WFH/Lockdown/Future of office work

[Old Greg]

Not all work can be completed from home - my SiL has had to go into her office every day, for example.

The WFH thing could risk creating a type of two-tier employment within companies. How you decide on equitability of employee benefits if one group of employees gets their home broadband and loads of kit paid for and no pesky commute and another has to go into the office every day?

Market forces. Employment is multi-tier in so many ways.

[kaiser78]

The Agileeesta's all say that co-location is the only way to work.

While that is the ideal and works for small companies, it just doesn't fly for big companies with out-sourced workers or global teams.

(I'm not disagreeing with the premise, just that we have to make distributed working work better.)

We are obviously remote based at the moment working agiley, and are working just as well as in the office. In some ways better for the team as less office based distractions for everyone. I much prefer it.

[kaiser78]

Keeping it in Business/Contracts because I'm hoping for a sensible discussion on this (probably would have got a better response on a football forum but here goes anyway!)

Most of us that are still grafting are working from home.

Most of us have read that even when this soft lockdown is lifted, social distancing measures will still be in place. How is your company proposing to deal with it? We had a chat on Monday and it was painfully obvious that it's not possible in our office given its layout. We could probably handle 40% occupancy and manage social distancing, which makes returning to the same office environment pointless. I can see a lot of companies/teams within companies getting together once a week at a venue that allows social distancing while being able to engage in face to face chat and meetings but the sorts of venues that support this tend to be the hotels that offer conference facilities

When I was a child, home office set ups was the way forward in 10/20 years time at the time. This has never really picked up other than Fri wfh for example, and this pandemic is really highlighting how effectively it can be applied.

[Old Greg]

When I was a child, home office set ups was the way forward in 10/20 years time at the time. This has never really picked up other than Fri wfh for example, and this pandemic is really highlighting how effectively it can be applied.

I wonder how fusion power is getting on.

[ladymuck]

I wonder how fusion power is getting on.

As of roughly this time last year, cold fusion is still a no-go (says Google)

Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments

[northernladuk]

We've kind of got to keep this in perspective though. We are professionals who chose this type of life so WFH is part of what we do. There are still a ton of people out there that are stuck in permie roles who's job is nothing more than getting out of bed and earning money. Some of these people won't be motivated and invariably take the piss. Added to that they may have managers that got there through dead mans shoes rather than being good managers so the only way to really make it work is to have people in the office and in eyesight.

My eldest, for example, isn't enjoying what he is doing and he's a bit of a lazy arse. He's really struggling to get in to the work and doing a solid 8 hours. Too many distractions and the like. The only way he's going to cut it, unless he changes his ways, is by going in to an office with peers and management. I wouldn't have him remote if he worked for me.

All these people have to be considered when thinking about WFH and shutting buildings. A one size fits all and lets shut the office just won't work for a good number of people in many orgs.

[heyya99]

I wonder would it benefit companies by widening their talent pool - prospective employees don't need to be geographically located near an office. One could travel to an office purely for meetings, once a month, say.

Maybe roles will be divided into two groups; a wfh role and a non-wfh role.

[LondonManc]

The Agileeesta's all say that co-location is the only way to work.

While that is the ideal and works for small companies, it just doesn't fly for big companies with out-sourced workers or global teams.

(I'm not disagreeing with the premise, just that we have to make distributed working work better.)

Interesting comment. We had this grumbling from a couple of people before lockdown. Three weeks of colocation produced a 25% lower average velocity than the four weeks since. Turns out people actually just crack on and get stuff done when they work from home.

We've kind of got to keep this in perspective though. We are professionals who chose this type of life so WFH is part of what we do. There are still a ton of people out there that are stuck in permie roles who's job is nothing more than getting out of bed and earning money. Some of these people won't be motivated and invariably take the piss. Added to that they may have managers that got there through dead mans shoes rather than being good managers so the only way to really make it work is to have people in the office and in eyesight.

My eldest, for example, isn't enjoying what he is doing and he's a bit of a lazy arse. He's really struggling to get in to the work and doing a solid 8 hours. Too many distractions and the like. The only way he's going to cut it, unless he changes his ways, is by going in to an office with peers and management. I wouldn't have him remote if he worked for me.

All these people have to be considered when thinking about WFH and shutting buildings. A one size fits all and lets shut the office just won't work for a good number of people in many orgs.

Reverse it - many people in IT prefer to just get their heads down and get the job done than get distracted by the latest Love Island BS, etc. Meetings aside, I'd suggest that most of us could get done in 4 hours what would take us 7 or 8 in the office. If your lad keeps getting sacked, he might eventually learn that working for a living involves working! Either that or he's in the wrong career.

[Old Greg]

My eldest, for example, isn't enjoying what he is doing and he's a bit of a lazy arse.

northernladuk

My post count is Majestic
Join DateMar 2009
Posts42,978

[heyya99]

The only way he's going to cut it, unless he changes his ways, is by going in to an office with peers and management. I wouldn't have him remote if he worked for me.

All these people have to be considered when thinking about WFH and shutting buildings. A one size fits all and lets shut the office just won't work for a good number of people in many orgs.

I mean this in no disrespect but this type of employee could be weeding out at interview stage. Would you hire someone who you know will only work for you when they are being tightly managed? I wouldn't.