Workers that don’t have to go into an office are £480 billion better off.

Great article, that.

 

Are you concerned about remote learning and the potential for bigger classes and therefore reduced staff? I've got close family members in higher education and one of my worries for them is with video conferencing lectures that were limited by room size could now be given to hundreds by a single person. I appreciate seminars and tutorials still need smaller groups but again I'm sure if institutions can find a way to use video conferencing to use less staff they will.

Hope I'm not being unduly pessimistic. To be honest zoom would have probably improved my attendance at lectures - certainly if recorded and on demand - but I would have missed the contact of seminars. Far harder to flirt with other students over zoom...

 

I think there's a whole lot of things to unpick here which are quite hard to do right now because it's unchartered territory. I'm in admin and don't feel concerned about my role. I'm currently doing two people's jobs as we lost a member of staff before covid and their replacement hasn't been trained up and can't be. That said all yearly pay increases at each pay grade spine point have been frozen so they're unsure despite having loads in the coffers.

Teaching wise it could be an issue, but it really depends on the programme being taught. We teach nursing so there has to be some face to face stuff for obvious reasons. We've lost staff over the last few years because 'the money is in research'. It remains to be seen how students will want to move to Leeds and pay for accommodation etc., to only have virtual lectures. Business degrees are going to struggle as Chinese students won't be coming.

It's all pretty up in the air.

 

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/09/covid-19-is-an-opportunity-to-rethink-how-we-work

Some interesting arguments here.

 

https://newsthump.com/2020/08/28/em...r9IklC6b7cYK9jviKHITPVjvYyUN3MJaTv7CNXo71AEMM

I don't apologise. The content made me smile.

 

It’s alright, they haven’t been trying to convince people to go back into offices at all:



I’m sure this has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that MPs have just passed this motion:

That the Orders of 2 June (Proceedings during the pandemic (No. 2)) and of 4 June (Virtual participation in proceedings during the pandemic) shall have effect until 3 November 2020.— (Mr Rees-Mogg.)

To be clear, I’m in full support of the motion but it doesn’t make a back to work campaign look good.

 

That's at least 239 U-Turns this week.

 

But didn't I hear IDS saying that all civil servants were cowards this week for not returning to work? Yes it was but in today's Britain you can delete history, but don't touch our ******* statues.

 

We've never been at war with Eastasia.

 

I think you’ll find we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.

 

They are learning and other businesses will do the same. Then if offices shut and be made residential properties and they carry on with home deliveries, they will in the future make more money than now.

 

Drive through Starbucks and Costa with free wi-fi and meeting areas , out of town are already with us . The Starbucks at Durkar has cars queueing down the road for the drive through

 

Pedestrianisation would be a massive step forwards. I was down for a meeting yesterday (about closing an office) and it was pretty dead. I guess we are at a crossroads. If I had any confidence in the govt you could talk of opportunity alongside risk of a reimagining. Unfortunately we arrive at this point with this least competent govt in memory so the worry that everything is just left to wither is very real.

 

I bet they are better priced than Pret. I reckon a tenner to eat in with your rabbit food is steep.

 

It frustrates the hell out of me that people are focusing on pret, Starbucks and Costa.
.

This discussion shouldn't even be about whether you are better off working from home or lining the pockets of places like these, it should be about whether or not you should be supporting your local independent family run businesses. What can we do to help them I the long-term?

**** pret, Starbucks or costa. I can proudly say I've never set foot in any of them other than once with a coach load at motorway services and I didn't really have much choice in that.