Owning your own home

As am I, but I like my hatred of other people confirmed on a regular basis through interaction.

I'm back in the office already for 2-3 days a week. I am far more productive here. But what few companies have considered yet is how to compensate people for WFH. The odd day at home is fine, BUT if I am going to WFH for 40% of my time (2 work days) then frankly the company can start to cover my home office space - floor space, chair, and IT equipment and home Internet costs. Otherwise I'll come in and do 5 days and they can pay for central London office space instead.

Was chatting about this at the weekend - at the moment WFH costs are pretty low, but when winter comes and people start having the heating on for an extra 8 hours a day any monetary savings from commuting will start to get eaten up very quickly.

Tell me about it, I have the aircon on all day as I’m working from home and its more than three times the price of my monthly travel costs.

Yeah 100% agree on this, because essentially they are setting up a micro office in your home.

Yeah. I wonder how long it will be before a trip/fall at home while WFH then becomes a company liability. I don't think this has been thought through carefully and once the insurance companies start to pay attention, I think things will change rapidly.

Also - Everyone WFH is great now, but once team turnover kicks in, all company culture gets lost.

It will pendulum back to more time of the office one way or the other.

however safe an office space can be made, there's no accounting for how safe (or unsafe) the commute using PT will be as and when self propulsion is not an option, and for that reason - i'm out.

/laughs in house with choice of offices

also - all my stuff's here!

Guess it depends on the job/role. I was only in the office 2 days a week before this and that was mostly because I had a weekly 5-a-side game half a mile from the office after work on a Thursday.

The vast majority of people I work with aren't in the same office let alone the same country. I've worked for my current boss for 3 years and never met him in person. The one other guy I work directly with I've worked with for over 10 years and never met him in person.

I can't remember the last time I had a meeting of more than 2 people where everyone was in the same room and no-one was on the 'phone. Even when I had a meeting with a few people who were all based in the same office at least one of them would be working from home. If one person is on the phone it's often easier for everyone to be on the phone.

Moving to WFH full time doesn't cost me anything extra. The Internet costs don't go up. Heating won't go up as one of us was generally at home anyway. Given my cycling/running commuting full-time WFH saves me a single £2.60 train journey a week commuting costs (and that's because I went to the pub after 5-a-side).

I wouldn't say no to a chunk of cash or a pay rise to fund a new chair/monitors/etc every few years though.

When/if my 5-a-side game starts back up I'll probably go back to 2 days in the office but that's nothing to do with work, more just a convenience for that.

Also - Everyone WFH is great now, but once team turnover kicks in, all company culture gets lost.

I think this is very much company-dependant. We've hired 3 new people in the past 2/3 months (all done via video calls with the exception of supplying a laptop upon starting) and there isn't a noticeable difference in terms of the new starts integrating with the rest of the team versus pre-WFH. We have daily catchups at the start of the day and a social chat once a week so that likely helps a good deal.

My assumption is that most people don't work for companies with a global presence and remote management. I do, but I am aware that I am perhaps more an anomaly. My assumptions, however, may not hold up to closer scrutiny.

I think this is very much company-dependant

It is. But I am trying to look beyond my own experience. Working in tech makes this more flexible, but not all companies are like that.

they're all loving work from home and want it to be permanent

The politics will drive people back. People will get left out of decisions or miss opportunities. Not everyone will care, but the ones who do will feel they need to be present in person at least sometimes.

Yeah, tbf we are the same. We have had about 6 new starters and all have integrated well with the aid of daily stand ups and video calls.

There is however a real appetitive to get back into the office for some IRL FaceTime.

I actually have come to hate working from home as the norm, hope we work out some kind of balance that suites me (2-3 days in the office).

Oh definitely, I guess my thinking was more along the lines of "companies with a positive company culture will likely make an effort to ensure new starters don't feel left out as a result of current WFH setup".

But yeah, this will naturally vary company-to-company. Though personally I don't think it's limited to the tech industry, once again though, I'm not speaking from direct experience so feel free to discount that opinion!

The buyer of my other flat has got their mortgage offer sorted. They did it in two weeks. The four story block is newish (2006), but in terms of EWS it 'only' has a semi-cladded top floor and metal balconies.

Seems impressive that they managed this - I'm surprised. What's going on?

Just take it. Move. Start again. How's house hunting? Also all the cool kids are south of the river.

The politics will drive people back. People will get left out of decisions or miss opportunities. Not everyone will care, but the ones who do will feel they need to be present in person at least sometimes.

This nails my expectations, I'm the only person on my team eligibile for 'full remote' - except my manager, who I imagine won't opt into it anyway. So while I fully intend to be at home for as long as possible, politics will definitely drag me back into the office a few days a week purely because of the rest of my team will get so much preferential treatment in numerous ways

We've had wind we're being made an offer, everyone who viewed our place really liked it

2-3 days in the office need some new kind of deal/offer from the rail companies.

Some kind of flexible 2/5 or 3/5 season ticket otherwise people will reel from the cost of buying individual day tickets (compared to the quickly forgotten reeling from the cost of the monthly or annual season ticket). Obviously it may be very tricky for the rail companies to actually implement such a thing.

A colleague used to buy one weekly season ticket every fortnight and do a two week pattern of Wed-Fri, Mon-Tue but it was a ball ache for everyone else to arrange regular meetings and quickly led to a "fuck it, everyone just WFH whenever they want" culture.

Just take it. Move.

Yep yep yep

@duncs

Nested question. Which of the three options did you go for?

Can't see this happening whilst rail privatisation exists. It's not tricky at all to implement, there just isn't any financial incentive to do so.

Can't see this happening whilst rail privatisation exists

it's being looked at pretty seriously; at a guess, i'd say it could be up and running within 18 months or so, which is pretty quick for the rail industry.

on another point, rail privatisation barely exists at present with all revenue risk assumed by DfT.

I don't see that as changing in the immediate future, so DfT could easily mandate flexible season tickets, and train operators would have no reason not to implement, as they don't get the revenue anyway.

Even before Covid almost everything that mattered about rail franchises was at the whim of the government. Season tickets are a requirement with the prices heavily regulated.

Quite a few franchises have been asked to experiment with carnet/part time season tickets as part of their contract.