Back to the Office

[Jim_Campbell]

That's just an excuse to restore the old status quo, at which point it will be harder to go back to working from home again.

Also exactly what I said to my wife when her work proposed their “just come in two days a week” ‘compromise’.

[pauljholden]

My commute is the guts of two hours everyday, and this is by no means the longest out of my colleagues.

A 2 hour commute in Belfast ! Good god.(I do believe you. I’m just gobsmacked at it)

Lived and worked here all my life. Longest commute over an hour during the one year I lived in strangford and hitchhiked Down for a Saturday job.

Second longest was when I’d walk into town from the Ormeau road (about 30-45 minutes)

[IndigoPrime]

It’s also interesting to see the doublethink going on from certain parties. Tories are fearful of city centres suffering yet also demand you support your local stores and outlets. Companies claim to support wellbeing, but want people returning to the office in a pandemic and against their will.

[Mister Pops]

My commute is the guts of two hours everyday, and this is by no means the longest out of my colleagues.

A 2 hour commute in Belfast ! Good god.(I do believe you. I’m just gobsmacked at it)

Lived and worked here all my life. Longest commute over an hour during the one year I lived in strangford and hitchhiked Down for a Saturday job.

Second longest was when I’d walk into town from the Ormeau road (about 30-45 minutes)

I should probably clarify that’d be a two hour round trip. And I walk from up by the waterworks to Queens. It’s faster and cheaper than getting two very unreliable buses. Or 20 mph germ cans as I shall henceforth be calling them.

[Hawkmumbler]

What I want to know is this, where does the flexible work option leave industry workers who can't comply with that option? Hospitality workers, retail staff, transport crew. What perk can we expect to receive for the added risk and continued daily grind while other industries offer some form of safety net, both financially and from the virus?

[Jim_Campbell]

What perk can we expect to receive for the added risk and continued daily grind while other industries offer some form of safety net, both financially and from the virus?

That's a question you'd have to ask your employers. I know it seems unfair, but "Because we've got a shitty deal, everyone else should have to deal with the same shit as us, whether they need to or not" isn't a great position to take, TBH.

[Hawkmumbler]

What perk can we expect to receive for the added risk and continued daily grind while other industries offer some form of safety net, both financially and from the virus?

That's a question you'd have to ask your employers. I know it seems unfair, but "Because we've got a shitty deal, everyone else should have to deal with the same shit as us, whether they need to or not" isn't a great position to take, TBH.

Oh no no, please don't misunderstand me. I was directing my concerns more at the lack of general care from society at large and absolutely at the government for failing to enforce any appropriate and mandatory reimbursement for the risk incurred. That wasn't meant to target anyone on this thread, or office workers in general, for any position their employers have taken in mitigating the spread of the virus among their employees. My apologies, I didn't emphasize that enough.

[Tjm86]

What I want to know is this, where does the flexible work option leave industry workers who can't comply with that option? Hospitality workers, retail staff, transport crew. What perk can we expect to receive for the added risk and continued daily grind while other industries offer some form of safety net, both financially and from the virus?

Well, a world-beating salary and sick pay .... exactly the sort of thing that employers in those sectors generally think are unreasonable ...

[sintec]

What I want to know is this, where does the flexible work option leave industry workers who can't comply with that option? Hospitality workers, retail staff, transport crew. What perk can we expect to receive for the added risk and continued daily grind while other industries offer some form of safety net, both financially and from the virus?

Less people commuting should, in theory, lead to a less unpleasent commute for those who can't work from home. Not a huge win admittedly and it will almost certinaly be unevenly distributed. It does also rely on companies not cancelling public transport routes because of lower passenger numbers which given the current for-profit nature of public transport is sadly not a given.

[Jim_Campbell]

I was directing my concerns more at the lack of general care from society at large and absolutely at the government for failing to enforce any appropriate and mandatory reimbursement for the risk incurred.

I completely agree. What this pandemic has highlighted is pivotal role huge numbers of traditionally underpaid and underappreciated workers in multiple sectors play in keeping what we think of as society functioning. In a better world, they'd all be paid like princes, but people keeping voting in the fucking Tories.

[IndigoPrime]

In microcosm, the attitude was summed up nicely when our town’s toy shop was in deep shit during COVID. They had ~10% income. Very close to shutting down. Yet it’s a great store—small, but packed with stuff. No gender segregation bullshit, instead filing toys by type.

I posted on Facebook. Lots of people said what great memories they had of the store and they were really sad it was in trouble. They’d hate to see it go, because the town has too many closed stores and those that are opening are invariably yet more hairdressers. But they don’t shop there now because they can drive to the next town over to a fucking huge Smyths and get toys for a quid or two cheaper—or just use Amazon.

Money is everything for far too many people these days. We shouldn’t have a minimum wage—we should have a living wage. And everything else should adjust accordingly. If that bumps up Amazon Prime or delivery charges or overall costs fractionally, so be it. As for heathcare staff, some people got very shirty when I said I wouldn’t clap—despite NHS staff I know being against it—and yet doesn’t seem keen to actually support these people with pay rises. It’s all about face—looking like you care, while in reality doing fuck all to help, even to the point of being against basic policy changes that could help everyone.

[sheridan]

Such an interesting topic, with so many issues:

 - Less commuting is (probably) good for the environment (fewer cars on the roads) and (definitely) good for the soul.
 - Would each household running a mini-office be better or worse than a centralized location, as regards environmental impact? I don't know the answer to this.

For me personally there's a definite environmental saving to my working at home instead of in the office.  Some of the days in the office I've been the only person in that office, which means the lights and air conditioning are for me alone.  If I'm at home then I have a big window right next to me so I don't need light or air conditioning.  Coffee machines at work are switched on all day long (but I'm not the only person using them).  At home the kettle goes on for Rackle's coffee whether I'm there or not.  (Rackle is working from home - in fact my office is pretty close to her office, though she's never been to her office as she started her current job during lockdown).

[Tiplodocus]

My employer has been rather good about this and have embraced the concept of WFH.  I am designated as a REMOTE FIRST worker which means I can work from home and am only obliged to head into the office 2 days per month. And even those two days are being ignored by local managers if it turns out we'd be going into the office just to spend all day on the phone or Zoom. The offices are now being designed around 40% occupancy (I think previously it was 75%). Our offices are places for collaboration (I.e. big project start-ups or v.important meetings), education (if it needs to be done face to face) and celebration. Changed days from what we used to refer to as "Branch Mentality". Other staff are OFFICE FIRST when their primary role is face to face dealing with customers but can still work from home if the need arises or FLEXIBLE.

You can't believe how appreciative I am to have a job that survived COVID pretty much unscathed, allows me to work this way, a good enough home set up to make it comfortable for me and Mrs Tips - who is in a pretty much identical situation - and a company that does seem to actually pay attention to the changing world.

I do want the odd day in the office - but mainly to go for a pint with some of my mates.

[Tiplodocus]

https://youtu.be/IW3lhfVpLL4

Oh and linking to this sketch is obligatory for all discussions about Working From Home.

[Hawkmumbler]

What I want to know is this, where does the flexible work option leave industry workers who can't comply with that option? Hospitality workers, retail staff, transport crew. What perk can we expect to receive for the added risk and continued daily grind while other industries offer some form of safety net, both financially and from the virus?

Less people commuting should, in theory, lead to a less unpleasent commute for those who can't work from home. Not a huge win admittedly and it will almost certinaly be unevenly distributed.

Alas I work at Manchester Victoria, one of the major public transport hubs for the NW, and can only attest at how especially in the last few months the traffic has actually got WORSE than it was pre-COVID. And now less people are wearing masks, get ratty when you ask them to show respect and distance to other patrons, and in general have returned to treating customer facing roles just as (if not worse) poorly as they had before. And I could get sick off any of them at any time. It's a woeful, terrifying situation to be in.