Working From Home

Looks like it could be the permanent new normal for Wales......

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54125620

Scotland see it as a long term thing.......

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/nicola-sturgeon-warns-scots-working-22668509

Ireland are thinking along the same lines as it lowers pollution and can help the housing crisis......

https://www.irishnews.com/business/...to-take-a-look-at-the-bigger-picture-2055487/

It seems like England under Boris haven't been this far apart from the other parts of the UK on matters for a long time.

 

I’ve been working from home since March. It clearly has a lot of benefits and I’ve saved a fortune. However, I’m fortunate to have my own separate ‘workspace’ in the house that I don’t have to see or enter when I’m not working. I doubt the majority of those forced to work from home would have this luxury.

I’d also still like to have the option to see my team in a workplace environment and always find face to face meetings much more productive than Skype and Zoom calls. Striking that balance is key for me.

There’ll be a lot of empty office buildings should this become a permanent solution. I can’t see how many purpose built office spaces could be reconfigured, so would worry what would happen to those and the businesses around them that rely on those workers being there.

 

I’ve worked from home mostly for the last 3 years, but that’s fine, I’ve been doing the job for years and the people I work with are in Prague!!
Apart from the economic impact which should also include buses and trains - which do employ a lot of people don’t forget, I think it would be very tough if you’re coming out of school or university and are expected to work from home straight away. There is a lot of informal knowledge share and transfer which happens face to face, chats at the desk, in the breakout rooms, between meetings, at lunch. All opportunities to act as sounding board for others and to run past and debrief your experience. This is very intangible I admit but the benefit shouldn’t be underestimated and the potential mental health stresses of working in isolation down played.

 

I agree that's a huge benefit. As a much simpler variation on that theme, I also created a separate user account on my computer with a different theme so that not only did I not risk seeing work stuff when I wasn't working, my personal account even felt different to use. Keeping work from bleeding into home life is worth a little bit of effort up front, IMHO.

 

I can’t use my work computer for loads of stuff I’d want to do, so it’s only for work.

 

Oh I appreciate it's not universally applicable but it might help some people. Mine was my own company's machine so it made sense to re-use it but with multiple accounts. The bottom line is, whether it's your kit or your employer's, try to avoid seeing work stuff when you're not working. We all need downtime.

 

My desk is in a spare bedroom and the Mrs works in the dining room, it makes it fairly easy to leave work behind. And the commute is a doddle.

 

It's killing the town and city centres, but village businesses have seen more trade. I think an empty London shows a problem with property prices because if people could afford to live where they work, then even with WFH, London would look far busier.

 

I would love the work from home to be the new normal in the UK even beyond covid, I think the benefits massively outweigh the negatives. I cannot do my full role from home so I have been in once or twice a week for the last few months and its been great. I get to save a load on fuel and spend loads of time at home looking after the puppy while working instead of having to pay loads on doggy day care fees.

If it became the new norm for all we should see traffic during rush hour lessen, as well as a huge drop in air pollution etc.

 

Would ultimately have some serious knock on effects. Less need for multiple car households would result in fewer car sales and less petrol used = loss of manufacturing jobs and less revenue received from the government in tax.
All fantastic for the environment, obviously, and certainly not downplaying the importance in that!

It’s just not always as clear as it seems. Being at home to look after the puppy is great, but the person you currently pay for doggy day care would probably end up out of a job too!

 

We got the puppy days before lockdown so she never had to go 5 days a week as frankly I wouldn't be able to afford that!

Always winners and losers in any situation, but for me personally I think the overall benefits of more people working from home are better overall than going fully back to normal 5 days a week in office, but that's just my opinion.

 

My employer has told us that we're unlikely to ever be back in the office. We took that as, essentially permanently working from home. What they meant was, you might be redundant by the end of September.

Thankfully, I appear to have dodged that bullet for now. But yeah, I'm working from home until the end of our current contract. I've saved an absolute fortune in petrol and food expenses, so much so that if I am made redundant, I've a comfortable blanket to tie me over for a while if I can't find another job straight away.

It's the mental aspect that I'm, at times, struggling to cope with. You don't realise how much you value basic human interaction until it's removed. We have a few team meetings a week, but they're usually designated for work chat. And whilst I'm currently back living with my parents, it can get lonely being on my own for 8 hours a day, staring at a laptop. I'm coping fairly well, but I know many won't be.

 

I do miss some of colleagues from other work bubbles and only driving 2/3 days makes me like humans more. Rush hour driving turns me into Michael Douglas from Falling Down. On warm days like today, the soda scene is reminiscent of me calling into Morrison's on way home.

 

Go outside. At lunch, before or after work. Walk to the nearest field and get some fresh air, go for a run, cycle along the TPT, but don't just do bed->laptop->TV->bed. That will drive you bonkers. But you need to get away for an hour a day - more if possible.

 

Definitely this, I've found more little walks during last few months. Elsecar park is sick of the sight of me.

 

But that money would be spent elsewhere, keeping someone else in a job.

swings n roundabouts. The town centres will change; but they always have, 100 yrs ago there were factories and back to back houses, 50 yrs ago it became all shopping and leisure, 10 yrs time it’ll be more housing again. That’s great because we’re short of affordable housing.

 

Wales is working with a 2m rule compared to England’s 1m+

 

For the record I’m not disagreeing with the idea of people working from home long term. I also prefer working from home most of the time. However, I do think there needs to be more of a choice, and I do think it should be something that’s integrated slowly. Of course things change over time but, areas like Barnsley take much longer to recover than others. The area was decimated in the 80’s when the pits closed and many were left in poverty for quite some time.

There’s also no such thing as affordable housing when the average house price is 10x the average salary I don’t think these affordable housing schemes truly help the majority of people either.

 

I agree that house prices are out of step with income in most of the country. And when I speak about ‘affordable’ housing I mean that we need to address that issue (with income increases?)
In an ideal world, the move to more people working from home wouldn’t have been so dramatic, but that ship has sailed.

Ive said it before - some offices I’ve previously worked in are now either flats, or have been demolished and replaced with housing. And frankly I feel it’s a better use of that space.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidr...-ever-lessons-from-the-lockdown/#18e9cf8432d7

It's incredible how much it can help the environment to cut back on travel and be more remote.