Do you think (current) remote workers will go back to the office?
 

With so many people working from home, do you think this will go on when the COVID 19 stuff is all over?

I guess it's cheaper for business to not pay for office space etc, so as long as working from home yields equal or greater productivity, why not just keep it up?

I wont as I worked from home anyway and I hope many will be able to work at least part time from home, it doesn't suit everyone, lots of people moaning who previously moaned that they couldn't work from home

Definitely return to the office, but for places where it's appropriate they will probably introduce it more if it has proven to be more effective during current times.

I couldn't imagine anything worse than working from home though. I like to associate my house with being away from work.

and I couldn't imagine anything worse than having to travel to and from work every day

Lazy.

Different strokes and all that!

I think some places will go back to normal, maybe it will take longer for other businesses.

Either way ,we all have a long wait for things to go back to "normal" .

I thought I would love working from home...only did 2 days before I was furloughed but its not for me. I kept finding other things to do and then ended up doing my actual work well into the evening. Can't wait to get back in the office. Miss my friends there and the feeling of going to work and then coming home at the end of the day.

this lockdown will remain in force for a long time. Certain restrictions will be lifted, but working from home will be encouraged for a while. It's also much better for the environment

I think a lot of my co-workers are like that, I have worked from home for a long time and initially as my kids were young I used to work weekends and evenings to get the work done as it was impossible during the day, now they are older I have set times and I don't log on outside these times unless something is urgent, but it really isn't for everyone

Yes up to 2 years
unless they get proper safe , fast testing
that tells you in 10mins

I suppose it is something you have to get into a routine for and be quite regimented.

You do have to be disciplined unless you are TS who appears to do nothing :laugh:

I think people thought I was lounging around watching This Morning, and when you tell people you work from home they seem to think they can ring you whenever, no...I'm working and no the fairys don't come in and do the work :laugh:

Working from home is a SKILL, Cherie! I get as much done at home as I do in the office but you work differently at home. You have to, IMO. You can work at a steady pace in an office environment, chatting to coworkers etc. and the time passes quite quickly... If you try to do that at home you'll go mad in a week.

SO... take a deep breath, focus like a jedi, and absolutely hammer out an hour+ worth of work in 15 to 20 minutes and then watch telly for 40 :joker:. That's my top tip.

I've had to give these tips to coworkers (and other friends) currently working from home who normally are 100% office based because they were all becoming utterly miserable.

... I may have downplayed the "time balance" for my own coworkers of course. I said take a 20 min break every hour. Not 20 mins of work every hour :joker:

But anyway to answer the question, I think people will work from home MORE (by choice) and be allowed to do so now that these systems are in place to do so, but no, I don't think it'll be mandatory, because frankly most people just don't like it. Offices will still be there and most people will still be in office, most of the time.

I think there's a chance it'll be more like my current situation for a lot of people though, with a home and office set up. I can go into the office whenever I want to and I do (normally, not right now obviously) try to be there at least once a week so they can see my handsome face. But I can literally decide on the day whether or not to be in office or work from home... Or go home after lunch... Or whatever. More flexibility that I think would work very well for many companies.

I also think a lot of international business (and even business involving UK-wide travel) is going to go 99% digital because they've HAD to integrate remote conferencing tech now and will keep using it because the cost benefit will be huge. Something that's long overdue in my opinion, as it'll also be good for the ol' carbon footprint. Why drive half an hour from one branch to another for a meeting when you can video conference? Why fly to Japan when you can hop on Skype?

Video conferences were always happening, but I guess more so now.

You'd be AMAZED how many office-based organisations had absolutely no idea how to set up a video conference before this, or only had "one or two people" who knew how to set one up. The first week of everyone working from home was an absolute farce.

depends on your workload :shrug: I can't get my work done in an hour, I nearly always work a little bit over, but then I do break on TiBB and have cups of tea and a breather from the PC and take my time...

I did have another freelance job where I was paid for 15 hours a week but worked about 3, my son worked out I earned about 170.00 a hour on that one :laugh: alas it is no more

I don't know why you are telling me, I have worked from home for 20 years while you have done 6 months, don't try to teach grandma to suck eggs :hmph:

Is there even that much to know? Off the top of my head I can think of Skype, and group chats on Google Hangouts and Rabbit with private links...

You're assuming that everyone knows how to turn on a webcam and microphone to start with :joker:

Thats the choice you have to make though, work at a reasonable pace and take shorter breaks, or work at breakneck pace and take longer breaks. I prefer the former in-office, but definitely the latter at home [emoji23]. I also can work outwith office hours so I can bugger off at 1pm and jump back on at 10pm if I need to.


My wife had (still has, technically) one of those :hehe:. Unfortunately the nature of the work means it's on hold because of lockdown measures so no brucey bonus income for the time being. Academia needs to be in full swing again before the organisation will start back up, but the role is waiting when it does.

The actual hourly rate in academic freelancing is insane though, I should have stuck with it and done a masters :umm2: