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March 29, 2024, 02:52:14 PM

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Get back in the cubicle, wage slave!

Started by Alberon, August 28, 2020, 11:51:30 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Capt.Midnight

Quote from: Alberon on August 28, 2020, 08:14:30 PM
The pandemic has accelerated something that was very gradually happening anyway. The idea that everything is going to go back to the way it was before is ludicrous.

I think a large section of the population still think everything's going to go back to the way it was. The government is also just keeping up this facade. Quite a bizarre situation really.

Sebastian Cobb

It just doesn't really make sense to use city space for office work. These spaces could be useful community hubs, cunts can shove numbers around in spreadsheets from basically anywhere.

The only thing central offices have is that they're moderately fair in that they're inconvenient to get to by everyone, whereas in suburbs, they're convenient for some and an absolute ballache for others.

jamiefairlie

I do think we'll see a rise of shared central corporate spaces that you can use to bring groups together when you need it. like so many things now, space becomes something you pay for only when you need it.

Fry

The idea that literally anything, perhaps short of flat out unemployment (that's not even certain), could make me return to giving South West Trains 400 quid month for the shittest, most stressful service in my life is laughable. 400 quid saving and 4 hours of my life every day AND fucking with SWTs bottom line? What could they possibly offer me to give that up.

NoSleep

There's probably a fear that, if the trend toward working from home persists, a lot of office property will decrease in value, as much less office space is required. It will be an easy choice for both employees who want to continue working from home and employers who can reduce the amount of office space they have to rent.

Free market economy. No regulation, no manipulation. The markets decide. That's while the rich are benefiting, of course.
The proles being given a glimpse of a better quality of life, at the expense of super rich property owners?
MANIPULATE!! REGULATE!!
Suddenly free markets are a terrible frightening thing because coffee shops!
What a load of old shite, but of course it'll work. They won't give up until it does. You'll be replaced. You'll get depressed...
Already companies are making the right noises about pulling together to save the economy etc.
This is the worst country.

wooders1978

I've just sounded a shitload of wad so people can get to London from Birmingham 30 minutes earlier - ergo, everyone has to go back to the office so I don't look the twat - fuck off boris

Rich Uncle Skeleton


Ferris

Quote from: NoSleep on August 29, 2020, 06:56:44 AM
There's probably a fear that, if the trend toward working from home persists, a lot of office property will decrease in value, as much less office space is required. It will be an easy choice for both employees who want to continue working from home and employers who can reduce the amount of office space they have to rent.

Yeah I reckon that's driving this. Corporate landlords worried that plebs not putting themselves in danger may affect their bottom line. Fuck them, the thought of that is partially what's driving my refusal to pick staff names to return to work.


pigamus

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on August 29, 2020, 11:04:59 AM
Yeah I reckon that's driving this. Corporate landlords worried that plebs not putting themselves in danger may affect their bottom line. Fuck them, the thought of that is partially what's driving my refusal to pick staff names to return to work.

I think the big bosses agree with the landlords - they don't want people working from home either - but if their businesses are taking a big hit and they need to cut costs, and they're paying for office space, it's kind of a no-brainer, isn't it?

Cloud

Quote from: flotemysost on August 28, 2020, 01:39:44 PM
Mate have you not heard of Slack, or any of the myriad similar platforms you can get free accounts for?

I'm in IT support and tried to get our lot onto that by seeding the idea with a few of the most communicative people who are usually clogging everyone's inboxes with reply-alls.  But as usual I can't for the life of me seem to be able to convey ideas in a way that anyone listens.  90% of them just straight up ignored me.  MD just skimmed and said: "I have no idea what you're talking about so I'll leave it to you" (so there'll be no management instruction like "everyone get on this for a trial period please".)   Most others: Ignored the invitation altogether.  2 people bit and had a go of it, seemed mostly baffled by it despite my attempts to spoonfeed everything (we don't tend to have the most computer literate of staff - I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to teach the "hold shift to select a range" thing for example only for them to call with the same question a week later) and they pretty much just concluded they are too busy to be 'playing' with it.

Oldschool is ingrained into the culture, and just as the boomers retire they hire more 'boomers' (when in inverted commas I mean people with their mindset, not necessarily of their age) who are just as old fashioned and just as clueless with technology.  This I think is why home working never took off and they've been ordering us all back in.  Heck, we even have a bell for our 10 minute breaks.  Having people from home really put them on edge and they wanted detailed daily reports of what we did etc, they weren't interested in Zoom and were itching to get people back into the meeting room.

I think that it's not just me not being taken seriously as they bring in various consultants from time to time to try and get an idea of why everyone thinks internal communication is lousy and why core business is going down the shitter and we're now reliant on getting lucky with big contracts to stay afloat.  They come in and make some suggestions (the last one did suggest Zoom and Slack amongst other things) and are then their ideas are ignored and they're never seen again.

Sorry, turned into a rant.  tl;dr, tried to get them onto slack, they weren't interested.

Quote from: earl_sleek on August 28, 2020, 01:47:26 PM
I dunno, working from home has massively fucked with my head. It's important for my mental health to be able to compartmentalise work and non-work life and without the change in setting as a cue I can't do that, I find I can't concentrate when I'm meant to be working and I can't relax when I'm not. Even before COVID I could work from home pretty much whenever I wanted, but most days would try and get into the office if it was possible, now our offices are closed I feel like a prisoner in my own home.

I realise I'm in the minority here and think for public health reasons it's probably for the best for remote working to continue as much as possible, but's its certainly not great for everyone.

Yeah it seems to be that way for some people.  But indeed my experience has been kind of opposite - when in the office, I'm more acutely aware of just how much of my life is wasted sat in there working and it drives me up the wall (and I end up sneaking in a bit of "doing my own personal stuff" out of that sense of "I never have time as I'm always in this place"). Plus there are a lot more distractions involving soul draining trivial shite.  At home I was laser focused on project work which I find more enjoyable and makes time 'go' much quicker, and because working from home by definition requires you to compartmentalise work and leisure, I ended up finding the boundaries clearer.  I was actually a lot better behaved as far as work goes (didn't even once click onto a personal/entertainment site) as thinking "this is work time right now so we do work" was necessary to keep up that compartmentalisation, I even stuck to the same 10 minute break at the exact same time as in the office to keep up that sense of "this is work time".  And you know, I don't know how but somehow that gave me more energy in the evening out of hours to do the personal stuff I'd normally have tried to fit in at work.  So I honestly think it's in my employer's interest as well as mine, but they don't seem interested, they'd rather drag me in and have me back to struggling to get project work done because I'm busy answering calls, helping people play Musical Offices, and generally feeling unmotivated by the environment.

Sebastian Cobb

'Homing from work' is a pretty good feeling. I pretty much openly rewrote my CV and applied to other jobs, wrote cover letters etc in one job and they still seemed surprised when I announced I was leaving.

Cuntbeaks

Just echoing the love for wfh and despite not having a dedicated room to do so, still think it's ruddy fantastic. The only negative for me is the the fact that I don't walk anywhere now. When working I would normally walk about 3 - 5 miles a day, now it's barely fuck all. I think that was the only thing keeping the diabetes at bay.

Plus points include no commute, no cunts on the commute, no paying £100 per month for the pleasure of said cunts, not spending two hours a day participating in this cunt vortex and not having to experience the shithole that is Glasgow city centre.

Also not spunking loads of cash on lunchtime treats such as chicken donner and chips, Bahn Mi and the occassional chinese two course special.

More positives include getting an extra 90 mins in my bed every day, being able to get some chores done at lunchtime, or even a chekky lie down, if required and not having to look at, or listen to, some of the basic cunts in work.

We had an email sent out last week saying they were going to introduce a return to work at the beginning of October, however, if anyone does not want to return to the office, then they "will respect that decision". Sign me up. I will probably go in a few days a month for a change of scenery mindye.

So yeah, it's fucking brill.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Cuntbeaks on August 29, 2020, 04:52:47 PM
When working I would normally walk about 3 - 5 miles a day, now it's barely fuck all. I think that was the only thing keeping the diabetes at bay.
Aye, when in the office, I made an effort on my lunch break to have a 30 minute walk around the city, just to get away from the desk, and I became a right lazy get when WFH full time. It's only been in the last four or five weeks I've started shifting myself out a bit more as I noticed the ol' weight creeping back up again.

Though with the extra 80 minutes of sleep in the morning, I've found I'm able to put in a little more distance, which is nice.

Fambo Number Mive

The same government which claims it can't afford to continue the furlough scheme are going to spend money on encouraging people to go back to the office during a global pandemic.

This is beyond Black Mirror.

Any media outlets who accept these adverts should be named and shamed.


bgmnts

QuoteIf that means getting children back into the classroom, then yes. The evidence is that they are at vanishingly low risk from coronavirus, yet risk significant harm from lack of education.

Low risk from infection?

olliebean

Quote from: bgmnts on August 30, 2020, 12:10:43 AM
Low risk from infection?

This is the elephant in the room, of course. Very low (but non-zero) risk of serious illness when infected, but a fairly high risk of showing no symptoms at all, and just spreading it about the place without anyone knowing they've got it. And consequently my housemate, who's going back to work as a teacher soon, is probably going to get it and bring it home and give it to me.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on August 28, 2020, 02:48:29 PM
Just do what I did and have a relationship with a co-worker. When they're wearing a smart blouse and talking to you like they barely know you, you'll know you're at work, but when they're slobbing about in pyjamas and letting you shag their arse off, you'll know you're at home.

What if your partner wearing a smart blouse and talking to you like they barely know you is what makes you want to shag their arse off? What then, eh? Asking for a friend, obvs.

Fambo Number Mive

Quote from: Pseudopath on August 30, 2020, 12:04:37 AM
And so the propaganda commences. Headline news: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53951764



It's come up on the live reporting feed for some reason

"Can we move on from coronavirus now?" is the headline on the livefeed article which has a link to yesterday's "Is it time to move on" article at the bottom of it.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Pseudopath on August 30, 2020, 12:04:37 AM
And so the propaganda commences. Headline news: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53951764




Fucking hate this headline as a question shit that pollutes the "news" sites.

"Is it time you pulled yourself together you feckless loser"

"Isn't it better you just vote Boris and suck it down like these selfie-taking glow children"

No question marks, rhetoric.

olliebean

Betteridge's Law of Headlines, which I recently learned about, applies here: Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "No."

Dr Rock

'Working from home can make you go mental', says govt.

But haven't lots of people worked from home throughout history? Farmers for example. Wait, they are barmy, bad example.

honeychile

What do artists do all day? often makes wfh look like the peak of a meaningful life,

Alberon

Crapita to close a third of its offices as working practices changes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53968213

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Glad to see a fair bit of pushback from public and business to this transparent panic from landlords of city centre business space.

It's about maintaining rental income and nothing more. Let them sweat.

Attila

Quote from: Fry on August 29, 2020, 05:45:08 AM
The idea that literally anything, perhaps short of flat out unemployment (that's not even certain), could make me return to giving South West Trains 400 quid month for the shittest, most stressful service in my life is laughable. 400 quid saving and 4 hours of my life every day AND fucking with SWTs bottom line? What could they possibly offer me to give that up.

I'll be headed back to horrible SWT in about two weeks, four days a week, because my university is insisting on 'blended learning.'

It should be magical -- anywhere from 2-4 hours round trip depending on that days cause of delay, plus because I can't arrive on campus early anymore, I'll never know if I will actually be able to find parking at the laughably small carpark at my nearest station.  That plus the awful intitiatives constantly coming down from senior management, it should be a laff riot.

Yay!

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on August 31, 2020, 06:04:01 PM
Glad to see a fair bit of pushback from public and business to this transparent panic from landlords of city centre business space.

It's about maintaining rental income and nothing more. Let them sweat.

I think you're forgetting about the independent dry cleaners, don't forget the dry cleaners.

JarrowMonkey

Quote from: Fry on August 29, 2020, 05:45:08 AM
The idea that literally anything, perhaps short of flat out unemployment (that's not even certain), could make me return to giving South West Trains 400 quid month for the shittest, most stressful service in my life is laughable. 400 quid saving and 4 hours of my life every day AND fucking with SWTs bottom line? What could they possibly offer me to give that up.

They could offer you a chance to drive the train , right laught I reckon