The new normal

[cromwell]

I had a chat the other day with a person who works for a company with bases around the UK.
Long story short, it looks like home working (or anywhere working) is here to stay. The company's office in Wakefield will not reopen. They are going to have a small regional centre where people will meet up and hot desk, but that's it.
It is easy to see what the employer gets from this.
No expensive office space to rent. No utility bills for the offices, no security to pay.
But what about the other side of it?
The employee will have to pay increased utility bills. They will be using more water, gas and electric because they are at home all the time.
If they have a query it won't be as easy as just walking to the second floor and asking Joe for the answer.
The man who runs the office space will lose his job.
City centres will decline further. Fewer workers in them mean less lunchtime shopping. Fewer leaving do's. Fewer sandwiches bought at dinner time. Less spending in the cities in short.
And people are social animals. We like to mingle with others. Meet up with our friends, make new friends. Have a gossip and a laugh. None of the happens with home working.
I prefer the old way, not the new.

[Kaz]

Some will prefer the old way - others, especially those with a long commute, will much prefer to work at home. Possibly increased utilities bills, but a huge potential saving on travel expenses.

Mick much prefers working from home, he is quite disciplined about it, and it has also enabled us to move location a few times without him needing to find a new job. His team live all over the UK, they don't need to be in the same office. One or two even abroad.

My eldest, Chris, runs the in-house IT for his local council. During lockdown he's only had to go into the office twice, everything else has been run from his kitchen table. He's hoping they will allow him to work from home four days per week, so he can move out of Surrey to a cheaper area - happy days!

Having said that, I can see how it wouldn't work for many, both Mick and Chris are quiet men, who are perfectly happy working alone, although Mick has frequent phone calls and IM messaging......

[saundra]

My eldest granddaughter is a sales manager for a chemist but she has been working from home 4days a week loves it but has to be very strict in working hours as such
Like you say no coffee buying and snacks like she did at work no bus across the city
But she does miss her friends at work
But I do think it's going to be like this more in the future

[medsec222]

My son is also working from home. He likes it but he is disciplined and logs on and off at the right times. He is extremely busy. He saves quite a lot of money on petrol and parking so he is happy with the way things are at the moment.

[Workingman]

I have said these things before, but worth repeating.

Without huge office complexes to run some members of middle management will not be needed so there will be quite a few job losses. There are quite a few members of staff whose sole function is to "run" the office.

Also, people WFH need to check their property deeds and home insurance. Many councils specifically do not allow operating a business from home, which is what WFH actually is, and then the home insurance attracts a premium for doing so. Not informing the council and the insurance could be racking up future problems should something go wrong.

Personally I think that many of the home workers will eventually drift back to the office even if it is only for the crack and the company and to be imprisoned within four different walls. Getting away from the family and having a bit of variety in their working day will be like heaven for a lot of them.

[cromwell]

There are advatages to home working Kaz, yes. No commute means getting up later and less pollution from car exhausts. But you, Saundra and Meds have all mentioned discipline which is a good point.
Some people will be disciplined; home working was run when I was working and some people used it as an excuse to do less work. One bloke was uncontactable for hours one day - the rumour was that he had gone to the gym when he should be working. My favourite though was a project manager who got a call. The call was answered by his wife who explained that he couldn't answer the phone as he was in fact driving her to work!
Some people just took the mickey and they all got away with it.
I did wonder about home insurance WM but the rule about not running a business from home I'd completely forgotten about.

[JoM]

John’s now back in the office full time (well, four days which is currently full time for him) and has been since early June. For the first week or two it was just him and the UK director, it was only them and one other who hadn’t been furloughed but in the last couple of weeks they’ve brought more people off furlough and back into work. In John’s department there’s only one draughtsman who he hasn’t yet brought back (plus his apprentice although he’s given him a date to return in August before his college course resumes). They find it easier to work if they’re all in the same place rather than working remotely. Working from home worked well during lockdown but now the companies they’re designing equipment for and installation sites have reopened it’s busy again so it’s easier to all be in the same place for discussing ideas and plans.

John was very disciplined when working from home though. He was in the home office from 8 every morning and working through until anytime between 5.30 and 7pm, taking the allowed 45 minutes for lunch.

Re insurance. we had an email from our home insurers which said that there was no need to inform them if working from home and that their contents insurance would cover business equipment. I suppose it was easier to make that decision and email it out rather then have to deal with the amount of phone calls they’d receive.

[Workingman]

I did wonder about home insurance WM but the rule about not running a business from home I'd completely forgotten about.

I only know about it because I used to work from home two weeks a month and the boss said to check. My landlords were OK with it as I would not be having visitors but that was only once they had checked the covenants, business rates (on part of the home) and their mortgage. My house contents insurance was changed (upwards) as all the computer gear, printer, mobile, desk etc, which were in the "office" went from recreational use to business use.

It will be a very grey area for many people. I guess that most will be fine regarding the use of the home as a place of work, but the kit they are using will be a different matter and some will be caught out. Jo, re home contents insurance, it will all depend on the level of cover a person has and it varies form company to company. It's a bit like insuring your car for social domestic and pleasure purposes and then using it to visit other sites of work or customer premises where it should be Class 1 - business use.

There might also be issues with phone and broadband. Business packages can often be cheaper but you get no add-ons.