Remote working - this sums it up nicely

[GhostofTarbera]

https://twitter.com/chris_herd/statu...818312192?s=21


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[BR14]

and your point is?
more AtW DOOOOOOOM?

[jamesbrown]

According to a self-declared "remote work activist".

[Lance]

https://twitter.com/chris_herd/statu...818312192?s=21


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

I think that thread is bang on the money.

Mind you I’ve been setting up home working for companies since the days of 28k modems. So I must declare that as an interest.

[cojak]

Companies are going remote but not for most of the reasons he says.

It’s for the money. The cost savings they are making are huge. Why bother with offices when most workers are more productive and have to pay for their own electricity and broadband?

And let’s not forget not having to worry about canteen or toilet or cleaning facilities.

Most don’t actually give a toss about how workers work, they are keen to have software that tracks that workers are in front of their laptops, not whether they produce anything of quality.

It won’t be long before many people realise that they are living at their place of work rather than working from home.

[jayn200]

Is there any evidence people are more productive or is it all anecdotal from people who want everyone to stay remote?

I have had a hell of a time getting responses for almost any query. Getting people to pay attention during teams calls is a real challenge. Every deliverable is late. People are continually inaccessible during work hours. Of course I'm just a contractor so I don't have any power over these things and I don't really care that much other than it's annoying because it slows me down and reflects poorly on me.

[BlasterBates]

Is there any evidence people are more productive or is it all anecdotal from people who want everyone to stay remote?

I have had a hell of a time getting responses for almost any query. Getting people to pay attention during teams calls is a real challenge. Every deliverable is late. People are continually inaccessible during work hours. Of course I'm just a contractor so I don't have any power over these things and I don't really care that much other than it's annoying because it slows me down and reflects poorly on me.

It will always be anecdotal if you report on your own company, but at our company we're a consultancy so we bill per hour. Billing hours are up due to less sick days, so management are happy. If we were to miss our goals then there would be senior management meetings where everyone would shout very loudly. Fortunately that isn't happening.

[eek]

As with all anecdotes the results will probably be whatever the person wants them to be - if you think people need to work in an office they won't be good enough, if you want to reduce office space working from home will be brilliant.

What I suspect you need to have is a combination of core hours and flexibility. I.e. 3 hours a day when you can be 100% sure that people are accessible and leave the rest of the work to be done asynchronously by a fixed deadline explaining with clear explanations as to why it needs to be done by then...

[SueEllen]

Is there any evidence people are more productive or is it all anecdotal from people who want everyone to stay remote?

I have had a hell of a time getting responses for almost any query. Getting people to pay attention during teams calls is a real challenge. Every deliverable is late. People are continually inaccessible during work hours. Of course I'm just a contractor so I don't have any power over these things and I don't really care that much other than it's annoying because it slows me down and reflects poorly on me.

It's on a company by company basis.

There are some companies who have done mostly remote working long before Covid who realised the cost savings on not having office space(s) were sufficient to cover any minor losses on productivity. These companies also often had and have people working in different time zones who had to do remote meetings with one another.

[cojak]

It's on a company by company basis.

There are some companies who have done mostly remote working long before Covid who realised the cost savings on not having office space(s) were sufficient to cover any minor losses on productivity. These companies also often had and have people working in different time zones who had to do remote meetings with one another.

Yep, I'm back to being a hub between Singapore and Florida.