Work from home… Storm Brewing

I agree to an extent, but when I was a bit younger, all I wanted to do was live in Leeds.

 

It does come down to personalities and relationships though.
I spend more than an hour every day on teams calls with my line manager. I used to work on the desk opposite my previous LM and even though we got on great (still in regular contact post his retiring), we rarely spoke a couple of hours a week.

And the newbies take to it brilliantly, we have junior analysts (fresh from Uni) and they have no qualms about video calling just to check understanding of something, or to ask ‘who does what’ questions. Pretty much the exact same relationship I had with their predecessors in the office.

 

Its called live at work

 

Reminds me of my dads awful joke; every time he came into my bedroom he’d look at the poster on my wall ‘The Who Live at Leeds’ and say ‘so what - your auntie Joan lives in Leeds an all’. Made me groan as a teenager, but makes me smile now every time I remember it.

 

That’s similar to Will’s situation. No one at his office talks out loud, it’s all through chat on Teams so literally nothing has changed there. The new project manager video calls him almost all day though for hours at a time, he’s getting to the point where he might mention it to the boss because he can’t get anything done as he’s constantly in meetings, sometimes 5 out of 8 hours a day.

 

This is exactly my experiences too. I thought I was on my own with it but I guess everyone is different and workplaces are different.

 

"Working from home" is a great way of social control.

There are a lot of new things on that list, lockdowns, etc... will we ever return to normal life?

 

I think Skype / Teams etc is great for many things and brings the ability to include more people, shorter sharper meetings etc. However i do agree that this doesn’t replace face to face meetings. While it has been a replacement for face to face last 18 months it will be a supplement and work in harmony in future, we have both separately and a hybrid of both. Usually i meet with 64 country leads every Jan / Feb in 3 global locations. This year was virtual. It brought many benefits including cost savings, more attendees, etc, it also meant we sadly missed the social side which still builds trust and collaboration, side meetings etc. There is a place for multiple engagement models used in the right context.

 

It all depends on the person and company of course and it’s not for everybody, but when I moved to work from home a few years ago I found my work/life balance improved massively. It allowed me to take time out in the middle of the day to take breaks and spend time with family, go out in the day when it’s quiet, go to the gym when it’s quiet etc.

It’s a bit different for me in terms of how many hours I work etc, because I have colleagues and members of my team all over the world, so I often have to work weird hours. My wife and I keep each other in check though and make sure we’re not working more than we should. We each have a clean break where we go into our offices and we’re working. We keep track of each other’s hours as that makes us be less lenient with it. Wouldn’t work for everyone, but it works for us!

 

Sounds like a good setup!

For me the hybrid works perfectly. For example when I have a tradesman over or I’m getting a Brewdog delivery, my work just let me work from home on those days, unless it is absolutely necessary I am there.

 

That’s the thing - I’m not saying that I think every company should be work from home 100% - it works for us fantastically but it wouldn’t work for everyone. But I think companies that refuse work from home completely are going to really struggle in recruitment moving forward

 

One thing I will say is I've been really happy I've been able to go into work throughout the last 15 months. At times it felt like a genuine pleasure to go and mix with other people.

 

I know of 2 friends who seriously considering moving up north, Both had previously been tied to the desk but now have greater flexibility,

they might need to get in quick before the housing market realises!

 

If commuting is a thing of the past, can we ditch HS2?

 

Should be ditched anyway. There's absolutely no benefit to it at all except cheaper houses for londoners

 

I work for a global company that is extremely well known. Our Chief Exec has now made the formal decision - 1 desk for every 3 members of staff. So we will be ditching real estate to match this. As it is a US company they have come up with a 3 word strap line of "The New Better"

Anyway looks like the office will only be as required or wanted going forward. If you want to work from home apart from the odd day that is going to be fine. Management locally also realised the only true measure of productivity is "is the work done?" - how and when someone does it is broadly irrelevant. Our firm increased earnings in Ireland by 6% in 2020 and by 9% in 2021 so far. Globally 5.4% in 2020 and 7.5% in 2021 so far. Home working is proving a success for us.

 

The talking bo11ix at the coffee machine has been replaced by six Teams conversations going on at once. And you have to respond to them promptly too, or they think you're not at your computer. They don't see the other five people chatting away.

I love working from home. I do it two days a week now. I would do it more if I could. It means I can pick up my son from school and so for the first time in a decade we are a two wage family. That has made a huge difference. I can start work without having my blood pressure raised by dickheads on the road.

I do calculations and write reports all day. Ideally I need silence for that. I can barely concentrate in the office. At home I can work for hours without noticing the time going by. In the office I am lucky to do five minutes. But I have been doing this job for 23 years now. It is the youngsters who struggle to work remotely (in my field at least). They need guidance. They need to know what has gone before. They need to know what we already have. During our brief lockdown the percentage of wasted effort due to duplication and unnecessary detail went right up. I also wonder about their career progression, out of sight, out of mind. Managers promote the people they talk to on a daily basis.

 

I could be added two and two and getting three hundred and seventy one here but if you work for who I think you do then wont it have massively benefited from companies wanting to pay for risk management anyway?

 

I can't comment on your maths, but if you had hinted at an old and existing link to a Manchester team you could be right.

Wins and losses for our firm in current climate. But huge savings on Business Travel and Office costs and we operate in areas that are fairly recession proof (I know cos I have worked in this industry for 30+ years, which has covered quite a few recessions).