Boss of Britain's biggest office space...

It’s healthy to go to work rather than work from home. You meet colleagues, have conversations you probably wouldn’t at home, banter etc., and some marriages might feel the strain.
 
Hybrid working seems to be the buzz phrase at the moment; say two/three days a week in the office and the rest working at home.

I can see the attraction but it’ll be more difficult to manage than all in the office or all at home.
 
I've been involved in debating the best tactics for this with clients in my consulting business, all whilst delivering 100 percent of my work over the last 11 months from our living room at home. I'd expect a slow creep back to "normality" for the bulk. There'll definitely be more agreed home working, with in some cases a grudging and suspicious line taken by employers. On a related note, it could help employers hit their scope 3 carbon targets.
 
Weve been working from home throughout and we won't be going back this year. I can see a situation whereby we go in for large team planning sessions maybe every few weeks, but otherwise we'll carry on working remotely.

Remember get back to work to save Pret? Won't happen. The hubs strategies we were moving to, with huge city centre offices wont happen now, despite vested interests.

I live 7 miles from the office. It was costing me £8 a day to park, was taking at least 45 minutes each way in traffic. I can do without it, thanks.
 
Wizaard said:
Weve been working from home throughout and we won't be going back this year. I can see a situation whereby we go in for large team planning sessions maybe every few weeks, but otherwise we'll carry on working remotely.

Remember get back to work to save Pret? Won't happen. The hubs strategies we were moving to, with huge city centre offices wont happen now, despite vested interests.

I live 7 miles from the office. It was costing me £8 a day to park, was taking at least 45 minutes each way in traffic. I can do without it, thanks.
Click to expand...
Working from home are you having a laugh. You’re on here all day🤫🍊⚽️
 
2 clients I am contracting for are basically turning their offices into conference centres/essential desk workers only and binning off the excess space.

I miss the banter, human interaction to a degree, office totty too lol and have been pee'd off at times with the groundhog day feel, however overall I would prefer to stay this way with occasional office trips. I love the lack of commute, have my home gym all set up ready for before work, like my own company for the most part (like you td53), get more done etc etc.

The feel I'm getting is that it will be a more flexible working world.... the traditional 9-5 Mon-Fri will change from what we knew unless as mentioned it is essential. i think for the most part we've all proven that we can deliver remotely and the tech seems capable of handling it too.
 
There are going to be a large number of businesses who will be revaluating their spend on large office space....especially in the high cost areas....
Many areas these businesses....especially those reliant on retail, retailers and the high street in general are heading for a massive downturn.

Why have 30 or 40 members of staff sitting in an air conditioned, heated room providing electricity, staff rooms, wi-fi etc. etc.....costing £40k pa
When you can have a smaller work hub and allow staff to work remote....
The pandemic has shown home working is possible and it makes sense to allow staff the freedom to regulate their work day.
 
B_Side_The_C_Side said:
There are going to be a large number of businesses who will be revaluating their spend on large office space....especially in the high cost areas....
Many areas these businesses....especially those reliant on retail, retailers and the high street in general are heading for a massive downturn.

Why have 30 or 40 members of staff sitting in an air conditioned, heated room providing electricity, staff rooms, wi-fi etc. etc.....costing £40k pa
When you can have a smaller work hub and allow staff to work remote....
The pandemic has shown home working is possible and it makes sense to allow staff the freedom to regulate their work day.
Click to expand...
Makes sense for who exactly?
 
I'm not tired of working from home.
I certainly don't miss being crammed on a train and tube an hour a day and I certainly don't miss getting to the station and seeing crowds of people because there's yet another issue with signaling, a jumper or overrunning engineering works.
I enjoy the time I get back.

But there are certain work functions that it's better to do in the office. And when you meet with customers or suppliers, I'm sure it's better to do it face-to-face more often than not; although Zoom, Teams, Webex, Skype etc...all work fine.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Makes sense for who exactly?
Click to expand...

Well.......loads of businesses who have expensive offices in larger cities who paid higher rents
If you can cut your office workforce down and operate in a smaller space......then thats money saved.....and shows new working practacise (Think Teams or Slack)

And as (many) companies are using this pandemic as a way to re-evaluate how they operate (to save money and improve workers productivity) and become more agile (business jargon) to get a competitive advantage within their market.....or they could just want to get certain people out of the office for a few days......
 
B_Side_The_C_Side said:
Well.......loads of businesses who have expensive offices in larger cities who paid higher rents
If you can cut your office workforce down and operate in a smaller space......then thats money saved.....and shows new working practacise (Think Teams or Slack)

And as (many) companies are using this pandemic as a way to re-evaluate how they operate (to save money and improve workers productivity) and become more agile (business jargon) to get a competitive advantage within their market.....or they could just want to get certain people out of the office for a few days......
Click to expand...
I think you may be over-simplifying things just a little TBH.
 
B_Side_The_C_Side said:
There are going to be a large number of businesses who will be revaluating their spend on large office space....especially in the high cost areas....
Many areas these businesses....especially those reliant on retail, retailers and the high street in general are heading for a massive downturn.

Why have 30 or 40 members of staff sitting in an air conditioned, heated room providing electricity, staff rooms, wi-fi etc. etc.....costing £40k pa
When you can have a smaller work hub and allow staff to work remote....
The pandemic has shown home working is possible and it makes sense to allow staff the freedom to regulate their work day.
Click to expand...
The one problem with this is companies who don't trust their staff, so a majority of them, they need to have control over them because they're control freaks.
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
The one problem with this is companies who don't trust their staff, so a majority of them, they need to have control over them because they're control freaks.
Click to expand...
Again it’s not that simple....

Trust is going to play a part and rightly so, but in the scheme of things it’s manageable and it would be the least of my concerns... Nost businesses would just implement performance / productivity measures and manage accordingly.

My main concerns would be how it impacts on employee development and competence (especially over the long term) as well as customer experience. Also how we manage motivation, team ethic, healthy competition information flow etc..

As an employee I’d be concerned about the demarcation between work and home life becoming blurred and also the fact that I may now be in competition with a more globalised labour market....
 
If it’s proven that people can be managed from home and produce what they need to then my fear would be outsourcing so that people in India, for instance, can work from home and produce what a company needs for a third of the wage cost .....therefore you are at home for sure but not working because you are on the Dole
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Again it’s not that simple....

Trust is going to play a part and rightly so, but in the scheme of things it’s manageable and it would be the least of my concerns... Nost businesses would just implement performance / productivity measures and manage accordingly.

My main concerns would be how it impacts on employee development and competence (especially over the long term) as well as customer experience. Also how we manage motivation, team ethic, healthy competition information flow etc..

As an employee I’d be concerned about the demarcation between work and home life becoming blurred and also the fact that I may now be in competition with a more globalised labour market....
Click to expand...
Nah, you just want them in like children.
 
Agree...there are a number of larger businesses with tele-sales, admin and customer services who would struggle to implement this type of working......That's why a work hub with the ability for workers to use home work along side office based days seems to be the way forward.

Achieve KPI's and 2 or 3 days at home......if you use IT for your business...90% are freelancers/Project specific...and work from home/Starbucks

I doubt we will ever see the NHS/Civil Service/Sales permanently at home....but 2 or (even) 3 days with 2 rotating days at work are achievable.

The future will see a more and more nationwide workforce.....you wont have to be based in the area which will allow specialists better access to jobs etc...
 
I wish I'd never started this thread now, the business jargon has made me sad for humanity and it's lot.
 
B_Side_The_C_Side said:
Agree...there are a number of larger businesses with tele-sales, admin and customer services who would struggle to implement this type of working......That's why a work hub with the ability for workers to use home work along side office based days seems to be the way forward.

Achieve KPI's and 2 or 3 days at home......if you use IT for your business...90% are freelancers/Project specific...and work from home/Starbucks

I doubt we will ever see the NHS/Civil Service/Sales permanently at home....but 2 or (even) 3 days with 2 rotating days at work are achievable.

The future will see a more and more nationwide workforce.....you wont have to be based in the area which will allow specialists better access to jobs etc...
Click to expand...
Stop talking shit - seriously, it’s embarrassing.
 
B_Side_The_C_Side said:
I just pictured The Biffer as he sent that reply.......
View attachment 5076

and by the way Biffer....you should really consider home working....something tells me that's your future.......
Click to expand...
Do you mean that “I should consider home working” or that “I could consider home working”


Lytham_fy8 said:
But, this is one now
View attachment 5077

And this is it a week after you force all your staff back in the office.
View attachment 5078

Hope you can sleep at night.
Click to expand...
Lytham, on a serious note, I do think you need to bear in mind that you (like myself) are of a certain vintage... on the down slope and all a bit impotent etc... So hiding away in a cupboard is probably fine..

The bloke in the article you linked is on about young spunky kids, who are interested in a career, developing skills, relationships and the buzz that goes with working in a busy city centre office.

Sort of Rigsby out of Rising Damp vs Wolf of Wall Street👍
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Do you mean that “I should consider home working” or that “I could consider home working”



Lytham, on a serious note, I do think you need to bear in mind that you (like myself) are of a certain vintage... on the down slope and all a bit impotent etc... So hiding away in a cupboard is probably fine..

The bloke in the article you linked is on about young spunky kids, who are interested in a career, developing skills, relationships and the buzz that goes with working in a busy city centre office.

Sort of Rigsby out of Rising Damp vs Wolf of Wall Street👍
Click to expand...
That's a fair point, the age who still go clubbing and actually like other people.
 
B_Side_The_C_Side said:
There are going to be a large number of businesses who will be revaluating their spend on large office space....especially in the high cost areas....
Many areas these businesses....especially those reliant on retail, retailers and the high street in general are heading for a massive downturn.

Why have 30 or 40 members of staff sitting in an air conditioned, heated room providing electricity, staff rooms, wi-fi etc. etc.....costing £40k pa
When you can have a smaller work hub and allow staff to work remote....
The pandemic has shown home working is possible and it makes sense to allow staff the freedom to regulate their work day.
Click to expand...
And allow staff to pay for the heating, lighting and electric
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top