Will Those Who Have Insisted On Continuing To Work From Home Be Having Second Thoughts In The Winter?

[dave50]

After all, they will have to keep the heating on all day at home.

[FatticusInch]

Tell us who has ‘insisted’?

[barry1010]

It depends how much the commute costs, whether somebody will be at home anyway and other costs that can be saved by being at home.
A friend of mine inherited her late parents' dog and had to pay somebody to feed and exercise him whilst she was at work, now she does it herself. She also saves quite a few hours in childcare, being able to collect her son earlier.

Some will be better off returning to the office, others will still save working from home

[bednobs]

i am pretty much free to either WFH or the office. For me it'll be a choice between if it's more expensive to run the heating for a day, or use petrol to get into work i suppose.
Is this news?

[Fitzer]

Well my last full year commute cost a shade under £6000 so…

[Ellipsis]

At present, unlike domestic consumers, businesses face uncapped energy price rises. So it's unclear whether small businesses will be able to afford to keep their offices open over winter ...

https://firstvoice.fsb.org.uk/first-voice/smes-need-help-now-on-energy-bills.html

[naomi24]

Some will perhaps try charging the extra heating cost to expenses.

I read about a pub the other day that’s asking customers to bring a log with them to stack up the fire in the bar. Good idea!

[LadyCG]

I've just lost one of my homeworking days so I'll go in instead and use their electricity, heating and hot water for my tea.

[Ellipsis]

> I read about a pub the other day that’s asking customers to bring a log with them to stack up the fire in the bar.

I suspect a lot of people (and businesses) will be dusting off their fireplaces and getting them ready for winter. A bit of a shame for the old carbon emissions ...

[Untitled]

how fortunate that commuting doesn't cost anything eh?

[meaghan72]

I was working from home during covid, now we must go in just on a Monday. Its a 50-mile round trip to get to the office , so considering the price of fuel ,I am better off staying at home. My dad is in the house all day anyway as he's retired, we have a log burner so I'll be doing my work in the sitting room when its cold.

[andy-hughes]

I think working from home is a really bad idea.

BT started it back in the 80's and I resisted strong pressure from then until I retired.

Because work is work, and home is home, and a direct split is essential for both to function properly.

People work together, share companionship, ideas, and clearly work more efficiently.

Home workers are distracted, isolated, lack social interaction, and lose the discipline of the office environment.

This level of home working was forced on the population because of Covid, it was a necessary evil, it is not the new way of working.

Everyone who worked in an office, government employees especially, should be made to return there as soon as possible.

[Untitled]

I am afraid the evidence suggests you are wrong andy

[davebro]

I agree Andy - I would have hated working from home & probably not endured it for long. One of the incentives to go to work was the personal interaction with colleagues.

(And quite a number of successful on-going relationship would never have started with WFH)

[Milo2]

As said earlier, it depends on the cost of commuting. A relative had a long journey to the office and the cost of fuel for this is high so he is happy to work from home. He also is happier that he now has more leisure time as he doesn’t spend time getting to the office.

[meaghan72]

Surely it depends on the work you are doing? We have zoom meetings once maybe twice a day, more during lockdown and I can't really say I miss the trek into work in the winter. I do a better job at home, no distractions for me ,I have breaks start and finish at the same time, and sometimes work overtime to finish a job, where if I were at work, I would just leave it until the morning.

[davebro]

It may work well for some folks - to me it's another step in the disintegration of society.

[bobbinwales]

im sure there's evidence both ways... depends on lots a factors. But some companies have decided its more efficient for them saves on expensive office space and staff often log on at the time they'd of been starting the commute so get more done....and it helps retain staff who have child/ dog/ elderly parent responsibilities. Just wish i could do it but good luck to them what can

[Untitled]

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-06-02/are-workers-more-productive-at-home

https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/how-working-home-works-out

there are of course problems with WFH… the minority of workers who struggle with it really do struggle with it, so it is important (save emergencies like covid) that it is optional… WFH also works best when it is part time to conserve the benefits of an office…

but the fact is that huge numbers of people work better when given the chance to work from home - even when it comes to outputs that are measurable (e.g. calls per hour and other things) and it is crazy to ignore that for ideological reasons.

[davebro]

Incidentally a colleague who retired shortly after me to run his own internet website business now rents an office space rather than WFH - albeit with only a short commute.

[Untitled]

you might enjoy interaction at the office but many people despise it and find it distracting. It is important to provide the choice where possible… i do not think it is reasonable to insist everyone else should come in when it is not necessary for them to do it so that people who like office environments can feel more comfortable.

it is to some extent harmful to city centres but it is better for rural/suburb areas… people canactually start to build community in the places where they actually live rather than where they work… i do not think that’s a bad thing