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[Uffddd]

The Head of the Civil Service, together with the Head of the Cabinet Office, has put out advice in line with Government policy.

It is that working from home is to be "the default position", during, and I understand, post COVID-19.  It is also the intention that the Civil Service should therefore be "an exemplar" in this respect.

The implications of that intention on the way we lived pre-COVID are enormous.  If all the people whose jobs involve spending their working day in front of a computer screen (and that seems to be the norm these days), are now going to be working from home, what's the future for example, for the enormous skyscraper offices in places like Canary Wharf and the City of London?

No rates revenues for the Local Authority for a start.  No rental income for the property developers, no income for the hospitality areas surrounding those offices, so they fold, with an added rates, landlord/property company revenue fall.....

And that's just one small unsympathetic example.  The western industrialised world, which has been talking about changes for a long time due to advances in technology, and pressure from the environmental lobbies, has suddenly had change forced upon it.

The only sure thing in these uncertain times, is that it will be us ordinary people who will bear the pain and/or cost of the changes.  It's going to be the younger generations who are going to have to deal with it.  Me? - I just hope to be trundling about in my S11 on more traffic-free roads, until my dotage renders me even more incapable, and I go to the never-never.

It's going to be emotional folks.....

In London especially there will be vast numbers of people for whom working at home is possible, but not desirable or convenient. Very few office workers will have space in their homes for dedicated offices and having to use the kitchen table or living room as such can't be easy even if living alone.

I think the office blocks will survive for a long time yet.

[Grandadrob]

I agree with Crumbly there. Both my (big) kids commute long and expensive distances to work in London. During these recent times, both have been working very successfully from home. They both intend to get as many days working from home in future as possible. This would potentially save them thousands of pounds per year in either fuel or season tickets. Plus the time, over an hour in each direction five days a week, so more leisure time. I have heard from a really good source that HP the computer people, are actively persuing this project, and intend to offload lots of office space worldwide.
Of course, not all jobs are suitable for working from home, I spent my life in the London Fire Brigade, not sure how working from home would work there. But the days of millions commuting into big cities are numbered. Think of the savings from any large company. But, there is the impact on those, as mentioned before, for whom it is not either possible or desirable to work from home. These are interesting times, and just for once, I am glad to be a pensioner watching from the sidelines.

[crumbly65]

You're quite right Ufddd.  It could be, and will be, inconvenient at best, difficult for many, and well-nigh impossible for scores of ordinary working people.

SWMBO has been working from home since 23rd March.  We don't have an office or dedicated "computer space", so she's operating from the dining room table.  She printed off a works document the other day, 32 pages, and ran our printer out of ink......   

She's spending all day on a dining chair at that table.  It's not good for her back, not having a proper office chair, but at least she doesn't have to get up early to do the (very unpleasant and tiring) commute into London.  Given her normal office hours of around 38 hours a week, there's at least another 20 hours to be added commuting - and out of hours calls if something happens in the 24/7 place where she works.  So at least 60 hours a week working.

Now, she's doing an 8 hour day 5 days a week.  She's cashed in her Season Ticket, which costs her over £300 a month (after tax remember), and if she does have to go into the office occasionally, she'll just pay as she goes - and that'll be outside the rush hours. 

So she's better off financially, has more time at home, but oddly, less freedom.  Now she has to have a conference call in the morning with some of her staff, another conference call with her Boss and the other department heads mid-morning/early afternoon, and another conference call after that with the rest of her staff to report results of the earlier calls. That's a bit of a *&%^$ for me, as I either have to stay quiet, or make myself scarce whilst these "Teams" or "Zoom" meetings are in progress.  And not distract her if she's typing a sensitive document to e-mail. 

Therefore, her working from home impacts my life differently than it did when I dropped her off and collected her from the station, but had the whole of the day to myself.  But on balance, despite the inconvenience and/ or minor difficulties, working from home is preferable - for her.  It won't be for everybody of course, but anybody flogging into work every day, some distance from home, will welcome the respite working from home brings - despite any resultant problems.

I was just making the point that post COVID-19, our world will have changed, and those changes may be irrevocable.  And many of the changes will have consequences and impacts unforeseen at the moment....... 

[Kernowcam]

All very true.
We are finding the Same in our small way , working from home.

[agg221]

I am anticipating that there will be a lot more choice.

Those companies which said 'it can't be done' have had no option but to do it.
However, there are many consequences which are not purely associated with lockdown.
There is the physical - the inconvenience or near-impossibility of a comfortable, suitable working environment. I have no desk or table - I literally have the arm of the sofa, or sitting on the bed when I need to have a Zoom meeting. Admittedly this will get easier when the children go back to school as I can move to the dining table and my wife is a teacher so will definitely go back to school. There are people whose accommodation will not allow this - those starting out who live in a shared house and have no space for a desk. We have people working by sitting on the edge of the bed, using an ironing board as a desk. We have people whose flats are shoeboxes and they do not have anywhere practical to put a desk. Personally, give me a year's notice and I will re-prioritise my building works to finish the downstairs and get space for a desk, rather than finishing the upstairs and giving the family access to a shower and myself a bedroom I can stand up in (ceiling height is 5'2" at the moment). Others will have similar issues.

Far more importantly however is the mental side. It is pretty isolated already during lockdown and mental health issues are beginning to show. The latest NHS figures leave the increase in non-coronavirus deaths by 8000 a month unexplained but they acknowledge that part of this is mental health related (they do not assign figures). The workplace has a very important social role to play. For some, it is the only real (as opposed to virtual) interaction they have with other people. An observation - in the UK, prisoners in solitary confinement have to be visited daily by a medical professional, and are allowed out for an hour a day for exercise and supervised conversation with another prisoner. If you wish to extend beyond 48 days of solitary confinement, you require permission of the regional governor. I draw the deliberate parallel because it indicates the critical importance of social interaction.

I think the workplace will change. There will be fewer people based there five days a week and more people who are in and out on a flexible basis. It will consequently become far less critical where you live in relation to the company you work for. However, I would be very surprised and, quite frankly very worried, if there was a genuine belief that everybody whose job is computer-based was expected to permanently be based at home full-time.

Next week is Mental Health Week btw - I will be interested to see what comment there is.

Alec

[Grandadrob]

Good point^^^^^
So big city house prices, driven by the need for a five day commute, will surely take a hit. Why live in a commuting area when you don’t.   Or at least don’t for 50% of the week.   Interesting times.

[w3526602]

Hi,

How about a local office hall, divided into alcoves, with a central "utility " area, with facilities such as photo-copiers, typists, conference rooms, coffee lounge, etc.

OK, it wouldn't work for everybody, and it wouldn't suit somebody needing high security.  But ... but ...

602

[Formerlyjeremy]

Perhaps pubs will become valued assets again?

[Grandadrob]

602, great idea, sounds like an opportunity for a local entrepreneur.

[w3526602]

Perhaps pubs will become valued assets again?

Hi,

Completely OT, but occasionally I ponder on suggesting to the women in my life (wife and daughter), that we should both sell up, and buy a big (ceased trading) pub. My daughter loves cooking, and I love eating it.

But I keep my selfish thoughts to myself.

602

[lowoil]

How about a local office hall, divided into alcoves, with a central "utility " area, with facilities such as photo-copiers, typists, conference rooms, coffee lounge, etc.

https://workspacecumbria.co.uk/

[w3526602]

602, great idea, sounds like an opportunity for a local entrepreneur.

Hi Rob,

Thankyou for the kind words.

Not five minutes ago ... after reading some of the (presumably above) replies ... and remembering that my Bank Manager used to operate from my closet (which younger readers may not understand), perhaps there is an opportunity for IKEA to develop an "office in a box" (13A socket required-  all rights reserved).

602.

PS.

End of Lock-down? Light at the end of the tunnel?

No! It's the Foreman with a torch, bringing you more work.

I was reminded of that when I wondered if there was an opportunity for someone to develop a HOME OFFICE delivery service (start with stationary, then hardware, then courier communication, then "The World". I wonder if solicitors, etc, already operate such a system?

[Clifford Pope]

I wonder if solicitors, etc, already operate such a system?

Yes. I learned years ago that solicitors have a system for couriering letters, files, stuff between each other. Perhaps includes other professionals too - banks, accountants?
It's not just a local convenience within a town - my small-town solicitor in west Wales sent stuff to a big solicitor in Birmingham. Presumably its for things where security is paramount, and cost only secondary?

[Gibbo103]

There are already long established companies renting out small office space just as John 602 suggested, perhaps they will just get busier. For example Regus  have five office blocks in Milton Keynes.

[Formerlyjeremy]

The Solicitor's system was set up during a 70's postal strike as there was a need to move documents between them.  Originally a town would set up a collection point (In Southampton it was the Civic Centre) and every day someone would go and deliver outgoing mail to a box if it wasn't local or distribute locally into baskets - then at the apointed time you'd collect your firms mail. After the strike it was kept as it saved some cash and was very reliable and often quicker than the Post Office. Worked so well that it seems to survive.