return to office work

dd95

as above,

what are people's predictions as to when office workers will return in light of covid19?

jobbingmusician

I'm hoping never.  I think this pandemic might just be the boot up the backside that society needs to disband the current old fashioned office and have 95% of people working from home permanently.

Just think of all the benefits - reduced pollution (and cost!) as people aren't commuting, stronger local communities as people find alternative ways to socialise (maybe meeting up for lunch and supporting their local economy, maybe hosting local working lunches in their own homes)........

dd95

that's true. I certainly feel more productive working from home, but this may be due to more sleep and more time to exercise!

[Deleted User]

I was hoping 3 weeks worst case but could be of my rocker! I imagine it will be ok until I have to ask for payslips and holiday.
I'm sure the smelly stuff will hit in the fan in June when it goes down to just me.
Nearly spent as long at home working as I've been in the job for.
We had massive space to practise social distancing so I don't get it, Just can't help feeling it is more then the virus I'm being shielded from but I'll hope we're in the busiest time anyway.

Savvy_Sue

dd95 said:

as above,

what are people's predictions as to when office workers will return in light of covid19?

Some of us never stopped completely: one of our teams is now completely home-based, but the rest of us are doing 1 day pw in the office and the rest at home. We're a charity, our field makes us essential workers, and by going in my team supports the front-line workers, whether they are in the office or at home. 

We're just working out how we could move computers around to enable us to have no more than two per office at any one time and we'll probably phase our return that way. But I'm sure we'll all keep some home working in the mix ...

74jax

Deleted User said:

I was hoping 3 weeks worst case but could be of my rocker! I imagine it will be ok until I have to ask for payslips and holiday.
I'm sure the smelly stuff will hit in the fan in June when it goes down to just me.
Nearly spent as long at home working as I've been in the job for.
We had massive space to practise social distancing so I don't get it, Just can't help feeling it is more then the virus I'm being shielded from but I'll hope we're in the busiest time anyway.

The commute to work? 

TELLIT01

My wife can't wait to get back to working from the office, with maybe the occasional day working from home.  She is really struggling with the lack of interaction with her colleagues.  As to when that will happen, nobody yet knows.  She works in a large, predominantly open plan office so I suspect it might be some time.

Just to add, I think it's a bit rich for somebody with a username such as 'jobbingmusician' to be saying everybody else should work from home.  As for the figure of 95% working from home!  1.5 million in the NHS (excluding indirect workers), over 3 million in construction, over 4 million in hospitality, add those involved in the delivery chain from drivers to supermarkets...

LilElvis

How many people actually have sufficient space to work from home on a permanent basis? 

General_Grant

LilElvis said:

How many people actually have sufficient space to work from home on a permanent basis? 

Process:  (1) More people work from home, (2) companies require less office space and pay less rent, (3) pay workers more, (4) workers find bigger home accommodation.
I think it would get stuck between (2) and (3).

TELLIT01

LilElvis said:

How many people actually have sufficient space to work from home on a permanent basis? 

Very valid point.  My sister-in-law's step-son lives with them and is currently using their dining table as his 'office' as there isn't anywhere else to work.  They have an open plan lounge/diner so have to keep quiet any time he needs to make a phone call.  Not very practical in the long term.

LilElvis

TELLIT01 said:

LilElvis said:

How many people actually have sufficient space to work from home on a permanent basis? 

Very valid point.  My sister-in-law's step-son lives with them and is currently using their dining table as his 'office' as there isn't anywhere else to work.  They have an open plan lounge/diner so have to keep quiet any time he needs to make a phone call.  Not very practical in the long term.

My friend's husband works maintaining the IT systems for one of the high street banks and was instructed to WFH even before the lockdown - this entails two laptops and three monitors on the kitchen table, which was the only place for the family to eat. The family can't use the kitchen whilst he's working! 

Most modern new-builds are tiny and I can't see many being able to rent or buy a home with an additional room (or two) to repurpose as office space. My friend's tiny 3 bedroom house is in a terrace of three - the floor space of those three homes is about the same as my detached house! For them to "upgrade" to a bigger house would cost a six figure sum - completely unattainable for them, even if his salary were to increased.