Is Working in an Office a Thing of the Past?

General Chat In The News
21

Interesting commentary on this thread.

I’m working from home. My boss decided to cut costs. Productivity is up. Objectives exceeded. Life’s good.

Of course, it helps that all my stakeholders are located across 14 African countries so none are actually situated in SA.

To think, I took this position during a pandemic so I’ve not even met most of the team in SA.

Concerning is the possibility of travel opening up again and I’ll need to travel sooner or later for work. :smirk:

The world is changing. It’s called progress :blush:

1 Like
22

Well, exactly, maybe they can. Because those allowed to work from home are often allowed flexible hours

Take our job for example. My trainees standard week is 37 hours a week. Lunch breaks and coffee breaks come out of their own time, they have to be logged on and working for 37 hours

But those hours can be worked at any time between 7 am and 8pm. So yes, in theory, they could work from 7am to 12 noon, play four hours of golf, then work from 5.30 to 8 and still do a full day

Lots of mine do go for a swim, run or cycle in the afternoon, to make the most of the daylight, and then work late

If there’s a business need for them to be in the office at a particular time, then they have to be, but usually it’s pretty flexible

And it works well for the employer because doctor’s appointments, dentists, picking kids up from school all has to be done in their own time, no paid time off

And in practice it’s even more flexible than that, because they have to work 37 hours a week over a 3month period, 544 hours. So they can do short days or weeks if they like and make it up with some long ones

If these people you see booking golf are really skiving off and playing golf when they’re telling their employer they’re working at home, then that would be fraud and a dismissible offence

But it would be a very bad manager who didn’t notice poor productivity, not being available for phone calls and meetings etc, wouldn’t it? Surely they’d notice no work had been done?

1 Like
23

It can be pretty rough. You make some good friends though, and if the job is rewarding, that’s a plus.

24

We are also constantly under some sort of surveillance. No camera but logged in stats making it very difficult to shirk your responsibilities.

Hence increase in productivity. No more extended coffee and smoke breaks on company time!

I would have thought that the older generation would welcome future generations having a better work/life balance.

1 Like
25

Yes, that’s it exactly, it’s the way of the future

Another saving for our employer is less paying for travel and hotels

Before the pandemics there were lots of meetings, training and visits made all over the country, with travel costs and hotels paid for by the employer

But during lockdown all that switched to online meetings and training courses, literally a saving of hundreds of thousands of pounds

1 Like
26

Absolutely agree with you on this point. Alas, limited travel is a requirement for me due to certain circumstances.

1 Like
27

Yes, if someone were shirking it would be so obvious

I think it’s more that those haven’t experienced it are suspicious there might be skiving. As if there didn’t use to be plenty of skiving done in the office in their good old days! :rofl:

I think most older people do genuinely want a better life for the next generation but there are a few who seem to resent them having it easier than they did.

1 Like
28

Without exception, every single job I’ve had has been spoilt by certain circumstances. :slightly_frowning_face:

I suppose it’s inevitable when you are entirely indifferent to the goals of your employer.

2 Likes
29

Aye, a bit of sour grapes of sorts.

It really depends on the nature of the job. Some jobs just can’t be completed remotely.

I’m very fortunate in that my job can be completed remotely with great success.

30

I don’t think that it was a exactly in the distant past - at least for me. I was doing it from around 2010, maybe earlier. I did go into the office once or twice a week. A lot of what I did was technical stuff - quotations and performance calcs. This all needed to be done in writing, usually by emails - Word and Excel.

1 Like
31

@d00d , Cannabis farms!! With WFH rthe demand for gunga is bound to
go up !!
One thing l would like to know is how do they measure all the supposed
extra productivity ??
Donkeyman! :thinking::thinking:

1 Like
32

Yeah and this is what they are doing now in the loft of city blocks.

33

:+1:Yay! And I suppose also running a cannabis farm is an ideal WFH industry. There would be a lot of very warm lofts around here….On the other hand, with the cost of electricity going up, there’s probably not the dosh in it there was

You measure productivity the same way you always did.

Stats on hours salary paid out against cases worked, yield, cash in, goods produced, calls answered, calls made, correspondence issued, visits and outside work done etc etc.

And in our case, when they compared the figures, people were more productive working from home

It’s the same in most offices

34

@Minx , Yep, definitely sour grapes on my part Minxy !!
Every body needs to be physically exhausted at the end of a day’s work ?
Or it just aint work !!
Donkeyman! :-1::-1:

35

@d00d , How would that work though when you’ ve got to scrape the bed of
a 4metre machine bed to within 20 microns of straightness ??
I just can’t get my head round how work is described today ??
Donkeyman! :frowning::frowning:

1 Like
36

Hey relax, enjoy the party, you might even get a free lunch.

37

@d00d Yeah l suppose l should ? But it’s too late for me to get a free lunch ?
Which is what every body seems to be after now ??
It don’t seem natural somehow ??But don’t worry about me, l’m from
the stone age !
Donkeyman! :+1::grin::+1:

38

I would have loved to have all my machines installed at home, plenty of money to be made doing guvvy jobs for people at the weekends. Lets see… :017: I would require a centre lathe, vertical milling machine, bench and stand drills, surface grinder, optical toolmaking grinder, two rotary spark eroders, pedestal grinder for tool sharpening, dynamic balancing machine, engraving machine, and a large selection of small hand tools. On second thoughts, maybe it would be better to turn up at work with the lads.

1 Like
39

Yeh but, this thread is about office work! That’s what the OP says :rofl:

There’s always gonna be jobs you can’t do at home but that doesn’t mean jobs you can do at home aren’t important or aren’t work :+1:

40

One word answer “Productivity”,

As it said in the original video employers have found productivity has actually gone up.