Topic: Working From Home

[thaddeus]

I'm on the fence on whether converting much of the office/retail space into residential buildings is a good thing.  On the face of it it helps with the housing problems (8% price rise during a pandemic!!) but it could be another nail in the coffin for town centres.

The ecosystem of a town centre seems to rely on there being a variety and quantity of shops and restaurants so that people have some incentive to get out and not order everything off bloody Amazon.  It's perhaps expecting too much for landlords and councils (?) to temporarily reduce rents and rates to encourage existing shops/restaurants to continue and new shops/restaurants to open up but it would be nice to see it happen.

As a resident of a commuter town I'd expect my town centre would see more football after the pandemic as less people will be sitting at desks 30 miles away and so might go into town more often.

[Wabaloolah]

As a resident of a commuter town I'd expect my town centre would see more football after the pandemic as less people will be sitting at desks 30 miles away and so might go into town more often.

Kids just don't play footie in the streets these days so think that is unlikely to happen

[Graeme]

Yeah, same here. Already planning on what to spend the extra £6 a month on.

£6 per week isn’t it?

[filopastry]

Also in addition to the £6 a week tax deduction, make sure you claim for any expenses you incurred as a result of working from home, which your employer doesn't cover, I ended up getting a new monitor/keyboard/office chair etc.

[Wabaloolah]

£6 per week isn’t it?

No, you get tax relief at £6 per week, you get approximately an extra £1.50 per week if you are a basic tax payer and £2.40 per week if you pay a higher rate of tax

[thaddeus]

Kids just don't play footie in the streets these days so think that is unlikely to happen

  Weirdly football is the one thing I don't want to talk about on a football forum at the moment.  Must still be on my mind.

[I've been a good boy]

Returning back to the office full time from Monday, fucking sucks. The office is tiny, there's no canteen and the temperatures go from one extreme to another. Seriously not looking forward to it.

[rob1966]

The missus returned in August after being furloughed in March - she stayed in the office all through the current lockdown and was one of only 5 out of 35 who DIDNT catch covid when it ripped through the building in January. They are now moving offices to near Astley and she was dreading it as she hates driving so I was looking at 6am get ups and running her to work. Yesterday, as they don't yet have a desk for her at the new offices,  they gave her a laptop and said she can work from home. Could they not have done this in August??

I had to nip into our office the other week to test some printed documents I have changed, cleared my desk, robbed a couple of monitors and some other stuff I thought I'd make use of

[Wabaloolah]

Returning back to the office full time from Monday, fucking sucks. The office is tiny, there's no canteen and the temperatures go from one extreme to another. Seriously not looking forward to it.

how come when restrictions are still in place and you are not yet advised to return to the office, let alone full-time?

[Wabaloolah]

The missus returned in August after being furloughed in March - she stayed in the office all through the current lockdown and was one of only 5 out of 35 who DIDNT catch covid when it ripped through the building in January. They are now moving offices to near Astley and she was dreading it as she hates driving so I was looking at 6am get ups and running her to work. Yesterday, as they don't yet have a desk for her at the new offices,  they gave her a laptop and said she can work from home. Could they not have done this in August??

Madness that Rob but at least going forward she can now work from home!

[I've been a good boy]

how come when restrictions are still in place and you are not yet advised to return to the office, let alone full-time?

Because my manager is a jobsworth who has no clue how to manage people. Hopefully be out of there soon.

[Fabulous_aurelio]

I work for a large contract cater as a General Manager. The sector I work and specialise in is workplaces. Its been an awful 12 months but I have managed to switch roles as Area Support for a large client who's offices have remained open, though at a seriously reduced occupancy.

The future is unclear on how workplaces will look, but we are starting to get some idea.

A lot of buildings in the estate will be tiered. Some small ones hot desk only, training centres, centres of excellence which will house the majority off office workers needed on site.

All of the offices look to include massive amounts of hot desking, and one of the sites I know will have 3000.

I think its great that WFH will play a massive role in our lives and its certainly needed, but I think offices will get busier again.

You cannot for one second underestimate the individuals need to social interaction. My wife is done with it. She misses the small conversations around the office and the fact she doesn't have to video call someone to discuss a work issue. She misses nipping into the city centre at lunch or browsing the shops. I think offices will be busier than most expect for those reasons.

Update on this.

I'm hearing lots of clients are having a change of heart, once very cautious, a number of them are preparing to reopen their office inline with the 21st June.

They won't force people to go in initially, but they are planning to reopen without social distancing. I'm theory, the building could go back to full capacity if everyone wanted to go in.

Its hard for us to come up with a service plan as who can estimate the numbers! Anyway, I think this is fantastic news.

[UntouchableLuis]

My fiancee is really finding WFH tough lately. I'm a teacher so I'm out every day and she's been sat at home on her laptop working for 13 months now every day. She's feeling lonely and I totally understand that. This is the massive downside of WFH - the mental health aspect of it. I fear companies won't really give a shit about that as long as they can save money from not having people in the office.

[Crosby Nick]

Met up with some work colleagues today. Got on the tube for the first time in forever and had an afternoon in (outside) the pub having a ‘team meeting’. Was very nice to catch up and see some faces I haven’t seen in person for a long time.

Could settle for working from home for longer and doing that once a month!

[Fabulous_aurelio]

I'm hearing some of the big companies and banks are being offered incentives to reopen online with 21 June. Don't be surprised if the doors to your office reopen on this date.

Yes they will save money with people wfh, but the tax cuts and rate reduction might persuade them otherwise.

I'm guessing they won't demand people go in, but my guess is it will be encouraged.

One of my biggest clients (an insurance company) closed their offices completely and have said productivity has actually gone up and committed to 100% wfh. I've heard this week they are preparing to reopen all but one office.

[Drinks Sangria]

We've been working from home for over a year now, so coinciding with the end of the financial year I've been compiling a lot of reports and we're around 20% more productive from home, whilst staying within 10% of our contracted hours. I reckon no one got away with doing less than 45 hours a week prior.

We're still having to go back 3 days a week but it's better than permanent full return.

One thing the business has done which was decent of them, was agree to an all-expenses paid meal out for my team in June at a very nice restaurant in town. They've saved enough to do that a few times for sure. It's a crumb of comfort if nothing else.

[redgriffin73]

I'm hearing some of the big companies and banks are being offered incentives to reopen online with 21 June. Don't be surprised if the doors to your office reopen on this date.

Yeah, we're due back in that week we've been told this week.

[pazcom]

talk where I work (a civil service department) of returning to potentially 2 days a week back in the office. How enforceable that is will be another story.

[Fabulous_aurelio]

talk where I work (a civil service department) of returning to potentially 2 days a week back in the office. How enforceable that is will be another story.

Why wouldn't it be? Have you all signed new contracts?

Edit. That didn't mean to sound so sassy!

[Lotus Eater]

Had my first Zoom call dream last night 🙄

[thaddeus]

talk where I work (a civil service department) of returning to potentially 2 days a week back in the office. How enforceable that is will be another story.

I can see it getting messy, especially for people who have settled in to working from home constantly and don't want that to change.

We had a 'consultation' just for our small sub-team and settled upon agreeing one day a week when we'll all be in, an additional one day a month that will be blocked out for planning/catching up and beyond that people can work wherever they want.  I think it's very flexible and happy to go along with it.

Within our broader team though there are people who want to work every day at home, every day in the office and most things in-between.  There is currently someone working in their second home somewhere in Snowdonia that disrupts every Teams call because their dial-up connection is hopeless - I think it's generally accepted they can't be doing their job very productively (they are an analyst so most tasks involve shunting large amounts of data from the central servers to their client laptop and back again)!  It will be interesting to see what the corporate guidance is and how enforceable it is.

[Crosby Nick]

Just been invited to a big planning meeting for return to office plans and I don’t want a part of it! Impossible to coordinate when everyone will have their own preferred way now. I’d be happy with about one day a week in the office but other areas want more.

The team I work in all have our own projects to work on so we don’t really work together that much. Most calls and meetings I have are with people in other offices around the country so don’t feel the need to go back in just for the sake of it.

[bradders1011]

Had my first Zoom call dream last night 🙄

I've started dreaming about work now. Not working from home, living at the office.

[Barneylfc∗]

Back to the office today until the end of the week. Pretty pointless given there are enough management staff in voluntarily but they put the homeworking management on a rota anyway

[filopastry]

Office opens up again for me in early July, but not compulsory to adttend until early September, it sounds like we will be expected to be in 3 days a week from then onwards

[Andy @ Allerton!]

What could possibly go wrong except for people dying, killing their own family and permanently damaging those 'lucky' enough not to die.

[red_Mark1980]

Our guidance is still wait for HR to update guidance post 21 June.

Even then we are working on a five week notice so it's ultimately early August before any "normality".

[cdav]

We have decided that when we eventually return to the office it will only be 2 days in, 3 wfh each week which feels a nice balance. Will be hard adding the extra routine in from the usual is it a Saturday or not!

Think it will only be maybe September when we are actually back in due to some of the younger staff not being vaccinated yet

[Spezialo]

Been doing at least 4 days a week in the office since last May. Looking like it's going to be 2 office/3 wfh, 3 office/2 wfh rotating each week. I will probably still do 4 days a week. Prefer the office to home.

[RainbowFlick]

Found out the other day that traders at investment banks were all still required to go in the office throughout various lockdowns despite it being not essential work.

I have a few traders in my extended family and they all massively talked down on WFH. Their logic was that the systems are antiquated and you need people to 'double check' things (which even in the office, is done via software and not with someone around your shoulder). Like - surely the solution there is just to improve the system instead of living like you're still in 2000? lol

I get that that field is full of very conservative people and many vested interests in commercial property, but the lack of progressive thinking in certain industries is mindboggling.

[Wabaloolah]

Office opens up again for me in early July, but not compulsory to adttend until early September, it sounds like we will be expected to be in 3 days a week from then onwards

Similar timescales to us and we are going to trial it it until Christmas, no news on when we'll be back travelling to client sites yet.  I am expecting that to start around September time.  Personally I have no incline to jump on a train or walk through crowded underground system just yet though, if I do have to travel either to the office or to clients I'll be driving!

[Jwils21]

Now doing 3 or 4 days pw in the office out of choice - permanent wfh was messing with my head too much.

However, the lack of adherence to guidance is really staggering.

[courty61]

Still at home 5 days but do have the option to pop in.

Been off for 10 days though so today has been a real mental struggle

[Elmo!]

I've gone to 2 days a week, instead of 2 days a month starting this week, in order to gear up for the rest of the office starting to come back in July. We've got a lot of prep work to do as we only moved into the office 3 weeks before lockdown started and a lot of tasks weren't completed.

[redbyrdz]

Similar timescales to us and we are going to trial it it until Christmas, no news on when we'll be back travelling to client sites yet.  I am expecting that to start around September time.  Personally I have no incline to jump on a train or walk through crowded underground system just yet though, if I do have to travel either to the office or to clients I'll be driving!

Trains are pretty good right now, everyone else is driving too.


I've been in every day since I changed jobs, but it's really an on-site role. The admin people in our place will move to some sort of flexible working. I think in general people will just be way more relaxed about anyone saying they'll work from home.

[PaulF]

I wonder if people are missing air con....

[redgriffin73]

I wonder if people are missing air con....

Don't have it in my office, it's like sitting in a greenhouse. At home I'm currently sitting next to a door open onto the garden, much more pleasant!

[PaulF]

Don't have it in my office, it's like sitting in a greenhouse. At home I'm currently sitting next to a door open onto the garden, much more pleasant!

Arms length from the beer fridge?

[Elmo!]

I wonder if people are missing air con....

I'm missing it in our office... they've turned off the automatic schedule on it so takes all morning to get it to right temperature whenever I am in the office.

[redgriffin73]

Arms length from the beer fridge?

Haha, a little bit further than that or I'd never get any work done!