State of the Market

[SchumiStars]

It's not beneficial working from home for the long run. The offices in London are empty, these would be usually generating a rental income for the landlords.

The train services including the tube are also suffering as well as the eatery's and pubs and culture. Everything is suffering as we are all aquainted with WFH.

2019 was the last onsite, office job I had. 5 years ago! I love being in the office, in London in the summer.

Companies WFH are saving money by not having an office. Effectively WFH means we have given them an office. The cost savings are massive which in turn means they don't have to earn as much and reduce their overheads.

In short, we all need to get back to the office if we want the big rates again. There has to be some change and sitting here hoping we will get paid large to do FA is not going to happen. Been nearly a year of this tulip. I am ****ed off.

[hungry_hog]

i know lots of people on here like remote and WFH. For me if you actually want to get work done it's a nightmare.

I ping someone, they are away / on a call. They ping me, I am away / on a call. Hours pass by.
In the office you trot to their desk when you see them free and have a 5 minute convo.
Sitting on calls is draining and I feel the headset is a cage sometimes. Much rather meet F2F.

[Snooky]

In the office you trot to their desk when you see them free and have a 5 minute convo

In my experience, people appearing at your desk for an impromptu "5 minute convo" can seriously disrupt what up till then had been a very productive period in the zone, which can then take some time to get back into. Unless it's massively urgent and completely blocking the other person, I find an email or Teams message is best, which I can reply to when I have a suitable break and have also had a few minutes to think about a helpful detailed answer rather than giving my immediate off-the-cuff response.

Of course, it depends on what you actually do; I do mainly software dev so possibly this doesn't work the same way for others. But if you find yourself regularly blocked by issues that you have to immediately ask someone else about, perhaps there's something wrong with either your workflow methods, the organisation, or the work you've been asked to do with respect to your abilities and knowledge.

[sadkingbilly]

is '5 minute convo' a euphemism? what's a convo?

[hobnob]

is '5 minute convo' a euphemism? what's a convo?

"convo" is short for "conversation".

[sadkingbilly]

"convo" is short for "conversation".

really? since when? - wouldn't 'talk' or 'chat' or another English term be more useful?

[Fraidycat]

really? since when? - wouldn't 'talk' or 'chat' or another English term be more useful?

Not a term i read or hear often either so i asked the AI:

"Convo" is a colloquial and abbreviated form of the word "conversation." It is often used in informal contexts, particularly in text messaging, social media, and casual speech. The term is commonly employed to save time and space when communicating quickly.

[sadkingbilly]

Not a term i read or hear often either so i asked the AI:

"Convo" is a colloquial and abbreviated form of the word "conversation." It is often used in informal contexts, particularly in text messaging, social media, and casual speech. The term is commonly employed to save time and space when communicating quickly.

[hobnob]

really? since when? - wouldn't 'talk' or 'chat' or another English term be more useful?

I don't know how long the word's been around, but it's in the Cambridge dictionary:
CONVO | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary

I don't normally use it, but I understand it when other people say it (as did Snooky).

[ladymuck]

not to be confused with 'convoluted' which is what some side-of-the-desk 'convos' can end up being