Society/Culture Working from home vs forced back to the office

[Scotland]

Flexibility is doing something both ways. Give and take.

A company asking someone to work from the office full time and an employee asking to WFH full time are both not flexible.

Saying i dont think WFH 100% is going to be way the of the future is not getting defensive guy. It's just an opinion. I dont really care what other people do with their lives. It's their business. not mine. If people want to WFH full time good on them, i hope they find an employer who provides it.

You are literally just calling someone defensive because they disagree with you. You are allowed to have different opinions. I have once said people shouldn't be allowed to WFH?

I work for who i want to work for, you and others should do the same.

I am OK with 100% WFH or 0% WFH. But all parties need to be realistic. If I'm paying for office space and IT equipment and industrial air con running costs etc I don't really want to hear that people 'feel like' WFH. But if I am commuting an hour each way 5 days a week and making no allowances at home (WFH setup) I also don't want to be sent to WFH because it suits the company.

Until Covid hit I had a desk in an office with a desktop computer and didn't WFH at all. Didn't really even cross my mind. Go to work to work, come home and enjoy my own space. In the 4 years since I've exclusively had laptops and have WFH at various times for various reasons. I now do it maybe once a week on average which is more personal preference than anything. Each to their own but I find if I do it too much it encroaches on my home life. There is definitely more of an expectation among people now that they can WFH at least some of the time. Some of that is generational (separate topic) but also I work with some people who are mid 20s and don't know anything other than WFH being commonplace.

WFH is definitely a key aspect now in applying for jobs and hiring staff.

 

[burge13]

Spotify keeps remote workforce siting "our employees are not children"

Perfect attitude towards it, trust

 

[peetoo]

It’s also disingenuous to force people to occupy a hot desk, but then interact with everyone via PC as if they were at home

 

[rank and file]

Don't know if it's been covered,but Kiwi mining billionare Chris Ellison weighed in on the subject
Currently under investigation from the ATO.
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...eral-resources-billionaire-mining-boss-ntwnfb

 

[peetoo]

In most cases these organisations doing the ‘all back to the office’ when examined, nothing really changed, it’s just PR

 

[peetoo]

Benefits from global economy taking fees dollars out of the countries where his licence taxi drivers work.

Arcs up when employees leverage the global economy

Bolt CEO vows to crack down on ‘insanity of people working from Bali’

Bolt CEO Markus Villig reportedly said it was a “disgrace” that less than half his workers were making it into the office at least two days a week.

fortune.com

 

[burge13]

I should be CEO of some global bullshit management coaching company. Called this from the beginning

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/annoying-reason-bosses-are-actually-pushing-for-an-end-to-wfh/news-story/e519c2b25b7601b1e94dde1f2449c401

 

[ReidBetweenTheLines]

Wonder how long it will be before more employees start taking the piss for worker’s compensation that happens at home:

City employee granted workers' comp after injury working at home

Worker trips, falls while ‘taking authorized paid coffee break’

www.hcamag.com

While it must be extremely convenient to work from home, I reckon office people should be wary about AI taking over their jobs. How many years until advanced AI can solve complex problems, and the engineer that’s enjoyed working from home is suddenly out of a job? At least if you attend meetings and get things done in person you won’t be so easily replaced when AI really takes off.

 

[burge13]

Wonder how long it will be before more employees start taking the piss for worker’s compensation that happens at home:

City employee granted workers' comp after injury working at home

Worker trips, falls while ‘taking authorized paid coffee break’

www.hcamag.com

While it must be extremely convenient to work from home, I reckon office people should be wary about AI taking over their jobs. How many years until advanced AI can solve complex problems, and the engineer that’s enjoyed working from home is suddenly out of a job? At least if you attend meetings and get things done in person you won’t be so easily replaced when AI really takes off.

would have been some BS like not doing an ergonomics assessment (which everyone just signs and does nothing with) prior to WFH.

Shits me to tears in society that your first thought after tripping over is to sue someone. madness

AI is going to take alot of jobs. IR, accounting, data/analysis. The faff will go first* which will be a good sign of where we're headed. I dont know much about conveyancing but strikes me as something to automate, such a waste of money after every house sale

* By first, I mean after the obvious first level customer service/entry level jobs which are already being automated

 

[peetoo]

Wonder how long it will be before more employees start taking the piss for worker’s compensation that happens at home:

City employee granted workers' comp after injury working at home

Worker trips, falls while ‘taking authorized paid coffee break’

www.hcamag.com

While it must be extremely convenient to work from home, I reckon office people should be wary about AI taking over their jobs. How many years until advanced AI can solve complex problems, and the engineer that’s enjoyed working from home is suddenly out of a job? At least if you attend meetings and get things done in person you won’t be so easily replaced when AI really takes off.

So they keep saying . My experience of IT management is it gets more and more labor intensive.

Just roll this in in 2 years when I retire. It management should be the first thing run by AI

 

[peetoo]

People forced into 4-5 days shoul consistently be uncontactable during commute. Which would be equivalent to a days work for some people.

 

[And_ROOS]

People forced into 4-5 days shoul consistently be uncontactable during commute. Which would be equivalent to a days work for some people.

The fairer outcome should be if your job can or was WFH during the pandemic and businesses want you back in the office because they are run by management who need to justify their existence, then businesses should be paying you for the commute into and out of the office.

Watch the WFH attitude change quickly when a company is paying you an additional 2hrs a day in wages because you "must" be in the building.

 

[Scotland]

People are being entitled expecting to be paid for their commute time. That was never the deal before WFH and shouldn't be after - unless your employer now expects you to spend the time you would spend commuting working instead.

What is on the table is working hours and contactability. Some things are pretty obviously non negotiable. If you work in a some kind of customer facing business that is open 9-5 then someone needs to be there 9-5. If all you do is process invoices in the back office then it is less important how often you are there as long as you meet deadlines.

I have a pretty flexible arrangement but that works both ways. I don't get to choose my own hours, WFH etc. and then complain that I get a phone call at 5.01pm or a meeting is early or late due to a time zone difference. The moment my work situation changes to a mandated Mon-Fri 9-5 I'll punch in and punch out.

 

[peetoo]

An hour each way commute was not unusual pre covid.

The commute comes out of your own time. But if there’s a 5 day mandate compared to hybrid, all the time you commute you can reasonably be not contactable particularly not open your laptop, whereas WFH you could reasonably be contactable.

Systems support people might be called upon each morning when it is discovered there are systems issues. With todays miriad outsourcing and similar, expecting all the various contacts to be in one office is quite fanciful, and has proven not to be needed.

 

[peetoo]

I’m thinking some orgs just need to do hybrid better

 

[peetoo]

Don't know if it's been covered,but Kiwi mining billionare Chris Ellison weighed in on the subject View attachment 2151275
Currently under investigation from the ATO.
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...eral-resources-billionaire-mining-boss-ntwnfb

The old mining town system where they control your living outlays too.

There’s a mentality in this country which wants the whole country corporate controlled thus

 

[Harro59]

I should be CEO of some global bullshit management coaching company. Called this from the beginning

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/annoying-reason-bosses-are-actually-pushing-for-an-end-to-wfh/news-story/e519c2b25b7601b1e94dde1f2449c401

I look at my workplace, and the example of this is right there in front of me.

In my particular department, the manger, even through Covid, demanded his team be in the office, and he openly stated that he needed his staff in the office so he could manage them. He just couldn't get his head around anything else.

Ah, old fella, he's actually not a bad bloke. He's just terrible at being a manager. It is fully reflected from his team as they are close to useless.

Anyway, some further reading on this is and also general comments made by our CEO us that they are ok for now with the hybrid working arrangement. Being in Adelaide, I don't have the massive communte that some of the Eastern states do. At its worse, it's like 35mim door to door. So it's not a huge deal, and most of the work place do only 1 - 2 days WFH. Generally using teams, it's not a big deal. However, our CEO has stated they are happy with this arrangement for now but want to tackle the issue in the future when the labour market had changed. Clearly, they are waiting for unemployment to go up and have more leverage work employees to get them back to the office.