commuter rail fares - impact on house prices

lostinrates

ninky wrote: »

maybe this is why there needs to be an effort to devolve things from london. it's not just about building the regions / nations but the basic reality is that increasing distances between labour and place of work are unsustainable.

I fail to see why more people cannot workmore from home. Pre crunch when dh flew more for work there were more last minute rushes to a London airport. These are less frequent now, most trips are planned with some notice, even 24 hours. Most meetings are done by phone link. Face to face and team spriti is essential, but this could be thrr/four days a week, not five in the office. Many office days are spend hard at work and not in social contact with work mates anyway...lunch at desk etc etc. Work from home would have a strong positive in fuel for commute and reduction of expenses. (not a total one of course, homes being heated for longer and so on)

ninky_2

lostinrates wrote: »

I fail to see why more people cannot workmore from home.

on some of the projects i've worked on there have been large elements of working from home. this works for some things but not others. i certainly allow team members work from home where this suits. sometimes it's just to allow recovery from exhausting filming days other times there is genuinely no reason for them to come in.

however i do find if too many people on a larger team are working from home you can lose a bit of impetus. being in a shared environment can be energising (it can also be the opposite with the wrong people!). as a manager it's also easier to keep tabs on progress when people come into work. some places certainly have 'blackberry friday' where most the management work from home.

lostinrates

ninky wrote: »

however i do find if too many people on a larger team are working from home you can lose a bit of impetus. being in a shared environment can be energising (it can also be the opposite with the wrong people!). as a manager it's also easier to keep tabs on progress when people come into work. some places certainly have 'blackberry friday' where most the management work from home.

I accept this and indeed, I think its great to work in a supportive collegiate atmosphere where your skills are magnified by the environment you are in and vice versa, but as you rightly say, this can be a four day a week thing!

DH's IT peeps say its quite easy to monitor when people are working on laptops signed into a network and the blackberry, though paperwork off line/out of network can't be monitored sign on times/email checking times etc compared to output are randomly checked if there is slacking suspicion.

DH had three work from home days last week (when he had a cold). I think its also a bit of a failing of the Uk education system compared to some others that self study is a bit hit and miss. DH, like many old school graduates, is used to being a self motivator and drives his own schedule forward: a hangover from a school timetable where afternoons where all self study and to pass well and learn a subject you had to produce more work at home and do more self study than many age equivalents in UK.

ninky_2

lostinrates wrote: »

DH's IT peeps say its quite easy to monitor when people are working on laptops signed into a network and the blackberry, though paperwork off line/out of network can't be monitored sign on times/email checking times etc compared to output are randomly checked if there is slacking suspicion.

.

i don't like that sound of that. all very big brother. my feeling is that so long as the work gets done people are welcome to breaks / time on facebook.

i sometimes find that the team members with the lowest performance are the ones who put in the hours but don't get the job done. there's more to performance than being sat being seen to be 'doing something'.

lostinrates

ninky wrote: »

i don't like that sound of that. all very big brother. my feeling is that so long as the work gets done people are welcome to breaks / time on facebook.

i sometimes find that the team members with the lowest performance are the ones who put in the hours but don't get the job done. there's more to performance than being sat being seen to be 'doing something'.

Personally I'd take it if it were that and have dh work from home v no work from home time. My guess it happens in offices too. Afterall, they work alone in offices and can go days seeing no one on certain jobs, so might as well be at home/unmonitored. DH often is on teams when he's the only person in UK. Seems stupid to be required to troll in into London for those sorts of times.

ninky_2

lostinrates wrote: »

Personally I'd take it if it were that and have dh work from home v no work from home time. My guess it happens in offices too. Afterall, they work alone in offices and can go days seeing no one on certain jobs, so might as well be at home/unmonitored. DH often is on teams when he's the only person in UK. Seems stupid to be required to troll in into London for those sorts of times.

is that because you miss him when he goes out to work?

i'm not sure how i'd feel about team members working from home so they could keep their spouses company.....

lostinrates

ninky wrote: »

is that because you miss him when he goes out to work?

i'm not sure how i'd feel about team members working from home so they could keep their spouses company.....

''Miss him''? Yes I do. but not in a keep me company through the day wayand as I said before some people have the discipline required to work from home, not slack off. (and um, I wouldn't want him''under my feet during my working day-which is all from home- either!) More in a ''it would be nice to have supper with you tonight'' sort of way. Sort of a today's expectation of normal married life way. The week commute for us is the next best compromise, the choice we've made for what is available now, not the choice we'd necessarily make if a better fit for us were available.

ninky_2

ah i see. how long is his commute to london then?

lostinrates

ninky wrote: »

ah i see. how long is his commute to london then?

He stays in London (or where ever else he might be..he still travels some'' through the working week most weeks. As I say its a good compromise for us as things stand....but things change .

We ruled out daily long distance commuting very early in our decision making process. Expensive, not time sensible and frankly not inspiring. One of the reasons we opted to buy further a way from london than more traditionally commuted (though as I say people do day commute from here and further). we found the day to day mid length commute worse for our circumstance than a longer one done less often.

ninky_2

sounds tough. dont' think i'd like that very much myself.:( presumably it's not forever though.