An increasing number of companies are telling their staff to work from home at least some of the time, confirming previous reports that, for many, “hybrid working” could become “the norm” post lockdown. HSBC moved 1,200 staff in Britain to permanent working from home contracts last month – many of them willingly – in an effort to cut costs, despite a study finding that working from home is less productive (not to mention the impact on staff socialisation). The latest companies to take this approach are Google and KPMG. The Guardian has the story.
Accounting and consultancy group KPMG has told its 16,000 U.K. staff that they will have to work only an average of two days in the office each week from next month, as the firm revealed its plans for a post-pandemic hybrid working model.
Under the new initiative, which the company has called the “four-day fortnight”, staff will spend the remaining days working either from home or at client sites.
In addition, over the summer, staff will also be given an extra 2.5 hours off each week “to give people time away from work and to re-energise”.
All staff will be given an extra day off on June 21st, the date the Government plans to end all social distancing restrictions – which many see as marking the end of the pandemic.
The new KPMG working arrangements were unveiled as Google said it expected 20% of its staff to work from home permanently in the future. The search engine group said it anticipated 60% of workers being office-based, 20% working in new office locations and 20% staying at home.
Those proposals are in stark contrast to the approach taken by investment bank Goldman Sachs. On Tuesday, Goldman moved in the opposite direction, telling its U.S. and U.K. bankers to prepare to return to offices next month.
Jon Holt, Chief Executive at KPMG UK, said: “We trust our people. Our new way of working will empower them and enable them to design their own working week. The pandemic has proven it’s not about where you work, but how you work.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Almost all of the U.K.’s 50 biggest employers say that they do not plan to bring staff back to the office full-time, according to BBC News.
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I’d like to go back to the office but not if it involves lots of bedwetting rules. If it does, I’ll willingly stay at home. I am less productive there but a lot of companies don’t seem too bothered about poor productivity and poor customer service any more.
I’m fortunate, having ‘got the foreman’s job at last’ many moons ago. In my time, I have worked from home, and for limited spells, it suited, and allowed me to see our young children more and do school pick-ups etc.. But that was in situations where contact with others was frequent in meetings etc. The downside was the difficulty in keeping boundaries – ‘I’ll just finish this’ at 2 am. But that was – for a time – OK, because I enjoyed the research work I was doing, and it was, anyway, driven by me – and there was a lot of freedom.
I don’t think that will be the typical situation now :-). In terms of compulsion – your comments ring bells.
“What is the daily commercial rate for office space?” – would be my question. But – as in all of this, people will be brow-beaten into submission, whatever their predilections, and the money will walk off with the money.
My firm is employee owned and money saved on office space will go into our pockets, but appreciate that is not typical. Our staff are crucial to our business and their welfare is paramount.
I feel a bit sorry for those who prefer a busy office, especially younger staff and those just joining, as a lot of us, for differing reasons, are intending to stay at home most of the time, but it’s really just going to be like it was 20 years ago when the firm was smaller
Meetings will be a bit broken up, and huddles round the desk to solve problems will be impaired or awkward if some of those that are needed are at home, but we currently feel that this is outweighed by the benefits to those staff that prefer home most of the time
Some of the other group companies are mandating a minimum number of days in the office to preserve office culture. I can see the sense in that, though I would object if it meant being forced to work in a “covid-safe” way
It will be interesting to see the longer term effects on the firm and the staff
And of course I object to the govt trying to dictate anything in this area
“What is the daily commercial rate for office space?”
Indeed, that is likely the main driver of downsizing requirements.
Although office rents will be tumbling, they are only one cost of office space.
Not necessarily, a while back the Today Programme was interviewing someone from a short term office rental company (cf Regus).
.He was pointing out that, because Covid safety, office workers would have to be provided with much more space per head and that space saving measures like ‘hot desking’ would have to be abandoned.
Maybe he was just trying to cheer up his shareholders.
Ah yes – plus ca change.
I believe every company and person will be different. My experience is that some are more productive, some less. Some prefer home, for the flexibility, cheapness, peace and quiet, no need to do tiring journeys. Others prefer the office. Obviously it may undermine the office culture a bit, especially in smaller offices. But overall I think staff should have the choice provided the company can organise itself around that.
More progress in following the Great Reset agenda, with the BBC doing the cheerleading as usual. Why am I not surprised?
As with many areas WFH has been a growing feature of life for many years now, gaining traction as time moved on.
Lockdown greatly increased its scope of course just like online shopping and the demise of the University built environment.
Whether it is part of the Great Reset time will tell.
I’ve loved being in the office over the past year, maybe in part because the others who have turned up and ‘braved’ public transport have a similar mindset to me. It’s helped keep me sane to some extent. Now more are back, we are supposed to wear masks when not at the desk, get tested every week, I have to listen to the shite people talk about covid/lockdown/“the jab”, I’m beginning to think working from home might be better! Just waiting to see if vaccination becomes mandatory….
Helps to be prepared!
Open Letter to Employers re Proposed Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates — 30/01/21
Download PDF
What if an employee told their employer that they couldn’t have the jab ‘for medical reasons’? I don’t see how they would be required to prove it because it is a matter of private medical record?
In the USA, the OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) has now released their new rules, indicting that employers who are putting vaccine requirements in contracts, will need to record adverse vaccine reactions.
Hence many companies are now changing a policy of ‘recommending’ a vaccine rather than fully mandating it. Bob Clark, founder of Clayco, is a member of the OSHA VIP Program and said he “don’t understand at all” what is going on and thinks people will lobby for the decision to be overturned – but the conclusion from the OSHA is clear: if a company forces something on employees as a condition of employment, and something then goes wrong, it is certainly “work related.”
Quite right too.
When staff at UK supermarkets started wearing masks, before being mandatory, I asked an off-duty young man why he had started wearing one after months of not doing so.
He replied that the company said it was not ‘compulsory’ but ‘strongly recommended’, hinting that his career might not progress if he did not.
I can imagine there’ll be a lot of ”adverse reactions” if people are forced – and therefore a lot of litigation. Because it’s not exactly easy to prove a ”reaction” is or is not due to the ”vaccine”.
I have been back in the office since last June, slowly colleagues are returning, albeit some are real “bedwetters”.
Personally, prefer the banter, also one day to go for “a pint after work” (in a non covid compliant pub) is something i hope will return.
With the exception of Will, who writes good pieces that take time to put together, and occasionally Toby, yes that is exactly what is has become.
Readers often add links to more interesting pieces, so its again become a sort of post board for comments/views.
The problem lies in the fear that anti-vax messages from the editorial staff would probably lead to its closure, or at least a lot of problems which Toby Young would be understandably very concerned about. Will’s pieces that chip away at the vaccines just about escape.
UKColumn is pretty mild stuff, but its getting the full treatment now.
The value of this site is its comment section, which wouldn’t exist without the atl.
Why not work from home? Why not work from Bangladesh?
Agree. Can’t help thinking this is part of The Plan. Why pay people to work at home via computers and pay them however much, when you can pay less than half as much money for the same thing from India, or anywhere in the world?
I think people will work from home MOST of the time, but go in for meeting about once every 2 weeks.
A lot of people have been doing that for some time now.
No thanks.
It’s seems to be a Michael Curzon issue, not a LS issue. Will Jones and Toby still write good sceptic articles ATL. I’m not sure what Michael’s role is. Whether it is his or LS’s intention, he is basically just trolling us with this uncritical parroting of the MSM.
People have excellent reasons to avoid this experimental vaccine, the below author ignores them and look at ways to coerce them
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/the-people-who-wont-get-the-vaccine/618765/
I wonder why “progressives” (future fixed, past fluid) are hated?
WFH is only less productive if you have crap management that can handle WFH mechanisms.
In which case the market will sort the men from the boys over time – as it always does.
Office work is only more ‘productive’ because the firm isn’t required to pay the cost of commuting time – which reduces the door-to-door hourly pay of individuals using up their life sat in a car or a train.
Once those office workers are required to compete for a wage with people working from home – and managed well – the market will quickly weed out the ‘expensive’ office worker.
“WFH is only less productive if you have crap management”. While it may be true a lot of the time, in my experience it’s a complex system that depends on many factors – personal, technological and organisational. We used to be very anti-WFH, unreasonably so, and now we have learned it can work well. But there are downsides that are hard to avoid. IMO as far as possible it’s best if employees can be given a choice of models.
The longer you work from home the quicker your company will be to out source your job to the third world where they don’t need to provide the same salary, same terms and conditions nor the same duty of care.
Idiotic to think otherwise. Always insist that you wish to return to work full time as soon as the employer deems it safe under a Risk Assessment. If they implement ineffective measure that does not change the risk profile. Play them at their own game. But never insist on working from home. That’s suicide.
the agenda seems to be to get everyone working from home. I am sure Big tech want to pull those strings.. a Population hooked on their products is nice… too obvious you think?
If you can work from home in Bangor, you can do the same job working from home in Bangalore.
Excusings me, my name is Kevin and I am in sunny Manchester. How may I be helpings you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS8KDVvMmIg
If companies can be as profitable with staff working at home some or even all of the time then no doubt it will happen. If they lose an ‘edge’, whether it be customer service, shared ideas, training or whatever then they will eventually go under.
What company gives a toss about customer service!
Months ago James Dyson was regretting the loss of interpersonal contact and therefore creativity caused by WFH.
I cant see how peoples homes who WFH are insured by current home policies… I wonder whether we will see a number of policies not paying after fires, etc.
My small business all went back to our SE1 office in August last year and have continued there since.
Productivity is better, training is better, and I think so is mental health.
Sometimes people have a day WFH, but default is in the office.
We sit at normal desks, drink coffee, get shit done, and the only sickness we’ve had throughout has been post-jab time off for the one of us who’s offered themselves up for the big pharma experiment.
Good
The work from home crown need to see their jobs evaporate overseas
None of them gave a toss about the decimation of the high street or working class jobs
Just remember – if you can do your job working from home, someone in India can do your job working from home, for a third of the money…
Excellent point! Hadn’t thought of that… I’m an employer…
Working at home people need to be well organised to do so. Many years ago, I did a so-called ‘part time’ job for a firm which easily resulted in working for free, in effect. It can end up being cheap and nasty if one is not well organised to avoid disruption from normal activities.
“Almost all of the U.K.’s 50 biggest employers say that they do not plan to bring staff back to the office full-time, according to BBC News.”
BBC News? Does anyone believe anything that has the letters BBC in it?
I find it extremely difficult to read any fearture or look/listen at/to any medium containing those letters these days.
I’ve been WFH full time since last March, haven’t seen any of my colleagues in person since. Novel at first, but it’s become a nightmare – when your manager doesn’t have to look you in the eye they don’t think twice about whether you’re ok or not, just as long as you’re still logging on when expected and turning out bits and pieces of the unreasonable pile of rubbish they want to saddle you with (usually senior management vanity projects). Team meetings have become competitions about who can spend the longest inside their house hiding from the dreaded lurgy, spattered with plaintive cries of children who should be playing in the park or at school enjoying a proper education but have to be incarcerated because someone in their ‘bubble’ tested positive. Emails sent late at night or early in the morning. I won’t try to say my situation is worse than many others are having to deal with, but the whole thing has only reinforced my view that the restrictions are far worse than the illness and should never even have been considered. Face to face = accountability.