Who wants to go to the office? #2 No-one

[1001 others]

It's time for a new thread!

Thanks to @Sheeeet for the shiny new title

Let's continue the discussion here ... but let's please try to stay on topic and not argue

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A good friend received a couriered formal written warning for "working from home without formal authorisation" today.

Her place of work operates on a hybrid basis; she told them a couple of weeks ago that while Covid is running rampant in Auckland, she will be working from home indefinitely. She didn't receive a response back, but assumed it'd be fine as it's a relaxed sort of place and she's one of their highest performers. She's been in meetings with those who signed the letter over the past few days, and none of them mentioned that her working from home is an issue.

She's fuming - as would I be! It does seem very tone-deaf and not at all employee-friendly.

I have friends in Sydney who are saying they're being pressured to return to the office to prop up all the eateries and other retail stores, who are doing it tough.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

We are back in a hybrid way, which looks to be how itl be going forward.

Im not overly bothered, I dont actually mind being in the office its just all the stuff around it thats a pain. I can start earlier and finish earlier at home. With travel I start a bit later in office. Time to get home means I start dinner much later. Also being hybrid means having to take things I need to work and bring them home again which is a bit of a headache.

Also the noise in the office is really offputting. I hadnt really seen it as a huge issue pre covid but wow is it distracting.

My office is not in a town centre or city centre. So us going back there is not helping the economy. If you dont take your own lunch, you don't eat

Also feel with the cost of living shooting up, people will be less likely to do the impulse spending they did pre covid.

 

[Lyricallie]

We are back in a hybrid way, which looks to be how itl be going forward.

Im not overly bothered, I dont actually mind being in the office its just all the stuff around it thats a pain. I can start earlier and finish earlier at home. With travel I start a bit later in office. Time to get home means I start dinner much later. Also being hybrid means having to take things I need to work and bring them home again which is a bit of a headache.

Also the noise in the office is really offputting. I hadnt really seen it as a huge issue pre covid but wow is it distracting.

My office is not in a town centre or city centre. So us going back there is not helping the economy. If you dont take your own lunch, you don't eat

Also feel with the cost of living shooting up, people will be less likely to do the impulse spending they did pre covid.

This is pretty much exactly where I'm at. I have to take lunch in as we're in the literal middle of nowhere, we don't have proper hot desks so have to bring laptop and headset etc. in every time and then go thieving for a screen and a keyboard that someone has left behind. I think it will be better when they bring in proper equipment that everyone can use and it's just plug and play essentially. However my lot are still arguing on what it will look like never mind organising the technology.

My issue isn't the noise but that it's so so so quiet when I'm in, the floor can hold ~150 people and there's usually about 10. Whereas at home I can have the radio on. Also the lights are on automatic so sometimes I'm just surrounded by darkness which is a bit creepy. It'll be interesting to see what my place end up doing.

 

[AllSeeingEye123]

WFH is a national scandal and an affront to long-suffering taxpayers

TRANSPORT secretary Grant Shapps has ordered an urgent probe into the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency after it emerged hundreds of staff did NO work while on full pay during the pandemic. A rep…

www.thesun.co.uk

Nothing like focusing on negatives and not the millions of positives. Wrote by a rich man probably at his home. No grasp on the fact life is so expensive now that WFH works.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

WFH is a national scandal and an affront to long-suffering taxpayers

TRANSPORT secretary Grant Shapps has ordered an urgent probe into the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency after it emerged hundreds of staff did NO work while on full pay during the pandemic. A rep…

www.thesun.co.uk

Nothing like focusing on negatives and not the millions of positives. Wrote by a rich man probably at his home. No grasp on the fact life is so expensive now that WFH works.

From a civil servant... it took the government months to get equipment to people to allow those shielding to WFH.

So these people werent "doing nothing" by choice it was their employers who couldnt sort it out.

I was working in office Mar 20 - Mar 21 and do not begrudge the fact some of my colleagues couldnt work because they didnt have equipment. The organisation of it all was a shambles. Also those with medical conditions were told *not* to come to work, noone was going on holiday were they, you could barely leave the frigging country.

These articles are written in such a way to put all blame onto 'feckless and lazy' workers and not pointing the finger at the organisations who employ them who couldnt organise a piss up in a brewery.

 

[Ensay]

WFH is a national scandal and an affront to long-suffering taxpayers

TRANSPORT secretary Grant Shapps has ordered an urgent probe into the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency after it emerged hundreds of staff did NO work while on full pay during the pandemic. A rep…

www.thesun.co.uk

Nothing like focusing on negatives and not the millions of positives. Wrote by a rich man probably at his home. No grasp on the fact life is so expensive now that WFH works.

I suspect we’ll see more smears on home working like this.

If people are being lazy at home then surely it’s on managers to step in. I work in the private sector and we have deadlines and targets, so if people are sitting at home on Netflix they’ll soon get caught out.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

I suspect we’ll see more smears on home working like this.

If people are being lazy at home then surely it’s on managers to step in. I work in the private sector and we have deadlines and targets, so if people are sitting at home on Netflix they’ll soon get caught out.

Not to mention the amount of time that also gets wasted in the office with stupid chit chat, distractions, being drawn into conversations you dont want, people asking you work questions theyd figure out themselves at home.

The people not working at home are the same people wandering round the office, taking 10 minute toilet breaks 4 or 5 times a day and involving themselves in everything but work.

If a company cant identify someone not working then they need to look at their metrics and systems for productivity.

 

[Ensay]

Not to mention the amount of time that also gets wasted in the office with stupid chit chat, distractions, being drawn into conversations you dont want, people asking you work questions theyd figure out themselves at home.

The people not working at home are the same people wandering round the office, taking 10 minute toilet breaks 4 or 5 times a day and involving themselves in everything but work.

If a company cant identify someone not working then they need to look at their metrics and systems for productivity.

Yeah very true. I know a few like that and -- surprise -- as soon as going back to the office became possible, they were in 2 - 3 days a week.

 

[no-no]

The people not working at home are the same people wandering round the office, taking 10 minute toilet breaks 4 or 5 times a day and involving themselves in everything but work.

Someone I work with is always BUSY wfh. I sat behind them in the office last week and they had outlook open looking at the same email for an hour. Just confirmed my thoughts. I wouldn’t mind but they’re absolutely rabid about promotion and the job advertised pays more than mine, if they get it I’ll be

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

Someone I work with is always BUSY wfh. I sat behind them in the office last week and they had outlook open looking at the same email for an hour. Just confirmed my thoughts. I wouldn’t mind but they’re absolutely rabid about promotion and the job advertised pays more than mine, if they get it I’ll be

Believe me, they promote the most useless people. From my experience.

Cant promote the people actually working and achieving, if they did they'd have noone to do the work.

 

[AllSeeingEye123]

Brits who WFH 'take three naps during their working week', survey says

Brits who work from home typically take three naps during their working week, as well as finding time to watch four episodes of their favourite TV show, a survey has found.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Who's napping and reading books because I am not!!!

 

[Timz]

Our hot-desking bookings system is being taken away next month and we can have our desks assigned as preference. Lol I put a sticky with me name now a bit less worry but it was good to know who was in and sat where in an open plan office and when folk were finna be in next but were always changing mind to wfh

 

[no-no]

Believe me, they promote the most useless people. From my experience.

Cant promote the people actually working and achieving, if they did they'd have noone to do the work.

Murphy’s law would have it that there must be some workplaces that aren’t like this? I can’t believe how much help my colleague has had to get ahead from my lazy, beta boss when he won’t even respond to an email from me If you looked up bumbler in the dictionary my colleague’s picture would be next to it.

 

[Dot_Cotton]

I have been at home since the start of the pandemic and I 100% have no desire to go back. I have been so busy with work at home and probably wouldn’t have done half as much in an office. As if I can be arsed travelling to an office to do the same thing that I have done perfectly well sat at home.

 

[Ensay]

Brits who WFH 'take three naps during their working week', survey says

Brits who work from home typically take three naps during their working week, as well as finding time to watch four episodes of their favourite TV show, a survey has found.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Who's napping and reading books because I am not!!!

Ah the classic clickbait article from the Daily Mail.

It's laughable really. I'd only care if my employer thought I was being lazy when I WFH. As they don't, and are happy for me to carry on WFH, that's the only thing that matters.

 

[Ensay]

The position of my employer is now changing. They’ve gone from “do what suits you best” to “evidence shows working from the office is much more effective than from home, so we’re encouraging people to come in to the office more regularly”.

They’re not enforcing an amount of days per week but I expect that’s next. As a result I’m going in on Monday for no reason other than I’ve been told to go in more.

So I’m gonna spend money on fuel, and extra time for commuting, just to sit at a desk mostly on Teams because apparently it’s ‘better’ in their one size fits all approach.

 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I'm just rewatching The Office (the British version) on iPlayer: awesome stuff!

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

The position of my employer is now changing. They’ve gone from “do what suits you best” to “evidence shows working from the office is much more effective than from home, so we’re encouraging people to come in to the office more regularly”.

They’re not enforcing an amount of days per week but I expect that’s next. As a result I’m going in on Monday for no reason other than I’ve been told to go in more.

So I’m gonna spend money on fuel, and extra time for commuting, just to sit at a desk mostly on Teams because apparently it’s ‘better’ in their one size fits all approach.

This is the same crap we've got but its mandated at 40% of work time must be in office.

All meetings are still held on Teams. We still have social distancing in place so there is no more 'collaborative working' than there would be at home

Also have the added annoyance of taking all your stuff back and forward.

 

[Ensay]

This is the same crap we've got but its mandated at 40% of work time must be in office.

All meetings are still held on Teams. We still have social distancing in place so there is no more 'collaborative working' than there would be at home

Also have the added annoyance of taking all your stuff back and forward.

Yes, I think we'll be heading towards 40% as well.

At least you've got social distancing. That's long gone in our office because of the amount of employees and no one wears masks, so it's basically the same as pre-pandemic, just as covid numbers are at an all time high. Yay.

I know the majority of people with the latest variant don't get much more than cold/mild flu symptoms but it still seems a bit daft cramming everyone into a busy office for no reason other than "it's apparently better to all be in the office!"

I agree re taking your stuff backwards and forwards. I always take my laptop in case I can't get on the system, which needs a charger, plus my note book, a packed lunch, water bottle etc. I'm like a pack horse going in.

But I'm not spending money on over priced lunches and coffee shops - a small "F you' to the government who are trying to push people back into the office to prop up the economy despite prices shooting up. Sod off.

 

[Pesky Tarian]

People are pretty blasé in our office too, we still have a rule of two in the break room. Many times there's a pair in there just having a good natter whilst I'm waiting to access my lunch .

Our company rents a parking area on the outskirts of town for us, whilst I'm grateful for not having to pay for parking it's in a very sketchy area and the lighting in winter is non existent. Pre covid we all had desktops so not much of an issue now I think we may have to buddy up as I've felt extremely un safe carrying my laptop some nights.

We are hybrid working and I definitely get more done at home. I don't think i have taken one of my allotted breaks all through home working. Its only in the office when I see others stand I remember to take mine.