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.

[Prudie]

I was really answering Allen who wants us to be honest by saying what we do is pointless.

[youngmafbog]

Just a thought, and I dont know the answer, what would be the law regarding smoking if working from home? Technically that would be your workplace and if others used the space like a commercial vehicle surely it should be illegal?

[youngmafbog]

Sorry JD, industry terms.

M&A? Mergers and Aquistions

APAC? Asia Pacific, as opposed to WHEN (Wetern Hemisphere) and EMEA (Europe, Niddle east and Africa)

[pixie374]

I agree ymb... although it isn't down to your employers to provide banter or your social life.... and unless it massively affects their profits badly, they won't.
Maybe we need a different approach about what jobs should provide... and quite honestly, I don't think we have a lot of choice now.

[pixie374]

Sorry, Prudie.... x

[Jackdaw33]

Thanks, YMB

[fiction-factory]

Three members of my family (in 3 locations) have been working from home since March and will do so fora few more months at least. In my extended family (siblings, nephews/nieces) several others are working from home. All are in well paid jobs
Not one of them has had a H&S inspection or been asked if they need any furniture or if they have enough space for their docking station, large screen and files, adequate light, ventilation and heat, or whether their place of work is secure (even though some are in shared flats). They have just made the best of it but space has been an issue for some as has using their own mobile and broadband excessively. If this is happening (not happening) across the country then I think we are storing up problems, mainly around H&S. I can imagine some law firms will set up a claims service before long around home injuries, back problems, stress

[chelle7272]

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

I'm surprised to hear that. I guess I'm very lucky then!

[mushroom25]

// Prioritize. Important work: the production and distribution of food. The care for the sick, so doctors, nurses, and their immediate support staff (not hospital managers)……………….

............….Step aside from your prejudices and LOOK. //

you claim to have looked, but you clearly didn't see.

"Important Workers" cannot do so in isolation. and it's not just a case of immediate support, a whole sub industry allows them to do their jobs. lets imagine for a second that an important piece of life sustaining equipment has broken down. it needs a Woggler's Moulie to get it working again. there are none in stock, management decided the storeman was non-essential and furloughed him. so the department staff are having to do their own ordering, but none of them have budgetary authority so have to write requisitions which need to go elsewhere for authorisation. the order is processed but the regular supplier, S Rumpo and company haven't got any. there is an alternative supplier, Williams and Horne, but they are not on the authority's approved supplier list, and nor have they been audited by the industry assurance scheme. the hospital's quality accreditation certificate allows use of non approved suppliers but only under certain strictly controlled circumstances. Woggler's Moulies are after all safety critical, they're no good if they're delivered with a crack in them, or 3mm undersize.

All of this may only take a day to sort, but there's an army of allegedly missable employed individuals that allowed it to happen, the absence of any one would have stopped the process. the staff operating the equipment can't be expected to do all that (although some will expect them to), they've enough to worry about keeping Joe Public alive.

[bednobs]

I used to work as a macmillan nurse. If I had to take calls referring people, or do all the filing (so I could find the files again when I needed them) or make all the referrals to other services i'd never get any actual seeing of patients done

[pixie374]

That is one problem I found d while nursing, bednobs... which did put me off... they seemed to spend more time filling out forms and paperwork, than actually working. This will happen when people are so ready to sue or blame though... and the media doesn't help. Everything has to be written down in 5 separate places.

[barry1010]

youngmaf, as an employee can legally smoke in a work provided vehicle (with the employer's permission) if he is the only person to use it, it stands to reason an employee working from home can smoke if no other employee goes to that home for the express purpose of work.

[jackthehat]

I don't think anyone is suggesting that heart-surgeons or shoe-shop employees work from home.....that would be just a little bit bonkers.
But those whose employment consists of sitting at a desk using a computer and/or 'phone could reasonably be requested to do so at home.
Rather than being restricted to dealing with businesses during a standard 9 to 5 day, perhaps *we* could also benefit from those at home being able to cover a greater spread of hours?
We really need to grasp the nettle and treat this as an opportunity to restructure rather than throwing our hands up in the air and panicking that the sky is falling in.

[pixie374]

Yes... it has to be easier to supply all employees with a smartphone, than to make everyone sit in a particular building. It's going to happen sooner or later... it does make sense.

[Prudie]

Just echoing what FF said I work for a large international company who bang on and on that H&S is their top priority. Usually we have to DSE assessments, regular PPE checks, monthly safety tours carried out, risk assessments coming out of our ears and every hazard or potential hazard formally reported. Since lockdown when the office staff were told to go home absolutely none of that has been considered for them at all. All they did was increase the Internet capability.

[woofgang]

pixie and bednobs, that is why I was employed in my last years in the NHS in forwarding the cause of secure electronic medical records instead of having to write things 5 times, having to manage somehow a paper filing system, having to make long winded referrals to to other services and so on. It is possible, yes there will need to be a huge investment to get the thing going but from a point of view of efficiency and, more important, patient safety and confidentiality, its a no brainer.

[pixie374]

I hope that happens everywhere, woof. Especially now.

[bednobs]

yes woofgang, but how long have you been retired for now? And it still isn't here :(

[woofgang]

I know but its beginning. My GP record (which is a big fat blank :) ) is now shareable. I think what it really needs is for the DoH to say "You are gonna do this" instead of leaving it up to local organisations. The biggest obstacle we had to deal with was the public who wanted to stick to bulging paper files and couldn't be brough to see how unsafe and insecure the system is.

[naomi24]

Pixie at 13:44. I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. I was asking Allen how he proposes the 35,000 people made redundant - and all those he thinks shouldn’t be doing what he considers unnecessary jobs - to pay their mortgages etc.