Working from Home.

[Allez Allez Allez]

Temper temper. No need to start calling people twat's and such like. You'll give yourself a bad name. lol

I was perfectly calm until I saw your apostrophe.

In all seriousness though, about 20% of my work life has been spent trying to drag people like the OP forward. All these "We can't, we shouldn't" excuses are helping to achieve one thing. Lower productivity. Change is good. Less time wasted on roads is good. Less opportunities for people to slack by

1) Chatting at the desk
2) Chatting at the coffee machine
3) Chatting about what time to go for lunch
4) Chatting after coming back from lunch
5) Popping out for a fag to have a chat
6) Christmas/Easter/Valentine quizzes
7) The entire office congregating because someone they never spoke to is leaving, wasting another half an hour for each person.
8) The entire office congregating because someone they never spoke to has a birthday, wasting another half hour for each person.
9) Groups of people gathering photos of someone who has a birthday coming up, then spending an afternoon putting them in strategically hilarious places like the bogs
10) People surfing the net pretending to work
11) Calling meetings of 1 hour where the first 10 minutes is spent waiting for others to arrive, the next 20 minutes are spent laughing and joking between people who despise each other, 10 minutes talking about work, 15 minutes talking about the next meeting, and then the leader of the meeting saying "Good, we finished early, you all get 5 minutes back in your day".

is good.

The office is nothing more than a distraction. It is noisy, it is full of interruptions, it is full of banality, it is full of people who are only capable of forming relationships with people they work with, it is full of excuses to not do any work which results in lots of last minute rushes. That the OP thinks people should have to endure 12-15 hours of travel a week just to waste time is hilarious. Personally, I was getting more done and spending less time working once I went to wfh. It also means I can apply for jobs in London with higher wages, without having to endure the joke that is the London property market.

But, yes, none of this ever happens and people working from home is the cause of lower productivity.

[xsnaggle]

The office is nothing more than a distraction. It is noisy, it is full of interruptions, it is full of banality, it is full of people who are only capable of forming relationships with people they work with, it is full of excuses to not do any work which results in lots of last minute rushes. That the OP thinks people should have to endure 12-15 hours of travel a week just to waste time is hilarious. Personally, I was getting more done and spending less time working once I went to wfh. It also means I can apply for jobs in London with higher wages, without having to endure the joke that is the London property market.

Parkinson's first law of work.... "Work expands to fill the time available to do it".

That's why everything is only finished at the last minute.

[Allez Allez Allez]

Parkinson's first law of work.... "Work expands to fill the time available to do it".

That's why everything is only finished at the last minute.

Not the case at all.

[RichardM]

I was perfectly calm until I saw your apostrophe.

In all seriousness though, about 20% of my work life has been spent trying to drag people like the OP forward. All these "We can't, we shouldn't" excuses are helping to achieve one thing. Lower productivity. Change is good. Less time wasted on roads is good. Less opportunities for people to slack by

1) Chatting at the desk
2) Chatting at the coffee machine
3) Chatting about what time to go for lunch
4) Chatting after coming back from lunch
5) Popping out for a fag to have a chat
6) Christmas/Easter/Valentine quizzes
7) The entire office congregating because someone they never spoke to is leaving, wasting another half an hour for each person.
8) The entire office congregating because someone they never spoke to has a birthday, wasting another half hour for each person.
9) Groups of people gathering photos of someone who has a birthday coming up, then spending an afternoon putting them in strategically hilarious places like the bogs
10) People surfing the net pretending to work
11) Calling meetings of 1 hour where the first 10 minutes is spent waiting for others to arrive, the next 20 minutes are spent laughing and joking between people who despise each other, 10 minutes talking about work, 15 minutes talking about the next meeting, and then the leader of the meeting saying "Good, we finished early, you all get 5 minutes back in your day".

is good.

The office is nothing more than a distraction. It is noisy, it is full of interruptions, it is full of banality, it is full of people who are only capable of forming relationships with people they work with, it is full of excuses to not do any work which results in lots of last minute rushes. That the OP thinks people should have to endure 12-15 hours of travel a week just to waste time is hilarious. Personally, I was getting more done and spending less time working once I went to wfh. It also means I can apply for jobs in London with higher wages, without having to endure the joke that is the London property market.

But, yes, none of this ever happens and people working from home is the cause of lower productivity.

Most of the things you list can, and are, done on Zoom or Teams. We chat on Teams, we waste time in meetings on Teams, we do birthdays and leaving dos on Teams.

[Tuerto]

Most of the things you list can, and are, done on Zoom or Teams. We chat on Teams, we waste time in meetings on Teams, we do birthdays and leaving dos on Teams.

I have 'Teams' where i work. I just don't do the meetings, can't be arsed, complete waste of my time.

[xsnaggle]

I have 'Teams' where i work. I just don't do the meetings, can't be arsed, complete waste of my time.

And there was me thinking all this time that you're a self-employed plasterer.

[Tuerto]

And there was me thinking all this time that you're a self-employed plasterer.

Was, for 26 years. Bailed out 2 years ago (although still a plasterer and on the tools me lad!) Let's just say that things are a little more comfortable now, no more contracting, travelling the country and staying in shitty digs.

[xsnaggle]

Was, for 26 years. Bailed out 2 years ago (although still a plasterer and on the tools me lad!) Let's just say that things are a little more comfortable now, no more contracting, travelling the country and staying in shitty digs.

Only

[Tuerto]

Only

Well, you caught one

[Allez Allez Allez]

I have 'Teams' where i work. I just don't do the meetings, can't be arsed, complete waste of my time.

My connection goes dodgy everytime one of these meetings turns into something trivial.

[Allez Allez Allez]

Most of the things you list can, and are, done on Zoom or Teams. We chat on Teams, we waste time in meetings on Teams, we do birthdays and leaving dos on Teams.

At least you are not stuck in traffic to go somewhere to waste time.

[Optimistic Nick]

I was perfectly calm until I saw your apostrophe.

In all seriousness though, about 20% of my work life has been spent trying to drag people like the OP forward. All these "We can't, we shouldn't" excuses are helping to achieve one thing. Lower productivity. Change is good. Less time wasted on roads is good. Less opportunities for people to slack by

1) Chatting at the desk
2) Chatting at the coffee machine
3) Chatting about what time to go for lunch
4) Chatting after coming back from lunch
5) Popping out for a fag to have a chat
6) Christmas/Easter/Valentine quizzes
7) The entire office congregating because someone they never spoke to is leaving, wasting another half an hour for each person.
8) The entire office congregating because someone they never spoke to has a birthday, wasting another half hour for each person.
9) Groups of people gathering photos of someone who has a birthday coming up, then spending an afternoon putting them in strategically hilarious places like the bogs
10) People surfing the net pretending to work
11) Calling meetings of 1 hour where the first 10 minutes is spent waiting for others to arrive, the next 20 minutes are spent laughing and joking between people who despise each other, 10 minutes talking about work, 15 minutes talking about the next meeting, and then the leader of the meeting saying "Good, we finished early, you all get 5 minutes back in your day".

is good.

The office is nothing more than a distraction. It is noisy, it is full of interruptions, it is full of banality, it is full of people who are only capable of forming relationships with people they work with, it is full of excuses to not do any work which results in lots of last minute rushes. That the OP thinks people should have to endure 12-15 hours of travel a week just to waste time is hilarious. Personally, I was getting more done and spending less time working once I went to wfh. It also means I can apply for jobs in London with higher wages, without having to endure the joke that is the London property market.

But, yes, none of this ever happens and people working from home is the cause of lower productivity.

Items 1, 2 and 6 (and for others, 5) which you list as negatives, I see as positives. Not just for my personal enjoyment of work but for the performance of the job itself. This does not mean that I think everyone should work from the office. Far from it - do what works for you. But for me in my line of work there are loads of benefits of those chats at the coffee machine; chatting to people you sit near. I have found it very difficult to do parts of my job during lockdown without that type of constant chatter and asking people for a quick view on something, as have others. And for trainees and junior staff - that is how they get their work and how they learn and so some of them will have suffered from lack of development. Personally - I'd never do an "office job" if my home was my office, it would be too lonely, too boring and too impersonal. My line of work relies on relationships - far harder to build over a teams call. Absolutely, delivery of projects can certainly be done 100% remotely in most cases. But long term: if that is all you ever did I think it would lead to an unfulfilling career and a style of work that would not allow people to appropriately train juniors.

Items 3 and 4: how much time does that really waste? I certainly miss going for lunch with colleagues and again - a great way to build relationships; check in on your colleagues/juniors etc. All things made much harder by remote working.

Items 7 and 8 we got rid of years ago anyway and agree - the leaving speech thing is awful. But not really sure I'd say loss of productivity is its main problem. Item 9 sounds a bit juvenile and I suspect that would wind me up too- but I've not really come across that. And items 10 and 11 are hardly behaviours driven by being in the office. My PA tells me I now spend on average 7 hours a week more in zoom/skpe/whatever calls than I used to spend in physical meetings before lockdown- and some of that is deliberate to compensate for the loss of interaction that we'd generally get in a working day in the office.

[Feedback]

I was perfectly calm until I saw your apostrophe.

In all seriousness though, about 20% of my work life has been spent trying to drag people like the OP forward. All these "We can't, we shouldn't" excuses are helping to achieve one thing. Lower productivity. Change is good. Less time wasted on roads is good. Less opportunities for people to slack by

1) Chatting at the desk
2) Chatting at the coffee machine
3) Chatting about what time to go for lunch
4) Chatting after coming back from lunch
5) Popping out for a fag to have a chat
6) Christmas/Easter/Valentine quizzes
7) The entire office congregating because someone they never spoke to is leaving, wasting another half an hour for each person.
8) The entire office congregating because someone they never spoke to has a birthday, wasting another half hour for each person.
9) Groups of people gathering photos of someone who has a birthday coming up, then spending an afternoon putting them in strategically hilarious places like the bogs
10) People surfing the net pretending to work
11) Calling meetings of 1 hour where the first 10 minutes is spent waiting for others to arrive, the next 20 minutes are spent laughing and joking between people who despise each other, 10 minutes talking about work, 15 minutes talking about the next meeting, and then the leader of the meeting saying "Good, we finished early, you all get 5 minutes back in your day".

is good.

The office is nothing more than a distraction. It is noisy, it is full of interruptions, it is full of banality, it is full of people who are only capable of forming relationships with people they work with, it is full of excuses to not do any work which results in lots of last minute rushes. That the OP thinks people should have to endure 12-15 hours of travel a week just to waste time is hilarious. Personally, I was getting more done and spending less time working once I went to wfh. It also means I can apply for jobs in London with higher wages, without having to endure the joke that is the London property market.

But, yes, none of this ever happens and people working from home is the cause of lower productivity.

you're not going to be able to have an office affair if you're working from home.

[Allez Allez Allez]

you're not going to be able to have an office affair if you're working from home.

To be fair, that is one drawback.