Offices closing due to home working

[Arry]

My wifes employers closed their office and she worked from home since Feb... many other firms are doing this... surely its counter productive as you lose a group dynamic, training is harder, as is morale, and problem solving...
Also businesses lose rental revenue local food outlets lose business... it smacks of penny (pounds) pinching on a grand scale and will lead to further probs for staff (mentally) at some point... some may like it but there comes a point where you need to bounce ideas or troubleshoot probs and its bloody hard to do over a phone or zoom call

 

[Maesknoll]

My wifes employers closed their office and she worked from home since Feb... many other firms are doing this... surely its counter productive as you lose a group dynamic, training is harder, as is morale, and problem solving...
Also businesses lose rental revenue local food outlets lose business... it smacks of penny (pounds) pinching on a grand scale and will lead to further probs for staff (mentally) at some point... some may like it but there comes a point where you need to bounce ideas or troubleshoot probs and its bloody hard to do over a phone or zoom call

I can see some of your points, but my firm said we should return to the office, not quite an edict, but nigh on, they suggested mental health being one reason.

Before Covid, I used to do 1 or 2 days a week at home, during and since Covid, I have willingly travelled to suppliers, our offices around the country and my local,office, but I resisted the call to return, they suggested that mental health would be improved, I responded that mine has never been better, I love working at home ( as much as I can love working, I’d rather have a huge trust fund income), no commuting, no interruptions and I get more done.

 

[peterb]

The company my son works for did this , he worked in Central London and lives in Kent so it reduced his day by about 4 hours by not having to commute plus he doesn't have to fork out £120 a week for a train ticket so he's happy .

Where we live we have a station with a park and ride facility , there are 180 spaces and it used to be full by 8am with people commuting into Cardiff, now maybe 30 spaces are taken all day .

While many people are happy with this situation it is true that rail companies , food outlets and many other businesses supporting these workers will suffer .

 

[Chervil]

One of the problems I can see for the future will be, some companies will soon realise some/all of their staff can work from home and work out that they can outsource some of those jobs to people in other, cheaper, countries.
Why employ Barry in the UK when I can employ Banjeet in India, at a fraction of the wage?

 

[Fireblade929]

One of the problems I can see for the future will be, some companies will soon realise some/all of their staff can work from home and work out that they can outsource some of those jobs to people in other, cheaper, countries.
Why employ Barry in the UK when I can employ Banjeet in India, at a fraction of the wage?

An example of this being Greece (and IIRC Portugal), they have a massive drive to lure "Digital Nomads" to the country, live in Greece be employed anywhere in the world and work remotely, there are tax incentives, cost of living, the climate all make it a very tempting proposition to some people.

 

[Foul hooked]

Wonder if i could get away with converting one of my rod rests into a laptop stand? Just need to find somewhere to fish then with a wifi connection. Happy days, but might make the teams/zoom call a bit awkward when a fish swings across the screen .

 

[JohnLondon]

The office blocks in parts of London & Canary Wharf are virtually empty. It does beg the question what will happen to all of these offices if the companies who currently lease them don’t renew their leases when they run out & the companies who actually own the buildings, what will they do with them? Developers won’t want to buy them & convert them into flats as the vast majority of people who buy flats in these areas do so because they work there. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out

 

[satinet]

The office blocks in parts of London & Canary Wharf are virtually empty. It does beg the question what will happen to all of these offices if the companies who currently lease them don’t renew their leases when they run out & the companies who actually own the buildings, what will they do with them? Developers won’t want to buy them & convert them into flats as the vast majority of people who buy flats in these areas do so because they work there. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out

What will happen maybe if large numbers work from home is the government will make it a lot harder to work from home with laws about insurance or something like that.

This country has a massive rent seeking economy and the powers that be don't want that flow of money to stop. Or you to stop driving to work and paying for the privilege of doing it

 

[Arry]

Thing is employers will find it hard to argue as productivity is seemingly on the up, sickness is down, staff are happier working from home and people are saving on childcare... its a compelling argument... when my lass is working from home, I find it a double edged sword... I love the P&Q of her at the office, and I often enjoy someone to talk to occasionally when she's working from home... my wife likes both home and office working for various reasons, but her preference is to be based in the office...

 

[Stevekp]

I wonder how many are actually putting in a full day. My boss has been working from home and he does virtually bugger all.

 

[Keith Sparky]

I think a number of employers will realise half their staff are not needed and working from home and pretending to be more effective and focused is just a cover story for long lunch time walks, endless time in the kitchen, popping out for a bit of shopping anytime you want etc.. no wonder people like working from home....we all know its a great big jolly !!!!!!.........get the buggers back in the office and working.......

 

[Fireblade929]

I think a number of employers will realise half their staff are not needed and working from home and pretending to be more effective and focused is just a cover story for long lunch time walks, endless time in the kitchen, popping out for a bit of shopping anytime you want etc.. no wonder people like working from home....we all know its a great big jolly !!!!!!.........get the buggers back in the office and working.......

There are plenty of ways to monitor people who are meant to be working from home, one US company I know has a log on the employees mouse usage and movements via company installed software, if the mouse doesn't move for a period of time or you fail to record above a certain number of clicks it flags in IT.

 

[Arry]

There are plenty of ways to monitor people who are meant to be working from home, one US company I know has a log on the employees mouse usage and movements via company installed software, if the mouse doesn't move for a period of time or you fail to record above a certain number of clicks it flags in IT.

My wifes old employers had that, and a keystroke logger and monitored phone conversations over the citrix system...

 

[dry nets]

A few were the wife works are still working from home and a few are ointment a couple of days. They take the pee. One woman asked if someone would swap as she wanted to work from home that day due to being knackered.

 

[Fireblade929]

My wifes old employers had that, and a keystroke logger and monitored phone conversations over the citrix system...

Exactly, likewise if your company mobile is wandering around Bluewater, your tracked company car being somewhere it shouldn't during office hours, people don't realise how easy modern tech has made monitoring people whether they like it or not.

Quite like the new *twit acronym its created though, for those that only do 3 day weeks, people get really touchy being called part time twit.

The website is auto changing the offensive word

*Tuesday
Wednesday
And
Thursday

 

[rudd]

I wonder how many are actually putting in a full day. My boss has been working from home and he does virtually bugger all.

Do you work for me?

 

[Scribe]

Covid and the accompanying restictions have only accelerated what was the logical trend. Once companies realised that with proper monitoring staff can work from home, saving huge amounts on large office buildings, The bean counters would be all over the saving reward to the bottom line.

Given the advances in AI there will be second level automation. First level automation being industrial robots that build / assemble machinery and components. Second Level is the automation of many office based functions ordering, sales and office based logistics functions, invoice handling and payment etc.

 

[DontKillZander]

I'm a Software Engineer and as it usually is for us - remote working has always been a part of the job even before the pandemic.

In most of my jobs pre-pandemic it was usually 2-3 from home, 2-3 in the office... I've been fully remote since February 2020 and it's staying that way, I will NEVER go back to working in an office.

"group dynamic, team bonding, social interaction" what?...
What's all that? In comparison to what I've gained from being fully remote, the time is the biggest one, I've gained at least 2 hour per day of free time, that's 500+ hour per year, do you think I'd trade that for some "group dynamic", then there's the money I've saved, I can vape all day at home, go for a comfortable on my own loo, have a lie-in and roll out of bed 5 minutes before starting and work in my boxers, stick a film on in the background, have a shower... the list goes on, everything that comes with "the comforts of your own home".

Besides I'm quite an introvert anyway, I love my own company and I don't crave social interaction in the slightest.

I understand for some people they do need the stuff that an office brings, and that's fine - keep it open for them, but that doesn't mean it needs to be mandatory for me.

 

[rudd]

Worked from home for two years.
Started a new revenue line for 'The Firm' as we are called in the city with all staff working from home when we went live.
27000 people in UK work for 'The Firm' in the UK and we voted for a one/two day office, rest at home working pattern - in office when needed or it suits us.
Without commuting, carbon footprint down, productivity up, sickness down and research shows the work/ life balance is very positive. That is oming from board members right down to analyst level.
We can go in for all five days if we want.
Its true that catering firms near offices have lost revenue but that revenue is now going to local businesses instead.
You can go online and put in some details on .govuk site to change tax code to cover working some from home costs.
As many industries are regulated, offices cannot be outside of UK.
I save around ten hours a week and £75 quid a week in fuel/parking costs.
520 hours of my life back and approx £3900 in my pocket + positive mental health benefits as no commuting stress and now time spent outside walking the pup getting fresh air and exercise.

Working from home for me is a no brainer but it may not suit others.

 

[OldTaff]

A good friend works in IT for Deutschebank and has been working from home since day 1 lockdown - the system of working from home has been so successful for Deutsche that they have closed 2 buildings in central London saving I believe £45 million per year in rents & rates and now have one building in Canary Wharf for the traders (who must be on site) their support staff and a rolling system of standard staff coming in once or twice a week as required for face to face meetings.

The savings on train season tickets alone for the home working staff is amazing - my mate was shelling out £5800 a year for his season ticket