Reply to: State of the Market

[eek]

Been on the bench since Monday. All a little quiet but early days.

Suspect it will be quiet until the election is finished

[SussexSeagull]

Been on the bench since Monday. All a little quiet but early days.

[Fraidycat]

Isn't that a still from the film Office Space?!

Probably not, I dont recall any east asians or playstations in Office space, but it is pretty similar to the office in the film.

A playstation would have been out place as the film was was aiming to portray Monotony and Boredom.

Even though back in the early 2000s i worked at a few places that had playstations but never saw anyone ever using them.

Unlike pool tables which actually get used everyday, however management is always keeping an eye on how long people are using them, or more likely its workers complaining (grassing up) other workers when they are jealous of them spending too long on the pool table, saw that happen a couple of times.

[gables]

Isn't that a still from the film Office Space?!

Don't know tbh, I just googled for office spaces with cubicles and that picture reminded of my first office in IT

[brightondeveloper]

Read somewhere years ago that open plan offices are pretty rubbish for productivity even though they were adopted to aid communication\collaboration and maybe you can see why, because when I started work in 1989 the office looked like this. I was hoping the pendulum would swing back to between this and what we have now.



As to Architects not concentrating as hard as a developer, I wouldn't know; but I do know I need to concentrate hard and wfh allows me to do that.

Isn't that a still from the film Office Space?!

[edison]

Well, yes, or nuclear war. However, a hung parliament is exceptionally unlikely and no interest rate cuts is relatively unlikely, but obviously not impossible.

With the current polls, it seems nuclear war is more likely than a hung parliament!

[jamesbrown]

As bad as things are now, they could get even worse, we could get a hung parliament and no interest rate cuts this year either..

Well, yes, or nuclear war. However, a hung parliament is exceptionally unlikely and no interest rate cuts is relatively unlikely, but obviously not impossible.

[Fraidycat]

As bad as things are now, they could get even worse, we could get a hung parliament and no interest rate cuts this year either..

[dsc]

Didn't think it could get any lower but seems that the market has cooled even more since the election announcement.

Kind of makes sense, no one knows what the new gov will announce and it's just around the corner, plus it's summer time anyway, so I wouldn't expect a massive uptick till September maybe.

[avonleigh]

Looking at Jobserve just now and number of jobs is below 20,000. Think it's been a while since it went that low?

Didn't think it could get any lower but seems that the market has cooled even more since the election announcement.

[Smoggy]

Is there a real need to physically keep an eye on call centre staff any more?

Don't most call centre systems have real time monitoring of queues, time to taken to answer a call, average call length etc as well as facility to listen in on calls or join in (the aptly named 'barge in' feature)?

Plus all calls may be recorded for training and quality purposes blah blah blah.

True, but occasionally there was a legitimate reason to not be ready for a call such as writing notes, sending a fax (remember them?) processing more complicated cases etc. So being able to see people weren't just fancying around was useful.

[edison]

Looking at Jobserve just now and number of jobs is below 20,000. Think it's been a while since it went that low?

[edison]

I worked in Aviva (then Norwich Union) call centres back in the day and they were all open plan. Doubt they've changed much since then. The managers like to keep a close eye on you.

Is there a real need to physically keep an eye on call centre staff any more?

Don't most call centre systems have real time monitoring of queues, time to taken to answer a call, average call length etc as well as facility to listen in on calls or join in (the aptly named 'barge in' feature)?

Plus all calls may be recorded for training and quality purposes blah blah blah.

[cojak]

Indeed and probably not, but school dining hall layouts aren't much better even with the small partitions

That is a very familiar layout! (Although I suspect that management will get four seats on those desks after 6 months.)

[gables]

The last time I had one of those cubicles was 1992. Do any organisations still have them? Call centres maybe?

Indeed and probably not, but school dining hall layouts aren't much better even with the small partitions