State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

From my limited view companies are all over the shop with regards to locations. Some are full on WFH for the forceable but others want people near the office. I almost hate to tell them that if another full lockdown came in being 500 yards or 500 miles from the office wouldn't make much difference.

[BigDataPro]

I am in canary wharf for lunch right now (live 10 mins walk away, but fancied a Indian wrap today) it’s like 20% capacity as per normal

So that’s about 200K people missing all not paying a combined £1.5billion per month in commuting costs

I used to travel from Bham to Canary Wharf for many years. I start at 06:00 AM and reach Canary Wharf by 08:50 ish. To me this pandemic appears to be a blessing in disguise. It has saved me £1100 a month + 5-6 hours of useless commute per day.

[jayn200]

I used to travel from Bham to Canary Wharf for many years. I start at 06:00 AM and reach Canary Wharf by 08:50 ish. To me this pandemic appears to be a blessing in disguise. It has saved me £1100 a month + 5-6 hours of useless commute per day.

I know it doesn't matter right now but out of curiosity why did you not move? If you own your house let it out and rent something closer. Was it because of kids?

[Old Greg]

I used to travel from Bham to Canary Wharf for many years. I start at 06:00 AM and reach Canary Wharf by 08:50 ish. To me this pandemic appears to be a blessing in disguise. It has saved me £1100 a month + 5-6 hours of useless commute per day.

I did a similar commute from West Mids to London for a year. I took a 1 day per week contract with an old client split over my commute time to make best us of it, but I was glad when it finished.

[edison]

Personally, I think it's too early to say whether mass long term working from home is a) effective and b) sustainable.

The first two or three months was just about survival mode for many organisations and from an IT perspective, getting the workforce to WFH in large numbers.

Many of the surveys about staff productivity are self-reported. I'd like to see more evidence of the longer term impact on productivity. Given the UK has been terrible at productivity growth for the last decade or more, I'm sceptical that WFH has really made the whole workforce more productive.

I can't see everyone going back to the office 4-5 days a week but I suspect in a couple of years, we'll be nearer to 2-3 days a week in the office for most employees.

[hugebrain]

Its still a lot - And thats only from one station - There is no way that TFL can surive another six months of this - Its at breaking point

What if they paid their staff and management a fair price for the job? That would knock two thirds off their costs.

[sira]

Top tier European IB firm:

- HR contacts me last Monday to say I've made it to final round
- 3 days later HR contacts me on Thursday to ask if I can do Monday at 4PM. I reply promptly saying Yes
- Emailed and called HR on Friday; not a peep
- It's now Monday 2PM and still no confirmation of interview.

This Covid period has been the first time I've ever seen employers acting this unprofessionally and wishy washy with recruitment. The example above is resonant of the types of situations I've faced in the last few months.

HR emailed me 15 minutes before the interview to confirm that it was going ahead - so I refused to proceed with the interview at 15 minutes notice.

[Antman]

HR emailed me 15 minutes before the interview to confirm that it was going ahead - so I refused to proceed with the interview at 15 minutes notice.

That's fine, there's plenty of other roles out there I expect.

[jayn200]

HR emailed me 15 minutes before the interview to confirm that it was going ahead - so I refused to proceed with the interview at 15 minutes notice.

Crazy, not really the market to be refusing interviews.

[sira]

That's fine, there's plenty of other roles out there I expect.

Crazy, not really the market to be refusing interviews.

I already have a job offer. And they apologised, and will be rescheduled. It's unacceptable imo.