a designated "office" has helped, and investing in a decent chair and desk did too. It's also been useful as I've been able to crack on with a few longer term, lower priority projects which I was constantly struggling to find the time for in the office with people coming to the desk / incessant meetings on the other side of the building / "oh could you just take a look at..." people, all of which are obviously no longer a thing.

TBH the worst thing about the en masse WFH is it's killed the "Bell cheeses at work" thread stone-dead.

It hasn't killed it. I think people may just be a little too embarrassed to post on it.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I also think that all the time there's no vaccine that companies should at least offer the option. That new cough or dodgy tummy may just be a cold or last night's Ruby but why take the risk? Allowing people to WFH if they only have very mild symptoms keeps workers working without spreading the virus to an entire team, office or tube carriage.

 

[pb21]

Our office is now open and you can go in if you want, assuming there aren’t too many people.

Before there were ~25 people in and the policy was no WfH (you could if you had a good reason though). Since it opened on a voluntary basis I think an average of 2 people are in a day; the office manager and someone who can’t WfH well.

I went in yesterday all day for the first time, mainly as I wanted to run through some things in person with a more junior colleague.

IMO I would like to have at least one day in the office per week, but only if my immediate colleagues are in, as I miss being able to easily discuss issues/problem/things in person, MS teams just isn’t as good.

Also how are junior/new starters supposed to learn? For me I learn so much by seeing how other people do things, that won’t happen with WfH.

Don’t know what I would choose if I could only have one.

 

[Bodian]

My local authority has definitely had a sea change in attitude. I have previously told them that I am a lot more productive if WFH - but had to get special permission to book a day to work at home when I had an important report or something that really needed concentration (which is impossible in an open plan office). After 10 years of struggling to get the odd day or so at home, suddenly, they have realised it's actually far better! We've had surveys and things, and it generally seems as though people want a mix, of 2-3 days WFH and 2-3 days in an office - to get the right blend of being able to work productively, whilst not missing out on the benefits of office life - and indeed, swapping ideas and picking up on stuff before it becomes an issue, and so on. And for things like printing.

But I'm lucky in that I have a loft space that I've semi-boarded out and use. Others I see on zoom meetings are perched on sofa's and so on - which can't be very productive really, or healthy.

 

[pasty]

I've been WFH since March 19th, and I'm bloody loving it.

No more 04:30 alarm clocks
No more leaving home at 05:30
No more "**** me Southern are shite"
No more panicking to get out the office at 16:30
No more getting home at 19:00 if I'm lucky

I'm happier in myself, way less tired and stressed, and £500 a month better off. Long may it continue.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Think of the independent coffee/food shops reliant for so many years upon commuter footfall, now facing an uncertain future.

The mobile sandwich vans must be hit hard.

 

[Meade's Ball]

found it a ****ing nightmare with a 2 year old child to be honest

I was in partial ditto, until the missus and Meade Jr went to Spain for a few weeks off, that then extended to 7 when the threat of quarantine came in. I have raced through work since, in comparison. It's been horribly lonesome, and perhaps psychologically damaging, and tiring with as much overtime as possible sought per day, but i've gotten through days with early morning long walks and the company of Buffy season after season (followed by a series of action films one after another - and today i have sunk to a new low of watching the Karate Kid tv series).
I'm to return to the office next week for 2 days, and i don't feel that is the right move, but it doesn't seem as if i can argue, which is annoying. I just think, as with football, they can label venues and offices as safe, but how one gets there is nothing to do with them. I cycle anyway, but on rainier days when the tube will have to be boarded at some point, how many bemasked people is it safe for me to be on there with? And what do i do if it isn't?
Anyway, it'll be alright seeing people, and having the chance to lightly belittle again, but anxiety levels are rising.

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

Work is something you do not where you go. I would hate the prescription of 'everyone is in on Monday'. Why? The challenge is to get a cultural shift particularly in use of digital eg workshops online

 

[wehatepalace]

The vast majority of people I’ve spoken, cannot wait to get back to the office, like others have said it was a nice novelty at first, but now that’s worn off people are starting to miss the social interaction that goes along with working in an office.
I suspect the norm will become a split of 2/3 in the office and the rest WFH.
I tried to work from home, but my wife didn’t like me fixing cars in the kitchen !

 

[hoveboyslim]

I think it depends where you are in your career. I am middle aged and am experienced, so am able to work independently. If you are fresh to a career then it will be a huge struggle because it would be harder to feed off more experienced staff. I can imagine working your way up through a business would be harder too, if say you WFH but another colleague was in and around the office having face-to-face interaction with bosses.

Obviously there are certain social and mental health issues that can make working from home difficult for a lot of people.

 

[pb21]

Others I see on zoom meetings are perched on sofa's and so on - which can't be very productive really, or healthy.

I am not that bad, I am able to work in a specific room, with a desk etc. but my house is still relatively small.

Sleeping, eating, working and shitting in the same small building isn't ideal IMO, even though I was outside walking the dog or cycling for at least an hour a day. I really struggled with this around June time. TBH I have got a bit more used to it, but that might get more of a pain again in the near future with darker wetter days.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Everyone in on a Monday? You ********! That's the best bit about WFH (well and working for yourself). [emoji23]

Our sickness ratio in terms of how it spread across the week is 60% Monday, 10% on each of the other days. The mgt team wanted to avoid making it worse. My observation was that another fact is that our hours lost due to sickness is 0.6% - so aren’t we trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist?

I lost that particular argument (outvoted 5:1). I could have forced it through, but there’s no point canvassing opinion if you don’t listen to it.

I reserved the ability to have another look at which day we ask everyone to be in after 3 months.

 

[dazzer6666]

Many, many years ago, I wrote an article in which I set out a future where people would use the office less and less but be reluctant to work from home. I proposed a series of local hubs where people would work, saving themselves a long commute but with all the sociability of working in an office.

The idea being that these local hubs may have, say, 50 people in them and they'd work for a variety of employers: you could be working for NatWest say and be sitting next to someone who worked for Barclays or Ladbrokes or whoever.

This was written in the mid-90s and I was postulating what work would look like in 30 or 40 years: I wonder how far off I'll be.

I can see quite a demand for local 'rent a desk' or 'rent a meeting room' spaces (there are a lot of these in London already - we use them for team gatherings when we can't find anywhere internally), and a consequential freeing up of permanent office space in city centres - the privacy angle would need to be carefully managed though for anyone simply using a desk for 'normal' work.