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

[Puddy]

Employers have to be careful

 

[Gethelred]

Your posting is so interesting in here, burge13!

 

[burge13]

Your posting is so interesting in here, burge13!

Why

 

[eddiesmith]

Curious if people get an allowance from their work to WFH?

We had one during Covid but it was removed and the union want it back.

Personally I’m of the opinion that WFH is a choice and why should people get more money for it?

I claim it on my tax and that’s enough for me.

 

[Gethelred]

Why

There's a few reasons.

D'you recall me asking you whether your position on things was predicated on your desire to oppose? This is more evidence. You don't really have things you advocate for, merely things you advocate against. Your position is predicated on opposition.

The other thing that really stands out is that you really aren't all that far from the left as you would like. You oppose an awful lot I would likewise oppose in most cases. This is interesting on several levels alone; you're so close to the 'right' answers, from my perspective.

You see the problems, but aren't at solutions yet.

 

[burge13]

There's a few reasons.

D'you recall me asking you whether your position on things was predicated on your desire to oppose? This is more evidence. You don't really have things you advocate for, merely things you advocate against. Your position is predicated on opposition.

The other thing that really stands out is that you really aren't all that far from the left as you would like. You oppose an awful lot I would likewise oppose in most cases. This is interesting on several levels alone; you're so close to the 'right' answers, from my perspective.

You see the problems, but aren't at solutions yet.

Says more about you tbh. I'm (and the people you usually argue with on here) capable of leaning left (taxing companies/incredible wealth
properly and healthcare especially) AND right (immigration, pronoun nonsense, and DEI quotas for example). Whereas you take a topic, find the most left leaning position possible, and there's your answer. You think you're intellectual but thats really all you do.

On topic to thread, I advocate for WFH/flexibility as we've proven it works. **** inept management trying to take it away because they're poor managers. I just hope the staff affected value themselves enough to walk away from evidently shitty workplaces if thats what they value

 

[peetoo]

Managers are just paying lip service too. It’s property interests who want their gravy train back

Just bear in mind they also seem to want the current peak hourtransport congestion to be at least 20% worse. Probably 40%

Maybe when metro comes online

 

[burge13]

Companies taking it away so people leave and it saves them redundancy payments?

 

[Golden_6]

We've lost a couple of employees to our very lenient policies. We have 4 working at home full time (in rural areas) and most other employees are afforded 1 or 2 days at home dependent on individual cases. I do 3 in the office and 2 at home and I feel that is a good split.

One employee left because she wanted to work at home full time during the school holidays (12 weeks a year) to look after her kids. We drew a line in the sand at that point. How much work can you really achieve if you're 'looking after' 3 kids under 12?

 

[Fire]

One employee left because she wanted to work at home full time during the school holidays (12 weeks a year) to look after her kids. We drew a line in the sand at that point. How much work can you really achieve if you're 'looking after' 3 kids under 12?

It doesn't matter. Measure her output and if it drops then talk to them about revoking the privilege. You don't really know what their kids are like together, and they may be able to easily structure their day around being there when needed (such as meetings) and work back whatever time they lose to parenting.

If they weren't a great fit then you haven't lost much. But if they were, then its worth putting in the effort as a manager. Focus on output, not the clock.

The only person on my team I let go* for WFH was someone who wanted to move and then work from India. They weren't that great; otherwise I would have done my best to try and make the time difference work.

*I recommended to the directors they don't allow it, I don't want to pretend I am directly responsible for hiring and firing. I'm just a department lead.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Being involved in recruitment, it's clear over the last 12 months there's been a swing back to it being an employers market, where a year back employers were falling over themselves to offer incentives for talent.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

We're moving office to a building where there's only space for 60% of the staff. So sounds like some form of work from home is here to stay for me. Either that or we're going to get restructured out of existence.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

Curious if people get an allowance from their work to WFH?

We had one during Covid but it was removed and the union want it back.

Personally I’m of the opinion that WFH is a choice and why should people get more money for it?

I claim it on my tax and that’s enough for me.

I work in a very highly unionised industry, with a fair whack of wfh and none of us get an allowance, nor is our union asking for it.

 

[peetoo]

Hot desking in open is passé apparently

People want either the uninterrupted space like at home or complete collaboration in open and social meetings, depending on their needs.

We still have to faf around in meeting rooms to set up these meetings where people aren’t co located


Let’s get AI to manage these rooms just walk into one and say to the bot. ‘We need video wall with xxxx at yyyyy set it up for 15 minutes time’

Conference stuff is still as clunky a 10 years ago

 

[Saint]

Hot desking in open is passé apparently

People want either the uninterrupted space like at home or complete collaboration in open and social meetings, depending on their needs.

We still have to faf around in meeting rooms to set up these meetings where people aren’t co located


Let’s get AI to manage these rooms just walk into one and say to the bot. ‘We need video wall with xxxx at yyyyy set it up for 15 minutes time’

Conference stuff is still as clunky a 10 years ago

Hot Desking, when done to save a dollar, works fine for 80% of employees and is stressful as f- for the other 20% who happen to turn up later. At least 10% would have been better off it they had stayed at home.

Managers are still learning how to deal with WFH. I'm more worried about those working in the office who wish more people came in, that those WFH who others wish were in the office more often.

 

[swingdog]

John Quiggin nails it.

In their plaintive call for a return to the office, CEOs reveal how little they are needed | John Quiggin

With most company bosses expecting a full return to the office within three years, questions are being raised about the power they wield and the salaries they command

www.theguardian.com

 

[peetoo]

Give me an office as quiet and user friendly as my one at home. Hell even make it dedicated to myself and a couple of others on rotation and I might be there more often.
There’s so much wasted space in pre covid state of the art offices it could easily happen

 

[Cap]

We're moving office to a building where there's only space for 60% of the staff. So sounds like some form of work from home is here to stay for me. Either that or we're going to get restructured out of existence.

We are doing that soon too and it's hot desking.

to be fair, our new office is closer to things so maybe more people go in?

 

[Rotayjay]

This is why I often get the train into the office on a Friday, nice and quiet

I now take a train to the Adelaide CBD and it's a good 30% emptier on Fridays.

 

[Blue1980]

Long term the city is much more efficient housing up to twice the population. In regards to the commute to the centre

Covid lockdowns prove this. Trying to go back to before is madness

I recall they were saying the city sidewalks needed to be bigger. Stuff like that

Before Covid govt and others were saying we needed to decentralise from everyone coming to the city.

Then they get a gift which allows for that and as it didn’t happen exactly as they would like, many want to force people back to offices in Melbourne so they can keep small businesses relying on workers coming into the city.

Any business reliant on that needs to find another business model.

And yes, we are much better off having more people actually living in the city. We have quite low percentage of people living in the actual city compared to most large cities around the world.

 

[peetoo]

Before Covid govt and others were saying we needed to decentralise from everyone coming to the city.

Then they get a gift which allows for that and as it didn’t happen exactly as they would like, many want to force people back to offices in Melbourne so they can keep small businesses relying on workers coming into the city.

Any business reliant on that needs to find another business model.

And yes, we are much better off having more people actually living in the city. We have quite low percentage of people living in the actual city compared to most large cities around the world.

Agree totally

 

[Blue1980]

Says more about you tbh. I'm (and the people you usually argue with on here) capable of leaning left (taxing companies/incredible wealth
properly and healthcare especially) AND right (immigration, pronoun nonsense, and DEI quotas for example). Whereas you take a topic, find the most left leaning position possible, and there's your answer. You think you're intellectual but thats really all you do.

On topic to thread, I advocate for WFH/flexibility as we've proven it works. **** inept management trying to take it away because they're poor managers. I just hope the staff affected value themselves enough to walk away from evidently shitty workplaces if thats what they value

Aren’t the economic polices more important than the culture war stuff you are against?

Like would you vote for gutting health and lower taxes for the rich, if said party said they were against pronouns?

Seems rather odd to me, that culture war stuff is done to distract people on the right, fear monger about diversity, immigrants, DEI etc. and you’ve fallen right into their trap.

Need to stay focused on what’s important not the window dressing stuff that won’t effect you.

 

[Seeds]

Aren’t the economic polices more important than the culture war stuff you are against?

Like would you vote for gutting health and lower taxes for the rich, if said party said they were against pronouns?

Seems rather odd to me, that culture war stuff is done to distract people on the right, fear monger about diversity, immigrants, DEI etc. and you’ve fallen right into their trap.

Need to stay focused on what’s important not the window dressing stuff that won’t effect you.

You are ignoring the fact the culture war is also secularism vs christianity. As an athiest i want to rid society of tax breaks for religions, religious schools and religious propoganda. I also dont believe a life exists at conception and I believe homosexuality is perfectly fine. Religious people want a very different world to me. I can understand why this is far more important to them than economics. Plus the right falsely believe trade wars will be good for the economy. So you are also wrong to assume they arent factoring in economics to their equations. They are just doing it incorrectly.