No Going Back To Work

[allenlondon]

Apparently, people who needn’t go back to work aren’t going back to work.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/10/no-rise-in-workers-in-uk-city-centres-despite-back-to-office-plea

Is this inevitable? So many office jobs are far from useful, involving moving bits of paper around, or making phone calls, that people just aren’t going to miss a few million office workers not turning up.

A bit like many hospital clinic consultations, just as effective done by telephone, people might be waking up to the tremendous waste of time that society indulges in.

[allenlondon]

I suppose I’m asking “Is your job really necessary?”

Most of mine haven’t been - printing, typesetting, some writing - if I hadn’t done them, nobody would have suffered.

I’m asking other people to be equally honest!

As a society (maybe as a species) we need to re-evaluate how we spend our lives.

[youngmafbog]

//I suppose I’m asking “Is your job really necessary?”//

An interesting topic that really needs its own thread rather than being an extension of 'Go back to your workplace'

I do see where you are coming from on that one Allen although I thing some of your earlier posts looked a tad disingenuous.

[youngmafbog]

//Yes, data security and file confidentiality is at risk with homeworking. //

No it isn't if setup correctly. You set a secure tunnel to the company servers and lock out any printing or copying. Company laptops/desktops should already have USB blocked and any attempts reported. I have done a lot of work in this area within a Bank. It's not expensive to do and is part of the cost if you want people to WFH

//Also I think health and safety will become an issue when companies won't provide adequate furniture.//

This is an interesting point. I remember when home working (I work in IT) first started coming popular the Company would pay for an extra line to your house (and later contribute to Broadband). They would also get you a chair and send someone round to inspect and ensure H&S was covered. By and large this seems to have stopped and I suspect is due to taxation problems. I know that was the issue with mobiles and Broadband payments.

[brainiac]

HSBC is planning to cut an astonishing 35,000 jobs. If their business is able to function - and, they hope, prosper - in future without them, then what on earth did those jobs consist of?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53633550

[naomi24]

I know companies that have offered to provide furniture to people working from home.

[fiction-factory]

>No it isn't if setup correctly

Thanks for pointing out what seems obvious to me. Unfortunately for many of those working from home it hasn't been set up properly yet and that will need to be addressed. For my wife the dial in process can take an hour and then disconnect. The laptops issued were from the stock that was purchased in response to a SARS scare years ago. Not everyone has fast enough broadband. Our mobile signal is patchy.
The job requires reading huge detailed reports and studying key tables and diagrams and reference books- much easier to do from hard copies but as they are stuck in the office it has to be done on screen, and not all the documents on file have been scanned in.

Some firms have been doing it for years and have it working well. Many have along way to go

[barry1010]

We are going full circle. A couple of hundred years ago most people worked from home or within walking distance. Society adjusted to the industrial revolution, the commute, the call centre and will adjust again.
Maybe long closed schools, shops and pubs will reopen in those commuter dormitories where workers live and sleep but travel for work, schools and a social life and don't know their neighbours. Maybe the 'little theatres' will be revived, the small two screen cinemas and 'community' put back in to local communities.
Exciting times!

[Prudie]

HSBC probably employed a lot of staff in high Street branches where you could walk in and get help within 5 minutes. In future you'll have to phone and wait during very reduced hours "to protect our staff" (yeah right) for an hour or more before you speak to someone, provided of course you haven't gone through a menu of six steps, failed to make an automaton recognise what service you require or reached a dead end.

[allenlondon]

And what brainiac says about HSBC (“then what on earth did those jobs consist of?”) that’s what I’m on about!

There are SO many jobs that are done because they are done, and not through necessity.

[naomi24]

Allen, if they're closing branches, apart from the inconvenience to their customers, they're putting people out of work. How do you suggest those people pay their mortgages and support their families?

[fiction-factory]

So I assume you are always very understanding when large businesses dismiss or make redundant thousands of workers. Is that a common view among Marxian economists like you then, allen? (and brainiac too?)

[teacake44]

There are about 6 banks in my town centre, all closed but one, at reduced hours. But most of the closed ones have signs in the windows encouraging you to download their app, and all the so called advantages of doing so. But lets be honest, banks have for a long time been looking for the perfect opportunity to close all branches. They've found one.

[youngmafbog]

HSBC were intending this to happen PRIOR to the Covid panic.

Banks, particularly large International ones, tend to have a very busy M&A department which usually means just bringing in the aquired Company lock, stock and barrel until rationalisation can be done. This means you carry a load of 'unnecessary' staff. The next problem they have is their standing in the market. If a Bank, or indeed any floated Company, starts shedding staff in good times then it sends jitters into the market which will usually hit the shareprice (especially with Day traders trying to make a buck). So I have noticed over the years that they wait until it is a 'good time to bury bad news' that way it is seen as a good thing.

//HSBC probably employed a lot of staff in high Street branches //

Quite possibly but around half of their business is in APAC, an area they have been having problems that dwarf the High Street 'issue'

[chelle7272]

//They would also get you a chair and send someone round to inspect and ensure H&S was covered. By and large this seems to have stopped//

Has it? Fair enough they may not visit everyone (and can;t currently under the guidance) but employers have a duty under health and safety at work to ensure workers at home the necessary equipment and are H&S compliant

[pixie374]

Naomi //How do you suggest those people pay their mortgages and support their families?//
Naomi, I'm honestly surprised that you are going with the personal with this, rather than the majority of the country. People will change their jobs, as they always have and always will have to- depending on what is genuinely needed. Nobody is owed a living... and I realise that sounds harsh, but businesses are not charities and will never work that way. I really would have expected you to say the same. There is a difference between what society and economy needs, and where people prefer to work... jobs are just not guaranteed forever, particularly if there isn't the demand for them.
Even working from home... workers would have to be not just "more productive", but "more productive enough" to cover all rent, bills, overheads and still give a reasonable profit. Or it won't happen.
It isn't my "choice", so don't shoot the messenger, it's reality though.

[youngmafbog]

Chelle, in my experience of companies I have worked with yes, it has.

Otherwise I would not have written it. It is my personal experience not a guess or supposition. The only time I have seen something done is where someone has special needs.

[Jackdaw33]

M&A? APAC?

[Prudie]

If we get rid of all jobs deemed unnecessary that should wipe out the entire fashion, leisure, travel, home improvement industries and all consumerism to boot. The huge percentage of people that would effect could go back to living in caves and eating berries and hedgehogs - until it all eventually returned. On a serious note most companies have already got rid of staff considered unnecessary, long before covid.

[pixie374]

It doesn't need to be necessary or essential, Prudie... just viable. If enough people are willing to pay the prices to go on holiday... they will.

[youngmafbog]

I agree with what you wrote pixie. No one is owed a living and the days of a 'job for life' disappeared well before Covid.

The problem here is clealry the speed of change but I think the ship has by and large sailed now and many are not going to accept hours in a cattle truck and being chaged the earth for it on a daily basis.

For me it is a shame. I have WFH for many years on and off and sometimes it is good but I miss the banter and social aspects of a workplace. I have tried a couple of times to retire but its the same problem for me there too.

Maybe we will start to see a mix, I know some places have a rota system in place, maybe thats the way forward?

However I dont see how most of those 'support' businesses will survive in the Cities. Maybe Pret et al should provide a delivery service for sandwiches/coffee to supply homeworkers?