Rishi Sunak reckons...

[BoroMart]

I think the big difference is that successful working from home has called into question the point of any management layer which is just there to crack the whip. I would think the management consultants will be all over that like a rash for the bigger employers going forward.

Management layer don't exist to crack the whip. They take strategic direction and requirements from CxO/director level and build, operate and improve capability to meet those requirements. Any manager who thinks he exists to crack the whip is a supervisor not a manager and should be relieved of their duty.......and yes, I'm a management consultant

 

[ThePrisoner]

There was a drift towards home working before Covid, it hasn’t suddenly happened.

I think the big difference is that successful working from home has called into question the point of any management layer which is just there to crack the whip. I would think the management consultants will be all over that like a rash for the bigger employers going forward.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

Au contraire. Call centre workers and similar need to be monitored wherever they are to ensure work rate is maintained. Guardian had a story yesterday about home workers could be monitored by key-strokes/ cameras / AI.

It's a comin'. Who will stop it?

 

[HolgateCorner]

Management layer don't exist to crack the whip. They take strategic direction and requirements from CxO/director level and build, operate and improve capability to meet those requirements. Any manager who thinks he exists to crack the whip is a supervisor not a manager and should be relieved of their duty.......and yes, I'm a management consultant

Good, it’s time for you to get stuck in and earn some fees

 

[HolgateCorner]

Au contraire. Call centre workers and similar need to be monitored wherever they are to ensure work rate is maintained. Guardian had a story yesterday about home workers could be monitored by key-strokes/ cameras / AI.

It's a comin'. Who will stop it?

Yes somebody posted a link to that on one of the threads, sounds terrible doesn’t it?

 

[BoroMart]

Au contraire. Call centre workers and similar need to be monitored wherever they are to ensure work rate is maintained. Guardian had a story yesterday about home workers could be monitored by key-strokes/ cameras / AI.

There are plenty of automations to ensure that workers are creating value. It barely needs any people. Businesses shouldn't bother with key strokes and how much time someone sits in front of a keyboard. All businesses should understand their value streams, processes, and how staff involve themselves in those processes to create value. by measuring the right things, the important value generating metrics or key performance indicators, aligned to value streams they can validate how productive workers are. The trick is to get a balanced set of metrics aligned to value and ensuring that staff understand them and why they exist.

Some of the worst, least useful employees I've ever seen are the ones that think that being in the office and being seen at your desk is all that is needed. Measuring key strokes is absolutely pointless unless your business goal is to churn out lots of free format text regardless of its quality.

Businesses that go down the route of cameras and key strokes, will attract low quality employees, ones that don't want to think, ones that just follow strict process monotonously.....and ultimately they're the ones who will end up losing jobs to automation anyway. Call centres are already falling in staff through ChatOps and AIOps and Virtual Assistants which are improving all the time.

 

[Randy]

Every call centre in the country will do it. Nailed on. 'Experienced professionals' will no doubt be able to negotiate but for the average office drone I'll put my mortgage on this being a news headline before the summer's out.

The other thing to take into consideration, horrible companies could threaten redundancy or cut working hours, not sure of the legality surrounding that mind.

I suppose if a company wants it's employees to work in an office space then that's their decision and that's fine. Same can be said of a company that would prefer it's employees to continue working from home.

 

[ThePrisoner]

Nailed it

 

[HolgateCorner]

The other thing to take into consideration, horrible companies could threaten redundancy or cut working hours, not sure of the legality surrounding that mind.

I suppose if a company wants it's employees to work in an office space then that's their decision and that's fine. Same can be said of a company that would prefer it's employees to continue working from home.

Unfortunately, and despite some of the posts above, there will be plenty of companies and organisations who will not fully trust their employees to work from home.

The first time Johnson declares workplaces are safe there will be a collective back to the office call.

It’s just the way humans do things.

 

[BoroMart]

there will be plenty of companies and organisations who will not fully trust their employees to work from home.

agreed, but it will be mistake, they will lose out on the better employees, which kind of perpetuates the problem. You can't babysitter workers every minute of every day in an office

 

[BoroMart]

<wrong thread>

 

[HolgateCorner]

agreed, but it will be mistake, they will lose out on the better employees, which kind of perpetuates the problem. You can't babysitter workers every minute of every day in an office

I agree with you, if you have to stand over an employee then they are the wrong sort of employee.

I think most staff and workers just want to do a good job, but we have a long tradition of the master wanting to remind his servants who is in charge in this country.

Hopefully there will be a tsunami of modern thinking amongst some of the big corporates to prevent the progress made under Covid being lost.

 

[Andy_W]

Death of the city centre, mass unemployment but as long as your alright and you've saved some sheets of paper.Hope you're happy.

City centres won't die, they are congregation areas, and humans are mostly social. The point is there is zero point in massive offices and retail stores, when you have more digital storage online than any office can have, and as for shops you have a store a million times bigger in your pocket.

It won't be mass unemployment, employment will just move to different areas, ie from offices to home working, or hot desk offices which could be better equipped as resources and costs could be divided by many. As one door closes, another one opens. But denying the door is closing could mean it takes longer to get back in, if you get locked out.

Working from home, means people can schedule their work around their life, rather than their life around their work, it will lead to people having more control and ultimately being happier. Less time would be wasted travelling, so more time could be used socially or for work, or for health reasons.

There's nothing stopping better wealth distribution, to ensure the unemployed are better looked after, other than people actually voting for it.

 

[brain_in_a_jar]

Without sounding chewy, can I ask how working from home would be essential now?

Without sounding chewy - just because it is.

Bit like me saying a salary above **** would be essential.

 

[brain_in_a_jar]

Surely the answer if those things get you down is to get a partner or move out?

Its not about those things "getting you down" though is it? Its about preferences, when I first moved to London I didn't know many people, I was happy being single and while my flat mates were fine to live with we largely kept ourselves to ourselves and I was locked into a 12 month contract. Meeting people at work was great and I made some great mates at work too, I'm not sure just getting a partner and moving out would have really been a decent substitute for that if I was having to work from home all the time.

 

[brain_in_a_jar]

I can only speak for myself (Cabinet Office) but we've been told 100% home working won't be an option, other than exceptional circumstances (as it was pre pandemic). Hybrid working is what they're talking about so 1,2,3 days a week in the office and fewer desks.

there's obviously politics involved in that decision and like all government departments there's a big drive to move jobs out of London. Which, as someone alluded to earlier, you can't do if everyone can just work from home.

Heard similar, I do a fair bit of work with DWP and have mates who are home office and digital/media/culture and they've all said the same.

 

[BoroMart]

Meeting people at work was great and I made some great mates at work too, I'm not sure just getting a partner and moving out would have really been a decent substitute for that if I was having to work from home all the time.

you can't make friends over zoom or Teams?

 

[brain_in_a_jar]

you can't make friends over zoom or Teams?

To be perfectly honest, no probably wouldn't. Its completely different. I think I'd find it really difficult to have anything other than professional relationships with people at work if my only interaction with them was on zoom or teams.