House price increases. Is everyone absolutely loaded?

RelievedSheff

lookstraightahead said:

If I was an employer I would expect people back. Through the lockdown we've naturally had a distorted experience but now that children are back at school, transport is better and offices can open, we need to revert as much as we can.

This is the track that my employer is taking. We will all be back in the office this year. They are phasing in the return to the office to avoid us all going back at the same time, but I expect to be back in the office by the end of July.

One thing I have not missed about the office working is the 45-60 minute commute each morning and evening. But we knew that was what the commute would be when we moved here two years ago. 

lookstraightahead

RelievedSheff said:

lookstraightahead said:

If I was an employer I would expect people back. Through the lockdown we've naturally had a distorted experience but now that children are back at school, transport is better and offices can open, we need to revert as much as we can.

This is the track that my employer is taking. We will all be back in the office this year. They are phasing in the return to the office to avoid us all going back at the same time, but I expect to be back in the office by the end of July.

One thing I have not missed about the office working is the 45-60 minute commute each morning and evening. But we knew that was what the commute would be when we moved here two years ago. 

It is going to be hard I'm sure for a while. Are you driving or on the train? On the train at least you can sleep

RelievedSheff

lookstraightahead said:

RelievedSheff said:

lookstraightahead said:

If I was an employer I would expect people back. Through the lockdown we've naturally had a distorted experience but now that children are back at school, transport is better and offices can open, we need to revert as much as we can.

This is the track that my employer is taking. We will all be back in the office this year. They are phasing in the return to the office to avoid us all going back at the same time, but I expect to be back in the office by the end of July.

One thing I have not missed about the office working is the 45-60 minute commute each morning and evening. But we knew that was what the commute would be when we moved here two years ago. 

It is going to be hard I'm sure for a while. Are you driving or on the train? On the train at least you can sleep

Driving. But at least I can share the driving with the other half. We work just around the corner from each other so only take the one car in.

I'm sure I will get back into the swing of being in the office again pretty quickly. After all that was the norm for 20 years of the 21 years I have worked there  

Niv

lookstraightahead said:

If I was an employer I would expect people back. Through the lockdown we've naturally had a distorted experience but now that children are back at school, transport is better and offices can open, we need to revert as much as we can.

My employer is doing a bit of a hybrid. Office workers are expected to return to the office a couple of days a week but those that wish to return full time can. To go to the office you have to book a hot-desk first - no/very few personal desks going forward. They have also closed down two floors of the office so it is evident they do not expect everyone back full time.

onylon

Starting to see this in the company I work for.  The easier work is starting to be outsourced to a company in Vietnam more leaving those of us in the uk to concentrate on the tricky bits.  I like the easy, repetitive tasks so am sad about this.  Change is happening slowly but the direction it is taking is clear and I can see myself being obsolete in 15 years.  We set our house budget accordingly.

I hate the repetitive bits!

My company off-shores a lot of the routine stuff to India but there is a clear skill gap between the Indian team and UK. If I was in the Indian team (or doing a similar job in the UK) I would be up-skilling asap before those easy roles are automated away. 

Back in topic: I'm one of those people who moved out of London last year and I was very worried about lack of suitable jobs near my new home. I've actually found that for my skillset the jobs market outside London has boomed during the pandemic. Willingness to allow WFH undeniably opens up the talent pool for employers but the talent also has a wider range of employers to choose from. In this market companies can't get away with paying regional wages because employees will simply vote with their feet. This has to have a knock on effect on house prices that goes beyond the 'race for space'.

grumiofoundation

lookstraightahead said:

On the train at least you can sleep

Risky if you aren't the last stop....

lookstraightahead

Niv said:

lookstraightahead said:

If I was an employer I would expect people back. Through the lockdown we've naturally had a distorted experience but now that children are back at school, transport is better and offices can open, we need to revert as much as we can.

My employer is doing a bit of a hybrid. Office workers are expected to return to the office a couple of days a week but those that wish to return full time can. To go to the office you have to book a hot-desk first - no/very few personal desks going forward. They have also closed down two floors of the office so it is evident they do not expect everyone back full time.

I'm curious about how they've managed this - did everyone have to go through new policy training etc?

Niv

lookstraightahead said:

Niv said:

lookstraightahead said:

If I was an employer I would expect people back. Through the lockdown we've naturally had a distorted experience but now that children are back at school, transport is better and offices can open, we need to revert as much as we can.

My employer is doing a bit of a hybrid. Office workers are expected to return to the office a couple of days a week but those that wish to return full time can. To go to the office you have to book a hot-desk first - no/very few personal desks going forward. They have also closed down two floors of the office so it is evident they do not expect everyone back full time.

I'm curious about how they've managed this - did everyone have to go through new policy training etc?

We had a questionaire to complete with our line managers which included discussions around if I wanted to be in the office full time and if not, how many days do I need to be in and had to justify it. This then went to HR for review and approval. 

mortgage_noob

Niv said:

lookstraightahead said:

If I was an employer I would expect people back. Through the lockdown we've naturally had a distorted experience but now that children are back at school, transport is better and offices can open, we need to revert as much as we can.

My employer is doing a bit of a hysffbrid. Office workers are expected to return to the office a couple of days a week but those that wish to return full time can. To go to the office you have to book a hot-desk first - no/very few personal desks going forward. They have also closed down two floors of the office so it is evident they do not expect everyone back full time.

This is how I was working pre pandemic, we'd given up our offices and instead gotten a small hot desking set up in a workspace, I was coming in 1-2 times a week and it's only now that I'm taking advantage and leaving London to live somewhere I can actually afford to buy. (FTB) I really should have done it sooner as prices up north shot up. 

Come September we'll have office space again, but within our parent company's premises and there's pretty much no expectation that we come in. It's mostly just for the social aspect. Our parent company, previously in the office 5 days a week, will be moving to flexible working post pandemic too.

Getting_greyer

Scenario: 
You're a London based firm with a high skilled worker of 3 years service currently WFH in Grantham.  Salary is 100k. Wishes to WFH permanently minus the odd F2F meeting.

Do you decide to drop their salary to 80k as they no longer work in the office permanent potentially losing the efficiency they have built over 3 years if they look elsewhere?  Or sack them, and be willing to pay upto 100k to someone who's willing to be office based.