Do People Still Stay Away?

[vetran]

One of my recent clients are based in a swanky high rise office in Canary Wharf. They're in the process of more than halving the office space they have. I'm wondering if they're going to get a similar shock next year.

It seems that a lot of big companies (at least in in London) are in the process of consolidating offices as leases run out and moving to offices geared more towards collaborative working. Might make having to go into the office occasionally bit more bearable.

I suspect hotels with big conference centres will do well over the next few years.

[agentzero]

I'm not so sure. I hear complaints from friends that managers are struggling to align the senior manager demands with office reality. Expenses aren't liked. An acceptable hotel, forgetting London, is £150+ in Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester. Getting the team together is costing a fortune and people prefer working remotely.

I think that we will reach a happy medium where the contractor pays the expenses out their own pocket the team get together is once every 3 or 4 months. Covid is striking people this Christmas already and our planned team event is down by 50% already due to covid taking out some of the families.

What are we trying to achieve when meeting up? A plan for the next 1/2/3 months of work? If so, we can still do it remotely. Looking at the commercial property market, I think we are at a tipping point downwards and the coming bloodbath will see a lot of the temporary offices empty due to disputes.

The current rend is probably geographic, but if you are out living in the sticks and 2 to 4+ hours from a major town or city, I don't think you should be disadvantaged from a role. In a way geography is prejudice. We need people to fill up the countryside and rural areas, to make them worth living in for others. Times are changing, but slowly.

[ChimpMaster]

I've been 100% WFH for around 7 or 8 years (as contractor and as permie), but now actually miss going into an office. Life flies by so quick and it's a little sad to think I've spent so much of it sat at home on a laptop. Though to be fair my 20s and 30s were spent consulting and travelling, and working in the City (London) and that was fun.

I would think a hybrid model is best, so that people can learn from each other especially if they are new joiners. People need work in groups sometimes, it's better for mental health.

[northernladuk]

I'm not so sure. I hear complaints from friends that managers are struggling to align the senior manager demands with office reality. Expenses aren't liked. An acceptable hotel, forgetting London, is £150+ in Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester. Getting the team together is costing a fortune and people prefer working remotely.

I keep seeing people saying this but I'm honestly trying to find more than a handful of people that feel this. Everyone on my account thinks hybrid is working. They are on between 1 and 3 days a week in the office depending on position and most are doing more as it's a hellishly busy programme. Even my 22 year old who doesn't know any better likes to go in the office 2 days a week and doesn't want to work fully remote.

If you mean people prefer working remotely in a hybrid model I'd agree. If you mean people prefer working 100% remote then I'm really struggling to find much evidence of that in professional circles.

[vetran]

For any project where you are working with a new team then a few face to faces at the beginning really helps. I used to drive / fly to other sites to show a friendly face to the end users at the start of the project, a firm handshake is a good start.

I did build good relationships with people I never met in the USA/Australia/Germany etc. But it took longer.

Where you work with another team then getting together is a great way to move things forward.

pre-dominantly remote can work if you have decent managers. Imagine that happening!

I realised the other day that with a fully remote job I had spent more time talking to the receptionist than my boss (his choice I pestered him for 121s).