WFH is going to be interesting when this all calms down

[SueEllen]

Meanwhile at Barclays

Barclays boss Jes Staley: working from home 'not sustainable' as collaboration and culture take a hit

So Barclays hires unproductive workers and/or their systems are so fecked up people have to do processes manually.

[courtg9000]

So Barclays hires unproductive workers and/or their systems are so fecked up people have to do processes manually.

All of this is true with regards to Barclays

[BlasterBates]

Meanwhile at Barclays

Barclays boss Jes Staley: working from home 'not sustainable' as collaboration and culture take a hit



So in short.. you've had your fun playing at home, but now its time to get back into the hamster wheel

Sad, but fortunately I think IT organisations have a different experience.

Twitter Says Its Employees Will Work from Home Permanently -- Occupational Health & Safety

Certainly in our organisation WfH won't be a problem once the pandemic is over, particularly since we won't have enough office space.

[uk contractor]

Sooner or later all offices will re-open! That is pretty much a given as big bosses like to see where all their money goes & its easier to manage that way when everyone is in the office vs home working indefinitely!! Covid 19 will just become a part of normal life they cannot keep the economy shut down much longer the financial risk is going to cost more lives than the pandemic due to financial hardship!!

[SueEllen]

Sooner or later all offices will re-open! That is pretty much a given as big bosses like to see where all their money goes & its easier to manage that way when everyone is in the office vs home working indefinitely!! Covid 19 will just become a part of normal life they cannot keep the economy shut down much longer the financial risk is going to cost more lives than the pandemic due to financial hardship!!

You missed the memo.

Since the 00s companies have been saving money on office space by making people WFH including 99% of the time.

[Lance]

Sooner or later all offices will re-open! That is pretty much a given as big bosses like to see where all their money goes & its easier to manage that way when everyone is in the office vs home working indefinitely!! Covid 19 will just become a part of normal life they cannot keep the economy shut down much longer the financial risk is going to cost more lives than the pandemic due to financial hardship!!

rubbish.
Many businesses are letting their office space go. The ones that renewed a lease just before the plague are kicking themselves and eyeing up the cost saving in 5/10/15 years at next renewal.
If you need office space it's really cheap now. Just don't buy any. Commercial property will be the dead duck of the 2020s

[jamesbrown]

The reality is likely in between the two camps presented here.

There is a lot of wishful thinking that home working is embedded forever - it's classic optimism bias. Many companies simply don't trust their workers to be more productive when wfh and would prefer to keep a tight rein over their employees and contractors alike (or pseudo-employees, as the case may be).

At the same time, there will be an increasing number of enlightened companies that do see the productivity benefits and (even moreso) the lower overheads from wfh.

But I think a lot of people currently wfh and expecting this to be the new norm will be in for a big surprise (especially in regulated sectors).

[Paralytic]

Basically, it will be a fight between the bean-counters who have identified (and have some proof) of a new way to save money, and managers, some/many of whom don't trust their staff and contractors to wfh.

The result will be a wfh model that will sit somewhere between what the two want. That place will vary on a client-by-client (and potentially even business unit by business unit per client) basis, and will also change over time.

Anyone who says "it will be this" or "it will be that" for everyone is taking their own experiences/thoughts and erroneously extrapolating those to the rest of the country.

[SussexSeagull]

It remains to be seen and it will vary from sector to sector. I imagine a lot of data security risks have been overlooked that probably won't be forever.

[northernladuk]

We seem to be forgetting a few points such as in some, if not many cases, communicating in the office is far better than remote, whatever people say. There are people that would love to get back in to the office for many reasons as well. I'm one of them. Can't wait to get back in to business casual and get in, if nothing else just to interact with human beings again.

I imagine it will be a very slow transition back in with it not being anything like the 'old' days but I do think there is still a place for the old office.

Plenty of noise about managers wanting their people in because they don't trust them to WFH efficiently and there is a strong case for that, particularly in lower level churn jobs. Some people are just lazy bastards and are quite obviously making the most of it. So yes, getting people back in under managers noses isn't always a bad thing.

WFH will never continue at this scale and IMO we are going to see a wide range of attitudes by companies but any contractor thinking they can dictate only WFH is deluded.