Workspace provider IWG (formerly Regus) said in March that, after lockdown, “hybrid working”, where staff work from home some of the time, will become “the norm”. With the Government confirming on Thursday that it is considering making working from home (WFH) the “default” position by giving employees the right to request it, we are a step closer to this. The Guardian has the story.
Responding to reports that ministers could change the law, Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said a flexible working taskforce was examining how best to proceed.
“What we’re consulting on is making flexible working a default option unless there are good reasons not to,” they said. That would mirror the approach to other forms of flexible working, such as part-time hours.
However, they emphasised there would be no legal right to work from home, adding that the Prime Minister still believed there were benefits to being in the office, including collaboration with colleagues.
Business lobby groups have said many of their members are considering keeping flexible and hybrid approaches adopted during the pandemic. Sixty-three per cent of members of the Institute of Directors said they intended to shift to working from home for office-based workers for between one and four days a week.
However, the Confederation of British Industry, another lobby group, said it opposed giving workers an automatic right to work from home. “The default must remain that businesses control where work is done. While they will need to talk with workers about this, accommodate flexibility where they can and explain these decisions, it can’t be unduly onerous to do so,” said Matthew Percival, the CBI’s Director of People and Skills. “That’s why a ‘right to request’ approach is the right one.”
The pandemic [that is, lockdown] has ushered in drastically different working arrangements for many office workers, but the plan to legislate to support working from home had already been mooted in the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto…
Ministers have been advised that removal of all restrictions on workplaces could be risky, according to a document first reported by Politico. Instead, the Government is thought to be considering advice for a hybrid approach, blending continued home working with some time in the office when necessary.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Downing Street has denied the story, saying there are “no plans” to make working from home the default after the pandemic or to legislate for a legal right to work from home. But many things the Government has said it has “no plans” for have subsequently turned out to be very much in the pipeline, so we shall see.
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Quelle surprise!
But, of course, this is the lesser problem. This rampant child abuse has created massive problems in terms of the deprivation of social contact and induction of mental illness.
A friend’s son is repeating his second year of a computer science degree because he couldn’t cope with the on-line aspects (and he is a computer specialist).
On line teaching doesn’t suit everyone. I agree there is too much computer in our lives. However, I do think the classroom has been a hotbed of group think too, which is highly dangerous, as we have seen.
Interestingly my four year old grandsons phoneticswent up 3 levels in the eight weeks his mum and I were homeschooling him. We’re thinking of making it permanent
I totally agree. My granddaughter was really struggling with understanding numbers. An hour a day for a couple of weeks and she is now flying. She is also asking many questions about everyday situations that require number skills. My daughter has already talked to other mums locally a out home schooling.
Lock ’em up.
Politicians, headmasters et.al.
Indulging in generalized fantasy doesn’t actually help credibility.
All part of the plan to make Western economies non-competitive going forward.
“China’s Belt and Road Initiative, in seeking to connect China to Central Asia, and eventually to Europe, will have the practical significance of shifting the world centre of gravity from the Atlantic (ie the USA and he might mean the UK as well) to the Pacific (ie China)
…….and will involve the cultures of Eurasia, each of who will have to decide what relationship to this region they will seek, and so will the United States. This is why many of us urged the United States to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank when it was proposed by China”
Henry Kissinger, Banking Conference, China, 2017
So the final stages of power shifting to China are underway. Russia is part of this. Australia and NZ are in the region too, hence all the ultra draconian programming there, to get people accustomed to the new world which will be fronted by a dominant Communist China but behind the scenes the existing power network will maintain its position. Israel is also a player in this via its dominant role in the tech sector and ‘smart cities’ agenda and its close relationship with Russia and China. Who knows which direction the UK will go in but they obviously have plans for the UK. It looks like the UK’s role will be as some kind of test-bed for the latest gadgets and methods of tyranny.
There is certainly an argument to be made that China, with globalist help, has already fought and won World War 3.
Depends what you mean by learning. Children will have learned a hell of a lot by default from this past year, not least the stupidity of mankind, the frailty of politics, of science and of society in general. That’s some footing upon which to build their futures. Forewarned is forearmed!
Let’s hope they have learned not to trust institutions too. We need a complete dusting down of the woke, group think, revolving door of upper middle class badly educated globalist bag carriers.
What do the government or teaching profession call learning? Indoctrination against their future??
In my small experience of families I live close too, the teenagers actually say hello in the morning instead of grunting, they seem lost but not angry too.
I think many smaller children have enjoyed the reconnection with family life and small pleasures like gardening, walking and even cooking. I do not count cycling in this as I notice in my very mixed community only the wealthier have cycles. The rest have legs with feet on the end.
Education is reading, writing, politeness, manners, respecting those around you, understanding the environment you live in and most of all critical thinking. All of which is not learned at school but by being involved with family and community.