You are reading a single comment by @brokenbetty and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
I've always thought office politics will drive everyone back in.
It's not going to take much for your average middling management meddler with a damp weak handshake to feel insecure with not having bums in seats and to get everyone back in.
My (pre-covid) ambition was to live out of town, and with two days a week in the office with an overnight in a travelodgealike. Still is my ambition, pretty much.
NotThamesWater
@brokenbetty
I was speaking to one of our younger guys yesterday and he hadn't left the house since Monday. He's really keen to get back.
Over the year our management have swung from "this is great, we will have a whole new model" to "standard 3 days a week in the office, some roles might need more or less".
I'm not surprised. It's one thing to take people with momentum and established networks and get them working remotely, it's a different thing to kick off new stuff and integrate new joiners. I've always thought office politics will drive everyone back in.
I'm not sure the 3 day thing will work either, at least not in a way that saves office space. The reason to come into the office is to see people face to face, so you need to be in on the same days as the people you need to see. Which means everyone is likely to gravitate to the same 3 days...
(Though as far as my actual role goes I'm pretty sure my manager will just trust me to do whatever works best.)
I think people who sold up in London expecting to be able to work remotely may regret it though.
Probably fine for the job they are currently in but it's going to restrict their ability to change. And even one day a week is a bastard if it's a long commute. In my last job I did one day a week in our out of town office which was 2.5 hours each way and it really screwed up the week. The out of town day was a total write off home-wise, but the evening before was messed up by having to get to bed early for the early start, and the day after I was on the back foot from having no real down time before going to bed and up again for work. I ended up making every other week a stay-over to space out the journey, but I was lucky that work would pay for that.