Back to Work

[JohnL]

So who is staying home voluntarily and who is staying home as advised by their Employer. Who's office has shut until Christmas or even permanently.

The Transport Secretary seems to think we all have a choice in this matter.

[Jules-and-Boo]

My office is open but we are advised to stay home. We can do what whichever we prefer.

I doubt compulsory attendance will be in place until 2022. Suits me.

So far, I've done loads of work (started really early), taken the dog out, done the laundry. Me WFH suits our family.

[mancity68]

Office just opened for two days a week max of 10 people allowed (usually 30/40). We can all work from home and no pressure at all to go back. I'm ok wah but don't really like it if I'm honest. Prefer not having work in my house and quite like having others around. I went in for the first time last week - glorious! Empty trains, aircon office, two screens, proper chair and table, printer... Will hope to go for another day next week.

[seenbeen]

Some businesses are not going to return any time soon because it's cheaper for people to work from home at the moment

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53925917

not surprising really. No fares into town, no travel time lost and no exposure to the infected! However the sandwich bars, coffee shops etc will lose out- turn them into residential?

[Cyclemonkey]

At the moment 500 people can go in to our office(you have to book in advance and people who struggle to work from home are prioritised.). It usually holds 5000 people.

I would be happy to go in but I am not in the priority group

[andrewc]

I let go of the offices I rented in town and now use the living room for face to face and the bedroom for me desk (in the bay window). Not going back. Time for a change.

[SpringTime]

I am working and have been based back at the office since early June, as have my colleagues. Best way for us. I hope as many people as possible can and will go back to their offices. Solitude scares me! Easily distracted I don't think WFH is right for me. The discipline of commuting and meeting face-to-face in the morning at set times works well for me. I find it orderly. My colleagues are the same. There are benefits to working from home but given the option (and at the moment there isn't one for us) most of us would take a day or two at most working from home. Given the nature of our work any more days at home would be detrimental to the business. I think we're also likely to spend our change on other local businesses given an office base - I don't that'd be so much the case if we were all home-based to be honest.

[Siduhe]

I'm in the office 2/3 days a week at the moment. We all have the option to work from home but are encouraged to go in when it's necessary for existing work or helpful to developing business.

I would say about 20%-30% of my colleagues are doing the same over July/August and that number will probably go up to 70-80% when the schools go back. But I can't see many people going back 5 days a week every week for a while yet, although some of our youngest staff are pretty much there (those in shared accommodation, but who tend to live centrally, so it's actually easier for them to work in the office).

[ed_pete]

I am working in the office because of extremely disruptive building work in neighbours house. We use 4 floors in the building where I work and I am the only person on the floor where I sit which has a capacity of 130.

Theoretically the company think we can reach a capacity of 30% and maintain social distancing and they are going to "encourage" more people back over the coming weeks, at least a few days a week, but I get the distinct feeling most are going resist quite strongly, especially those with longish commutes.

[Penguin68]

The enforced working from home has greatly surprised many employers by being, broadly, as effective productivity-wise as working from an office. Many had felt (from private studies undertaken for a telecoms firm) that people would not work effectively unless supervised and 'over-seen' by management. This has proved, more generally than had been anticipated, to be wrong.

However there are clear benefits to office working for some and at some times - it is much easier for new staff to be integrated into a physical office than a virtual one - and team working, seen as a great business process advance in the two decades which straddled the century, is clearly more difficult remotely - when team building for instance is contemplated. Again for some, although their work could be performed from home, their own home circumstances may militate against this. And some are temperamentally ill-suited to lone working.

I'm guessing that even when we are 'over' Covid-19 office occupancy may continue round today's equivalent of 50% with numbers working permanently from a home office, and others going in perhaps 1-3 days a week. There are good business reasons for that - why pay for office accommodation you don't really need?

Over time this will have a significant impact on building use in city centres, and in support service provision (including catering) locations - with fewer in the centre of towns and perhaps more vibrant suburbs. There will undoubtedly be pain to come before we enter a new normal.

[Han92-ED]

Not going back properly til January 2021 - office is open if we need to go in now though

[KidKruger]

I left the City last year to change sectors and WFH full time.

Perfect timing !

[Rockets]

January for us too. Glad I don't work in office space real estate.

Although you have to worry for the businesses in London that survive on the basis of office workers or tourists.

[JohnL]

Sky News have somebody on to give advise to those upset by the idea they might lose their job due to working from home but redundancies happen whether you're in an office or at home IMHO.

Got to say every time a business moves closer to being 100% cloud the less role for us legacy network guys - but there's still a market for us it seems :) You can't get upset about it and shake your fist at the cloud.

[EDguy89]

My company is currently working from home and working towards a return to the office at some point.

Been WFH since March and it seems we might not be returning until late 2020 if not early 2021.

Even when we do go back, with social distancing, we can't really occupy the same amount of office space we had once previously done. It's unlikely they'd let out more to accommodate the employees. I figure we'll be doing on and off days.

Personally, I'm glad to be home. I've gotten so much more time with my child as a result. It's been great.

[tedfudge]

I have been working in city and west end all the way through as deliver papers to hotels and buisnesses but now mainly doing house deliveries as very quiet at moment.. some hotels have reopened and a few buisnesses. As we deliver papers we cant work from home.

We also deliver to sky so what papers you see on sky news etc is what my company deliver to them and the BBC.. we need people back to offices

[Rockets]

I was really quite shocked how dead parts of London are now: take a walk through Covent Garden and Holborn to see the impact this is having on small and big businesses alike.

We walked down Park Lane a few weeks ago and not one of the hotels there were open and the usual super-car valet parking outside the Dorchester was empty bar one less that super-car.

We also walked around St Paul's and it was sobering to see the impact on the businesses who provide services to office workers.

Scary times for our beloved city.

[Pugwash]

I have a few friends who have been working from home. One a senior manager is fed up being at home and has asked to return to the office but was refused, yet his junior staff have been encouraged to return.

The other is a friend whose daughter has been working from home since March - daughter has a business mobile phone plus laptop. Her elderly mother is becoming increasingly frustrated at the noise of the phone, the tapping of the keyboard and also that her daughter questions why she wants to go out of the flat to the local shops. Having to spend 24 hours each day with her daughter is driving her up the wall- she is used to daughter being out of house between 8 am - 6 pm.

Another friend is a social worker in a Children's Team, she has been working from home since March, contacting her clients by phone but going into work 2 days a week. Some of her work is child protection and she needs to visit families/foster parents etc for face to face meetings.

[Guest]

The view from my workplace is March 2021. Although they may look at opening up to a few people earlier.

[JohnL]

Rockets Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I was really quite shocked how dead parts of

> London are now: take a walk through Covent Garden

> and Holborn to see the impact this is having on

> small and big businesses alike.

>

> We walked down Park Lane a few weeks ago and not

> one of the hotels there were open and the usual

> super-car valet parking outside the Dorchester was

> empty bar one less that super-car.

>

>

> We also walked around St Paul's and it was

> sobering to see the impact on the businesses who

> provide services to office workers.

>

> Scary times for our beloved city.

I went to pick up a few things from the office and then walked around Holborn - it was dead (except for Knights Templar spoons which seemed to have a few people in it). It was the boarded up shops that made it feel really down.

We won't be going back until 2021 though - if ever as we're closing offices across Europe as a result of other changes. Our US colleagues have just been told 2021 too. Government has to be careful what it says as it's not a case of people refusing to go back they are being told to stay at home for now.

[EDguy89]

JohnL Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Government has to be careful

> what it says as it's not a case of people refusing

> to go back they are being told to stay at home for

> now.

It'll be interesting to see what this campaign looks like and whether it works. The BBC article regarding this campaign opened up with this:

"Employers will be asked to reassure staff it is safe to return by highlighting measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19."

I can't really see how the government can ask companies to tell their employees this.

My company has taken incredible steps towards preparing for a return to the office. The effort made has been very impressive and most people within the company are confident of their safety within the office. However, that's not where the concern lies for my colleagues. The main concern is about travel. It's all well and good that the office is safe, but it doesn't matter at all if you are stuck on crowded public transport.

For someone like myself, it's less of a concern because I can use alternative means of travel to get to the office that don't involve being in a metal cylinder with other people. However, many of my colleagues commute into the office from far outside the city. Some having commutes via public transport of up to an 1.5 hours one way.

I'm interested in seeing how all this plays out.

[tedfudge]

Dorchester is open they are doing some refurbishment and guest are across the road at 45 park lane hotel..

Claridges is only having restraint open until 15th September then looking to take guests back in.

Like others have said a lot of buisnesses are not opening until 2021 hopefully we can all keep our jobs

[bsand]

I now live in Welling where nearly every house with an estate agent board has sold on it and I do a different walk every day and we are talking close to maybe a hundred boards. Driving through my old manor of ED yesterday I saw the area festooned with to let on houses and for sale on inumerable flats with very few sold signs.