Do People Still Stay Away?

[edison]

Dear Lord - A year in Peterborough that must've been... errr "fun"

What the hell do you do in Peterborough?

Peterborough and the surrounding vicinity has some big companies including a few IT services companies. A few years ago I worked for a very large conglomerate that had several large companies there, including some of my team.

There was real competition for IT staff but as far as I remember, few employees actually lived there, they tended to commute from one of the many villages nearby, especially towards Cambridge.

Thankfully I never got to see the town itself and I don't think I missed much.

[SussexSeagull]

Dear Lord - A year in Peterborough that must've been... errr "fun"

What the hell do you do in Peterborough?

To be absolutely honest it is a functional City with a mainline station that allowed me to get there on the Monday and home again on the Friday with a bus network that got me between AirBnB and office every morning and evening.

The AirBnB I found had a kitchen so I could cook for myself so didn't rely on takeaway.

Not a place I am likely to visit again but perfectly serviceable.

[SussexSeagull]

Peterborough and the surrounding vicinity has some big companies including a few IT services companies. A few years ago I worked for a very large conglomerate that had several large companies there, including some of my team.

There was real competition for IT staff but as far as I remember, few employees actually lived there, they tended to commute from one of the many villages nearby, especially towards Cambridge.

Thankfully I never got to see the town itself and I don't think I missed much.

Funnily enough I have just finished a contract a couple of train stops away in St Neots and, like Peterborough, they struggled to find local contractors and to extent permanent staff. Peterborough was pre lockdown and on the day I started there were two contractors from Manchester and me from the south coast. They had permanent staff coming in from Leicester and Boston.

My recent contract was mostly remote so less of an issue but we still had to go in one day a week and they had contractors from Norwich and Reading, while I imagine they would have preferred people nearer.

[WTFH]

One of my first contracts when I moved to England was in Peterborough. Used to stay at the Holiday Inn in Norman Cross, but that's 20 years ago and I suspect it's no longer there.

[Dactylion]

One of my first contracts when I moved to England was in Peterborough. Used to stay at the Holiday Inn in Norman Cross, but that's 20 years ago and I suspect it's no longer there.

Norman Cross isn't even there.....

Well the roundabout that was in the middle of the A1 isn't there. That stretch has been Morotway'd so there is now a massive roundabout that you come off of the main drag for. The Hotel may or may not be there (and even more may/may not be Holiday Inn)

[edison]

Funnily enough I have just finished a contract a couple of train stops away in St Neots and, like Peterborough, they struggled to find local contractors and to extent permanent staff. Peterborough was pre lockdown and on the day I started there were two contractors from Manchester and me from the south coast. They had permanent staff coming in from Leicester and Boston.

My recent contract was mostly remote so less of an issue but we still had to go in one day a week and they had contractors from Norwich and Reading, while I imagine they would have preferred people nearer.

I assume lot of people in and around St Neots work in Cambridge although the car commute is a bit of a ball ache according to friends who live in central St Neots. Cambridge is a real jobs boom city with the large science park, business park and fairly new bioscience park. Surrounding towns will always struggle to attract staff.

To be fair to Peterborough, it's a relatively cheap area with good transport and economic growth. Not too dissimilar to a few places that go in a rough arc from Swindon in the west towards Milton Keynes/Northampton and on to Peterborough.

[agentzero]

Hypothetical Inside IR35: completely remote or a very short local commute.

Outside: Preference for remote, meet up for a couple of days maximum once a month.

Think for the amount of time commuting wasted in your life, add in London as a preference for company meet ups and the expense and time wasted on that. Even if the client is paying for travel, they can't reimburse you the time wasted. Covid working has shown that remote can work very well in a professional environment. The time wasted is time you can spend with family, friends, doing things you enjoy. It is evident now that the workaholics, also those that don't contribute much but think being present in an office are a substitute for work, are easily identified and sidelined. I am enjoying the new ways of working. I only work outside IR35 and 99% of work is remote. Long may it continue.

A figure of office attendance of 60% mentioned sounds like civil service mandates. Civil Service and other some other industries want people in at least 3 days a week. Don't cave in, these mandates will pass.

[vetran]

Hypothetical Inside IR35: completely remote or a very short local commute.

Outside: Preference for remote, meet up for a couple of days maximum once a month.

Think for the amount of time commuting wasted in your life, add in London as a preference for company meet ups and the expense and time wasted on that. Even if the client is paying for travel, they can't reimburse you the time wasted. Covid working has shown that remote can work very well in a professional environment. The time wasted is time you can spend with family, friends, doing things you enjoy. It is evident now that the workaholics, also those that don't contribute much but think being present in an office are a substitute for work, are easily identified and sidelined. I am enjoying the new ways of working. I only work outside IR35 and 99% of work is remote. Long may it continue.

A figure of office attendance of 60% mentioned sounds like civil service mandates. Civil Service and other some other industries want people in at least 3 days a week. Don't cave in, these mandates will pass.

I think home working is here to stay until at least the next recession. The PHB's love the sight of minions running around. Though at the rate the bean counters are closing all the offices it may be a moot point.

[Zigenare]

I think home working is here to stay until at least the next recession. The PHB's love the sight of minions running around. Though at the rate the bean counters are closing all the offices it may be a moot point.

About a month ago we had a "Planning Session" where all minions attached to the project were mustered for 2 days in the office - senior management got a shock when they saw that there wasn't enough room for said minions on the same floor!

Thankfully I am outside IR35 but it was still 6 hours of driving that I'm not going to recoup!

[edison]

About a month ago we had a "Planning Session" where all minions attached to the project were mustered for 2 days in the office - senior management got a shock when they saw that there wasn't enough room for said minions on the same floor!

Thankfully I am outside IR35 but it was still 6 hours of driving that I'm not going to recoup!

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.