United Kingdom VII: Taking Pride in Your Success

[cutmymilk]

Yeah, I enjoy the same aspects as you. My job isn't going to stay WFH but I will try to enjoy it for the week and a half before we go back!

The sun being out and taking breaks in the garden is nice too, as well as going for a run during free periods.

[fishbowlhead]

Same, WFH has the following advantages for me

1) More sleep
2) Less cost
3) Quieter
4) Better coffee
5) Better food
6) Less travel
7) More free time
8) Less annoying people bothering me

Why would I want to go back into an office, increase my costs and carbon footprint and have to put up with more hassle and noise?

Has to be a massive environmental impact on all those cars not going back and forth as well to consider.

Last year at the height of the lock down i could actually star gaze at night, in Essex, which I can’t actually ever remember being able to do before. Not just, oh thats a good clear night, but the kind of nights you’d normally find after travelling a few weeks away from civilisation with EVERYTHING crystal clear.

Was nice while it lasted I guess.

[Hirst]

I go to work by car and it's a 6-storey 1200-space car park that is usually between 60-80% capacity across the working week, currently I'd say it's about 5-10%. Due to the position/billing structure of the car park, it's almost uniquely used by office workers. There's about a dozen resident cars with monthly permits, the odd short stay. Other than that it's almost all office workers either on monthly permits (working nearby or taking the train to Leeds every day) or claiming it back as a one-off expense because they've got a meeting in London to get to by train. When I go there on my allocated day, I can park more-or-less anywhere I like - I used to have to get to the 4th floor before I was even likely to see an empty space. I'd make that about 800 cars that aren't going there every day, which is bound to be a fair bit of pollution.

There's always been an argument that people should use public transport/bike/walk to save the environment, but my counter-argument is that we should look at the reason for the journey itself and see if we can make things more efficient and convenient. I've been asking for home-working for years and been told it's not possible, then it turned out it was extremely possible. It's a ridiculous situation that some people have to commute a round-trip of over 100, even 200, miles on a daily basis (especially down south). Even if it's by an electric train, there's a whole infrastructure that has to support it with vast amounts of natural resources. Look at how much stuff we're having to waste on this HS2 white elephant that nobody seems to want. You've got miles of tracks, points, buildings, structures, all of which need building and maintaining indefinitely.

Put it this way - I'm a lot happier to "sacrifice" making a pointless journey to an office every day if it means we make enough gains on the environment that we can continue to travel for leisure more-or-less as we do now.

[Dogg Thang]

I never want to have to commute to work again.

But I'll be dragging some people kicking and screaming back into an office eventually. I get all the reasons for wanting to work from home and I'm with them, especially in the extra time gained by not commuting which can either be put towards work or having more actual life. That's the huge one for me. But I've been in a business for a couple of decades where sometimes we outsource work and sometimes we don't, sometimes everyone is in house and sometimes we use freelancers who can work from home (we've actually been able to work from home for about a decade if needed and it's why my business kept going with barely a blip through all this). And without exception, I've always had a much better job done by people who are in the same place. And the reason is simple - when we're together, everyone feels why the job actually matters. It inspires them. There's an energy that just isn't there when everyone is separate.

But the other thing is that there are a whole bunch of people who seriously need to be thrown into an office with other people to learn even the most basic social skills. You'd think they'd have that by the time they hit 20, right? Not always the case. It's like socialising puppies. I fear for a generation of introverts who don't get pushed out into a social workplace.

Should be noted though that I am very much in a creative field. I don't know if these things apply to any other jobs whatsoever. Maybe they don't.

[cutmymilk]

I have a friend who has worked from home for a couple of years and he is becoming a right hermit.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I'll be fighting tooth and nail not to go back.

[Hirst]

I work with finance data and need complete concentration, so I find an office to be extremely distracting. Some people love the buzz of an office, but for me it makes the difference between me getting my data right and going home versus spending several hours trying to fix errors because some cretin couldn't stop banging on about something on TV. When I work from home, 99% of the time I'll do it in complete silence with just the hum of the computer fan.

It might seem like a lonely way to do things, but the near-absence of an office social life that I wasn't particularly invested in means I have more time for my actual friends.

[Brad]

Apart form when I have to work at a client site for security reasons working form home I am WAAAAAAYYYYYYY more productive. I usually have a trance music radio station on that helps me code at the speed of light and can easily ignore people who are just time saps, reject unimportant meetings, nip out for milk, get some sun, take the dog for a walk in the middle of the day etc. I'M NEVER GOING BACK!

[Anpanman]

I used to travel all round the country commuting by train & plane inc NI, I do have an office near home but I've not been in on a frequent basis for around ten years due to being knackered from the travelling and being more productive at home since I get up and finish at the same times so the business gets my travelling time in the form of productivity.

I can't see me going back to the old ways now unless it's just briefly in the summer, I'm fifty-six, could have taken my pension at 55 and just hanging on for the next restructure in another year or three then I'm taking the money and the pension - byeeee.

[Brad]

Bloody hell you’re older than me!

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/02/uk-budget-to-extend-furlough-until-end-of-september

Furlough to be extended to September 2021.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/02/lawyers-warned-scottish-government-of-danger-of-defeat-in-salmond-case

Calls have gone out for Nicola Sturgeon to resign over the Alex Salmond case.

[wheelaa]

As much as I'd love to see that disgusting divisive narrow minded little **** raked over the coals, it isn't just in Westminster where UK politicians can do whatever they want without consequence. Krankie and her fellow English-hating clique have it all sown up, despite the sex pest's best efforts.

[Asura]

Can someone clarify what the deal is with Sturgeon in about 3 sentences?

[Blobcat]

Krankie and her fellow English-hating clique

OMG I now can't ever unsee her as a Krankie now.

[QualityChimp]

Can someone clarify what the deal is with Sturgeon in about 3 sentences?

1. She's a woman
2. She's not a mischievous boy
3. She's married to the guy who plays the Dad