Asda has announced that its 4,000 head office staff will be allowed to work where they like in the near future, becoming the latest business giant to move away from office-based work amid suggestions that “hybrid working”, where staff work from home some of the time, could become the norm post-lockdown. BBC News has the story.
The supermarket group said staff at Asda House in Leeds and George House in Leicester can choose where they work.
Around 4,000 staff work at both offices, with the majority based in Leeds.
England is set to lift final Covid measures on July 19th and many businesses have indicated they will continue to allow flexible working.
However, not all companies plan to embrace a hybrid approach. Goldman Sachs International has said it wants people to come back into the office once restrictions have ended.
Asda said its new approach “will encourage colleagues to select the best location to do their job”, including home, head office or even a store or depot.
However, the company said the model would not work for all employees, such as those who need to have close contact with colleagues, like, for example, people who work in training.
But it said staff also “have the flexibility to work from home when it is more productive to do so, such as tasks that involve planning or research”.
Asda’s plan is similar to one adopted by Nationwide, which will allow the building society’s 13,000 office employees to “work anywhere”.
Nationwide is closing three offices in Swindon and the 3,000 staff based at those sites can either move to the nearby headquarters, work from home or mix the two. Some employees may be able to work from a local High Street branch if they prefer, instead of travelling to an office.
The “hybrid working” approach is likely favoured because of its cost-cutting benefits. However, some are concerned that working from home reduces levels of productivity.
The BBC News report is worth reading in full.
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“The “hybrid working” approach is likely favoured because of its cost-cutting benefits, however some are concerned that working from home reduces levels of productivity.”
Only amongst managers that are useless and not trained in more modern management techniques that show how to get the best out of a fully remote workforce.
The market will of course eliminate the useless and replace them with those who know what they are doing just as the textile machines replaces the cottage weavers.
If we allow the market to do its thing, and stop trying to put the past back in place.
Look after the fallout and let the market look after itself.
I agree that management of remote workers is possible and where people are remote working for whatever reason, management of them needs to adapt. Equally, staff need to adapt to remote working, and some in my experience struggle. It doesn’t suit everyone, especially those without strong intrinsic motivation or self discipline. However good your management is, you can’t recreate them being in an office with people around them working away. IMO where at all possible people should be given the choice provided the firm can make it work.
it’s a nice trick. I work for Microsoft, and we have been doing this for years. But the trick here is that the company does not need to provide you with working equipment at home. So things like desks, monitors, decent chairs etc.. Because you are “choosing” to work there, it’s on you.
So yes it’s good, but it removes costs from the employer and puts them on the employee (electricity, heating etc), which is why they are “embracing” it
Which you then charge back to the employer in your wage demands – by moving employer if necessary. Overall it is more economically efficient, since you already have a building and there is no point the employer having another one to house you.
Well, yes except you may end up needing more rooms in your house/flat than you would otherwise, if you need a private, dedicated space and maybe others in the house do too. You could move to a cheaper area to achieve this, but perhaps you don’t want to for other reasons. It’s not always zero-cost.
For various reasons I prefer WFH now and will probably continue, as much as anything to avoid having to listen to people talk about what vaccine they’ve had, but I don’t think it’s ideal for everyone.
There’s also the pitiful, almost insulting, WFH tax relief we are offered. Basic rate people get £62, higher-rate get £124 (another example of how lockdown/restrictions is a bigger burden on lower earners) in real terms.
For me, the working from home element of this madness is an extension of lockdown and clearly is part of the global green agenda while choking off small business.
I’ve been WFH since the beginning and hate it, but like you, I’d rather not return to a sterile office, unsocially distanced and pressurised to get jabbed. Nor do I want to talk about my ‘vaccine’ status, which would undoubtedly be a constant question.
It’s quite possibly part of an agenda. I think WFH can be of benefit but don’t like govts interfering in what should be commercial decisions by each business.
I agree that it’s easier for the well off – they have big houses, well-paid people probably get their firms to fund new desks/chairs/laptops, and they are likely to travel further and save more money on their expensive season tickets
On the other hand, it’s enabling our staff to be closer to their familiies, live in nicer, cheaper areas, move with partners, sometimes abroad. But we’re well-paid professionals. I don’t like the idea of forcing people to be at home.
And cleaning…
My experience of staff working from home is to have to sit by the phone for an hour waiting for them to answer and then getting cut off halfway through conversing with them (if you even get that far) and going back to square one. Completely b useless.
well there’s your first problem.
Apart from the poor bastards who actually do the work.
The proles.
This will only work for a while. For experienced established people with grown-up kids, working from home is feasible.
People who join the company will struggle to fit in, find out how things work, gain knowledge and skills. Productivity will decline.
But then the whole lockdown period has been all about people who are working from cosy homes with nice gardens in the suburbs and home deliveries saying “I’m alright Jack, who gives a toss about you?” to the young, the manual workers, the small business owners, the hospitality industry.
I think it will be harder for the young and people new to the work, though we’ve made exactly that work well for us so it’s possible but depends on the type of work and the people you have
I agree about cosy homes – it’s quite appealing to well-paid people who have lots of space but less so for people in crowded or cramped or noisy flats or houses
It does allow some more flexibility in organising your life, and about where you live. Big cities appeal to some, but unless you actually like the for what they are, why pay extra to live in one just so you can work there?
The company with whom I am working is starting to ask people to go back to the office. Now I have no problem with going to the office and meeting my colleagues, many for the first time. However the Covid nonsense abounds – masks (from which I am of course exempt), temperature checking and social distancing, limited catering at lunchtime etc.
But what worries me most is that of course I will be ‘registered’ as being in the building. So I could end up being told I have to isolate for whatever the required period these days is if anybody there at the same time as me tests positive in the immediate aftermath – and as I have animals to care for, this I cannot do.
Do people bother isolating these days? What are the chances of getting caught for not doing so?
And the other concern I have is that my maskless state may prompt questions / discussions that lead people to the inevitable conclusion that I am a Covid denier, anti vaXxer and conspiracy theorist – which may not endear me to my team members.
On this basis I am thinking I may need to pull the ‘I tested positive’ card (assisted by a LFT and a fresh lime if needed) and avoid all contact with my work mates until the nonsense has abated (if it ever does).
Has anybody else experienced this dilemma and what did you do?
We’re planning to reopen with no restrictions though it remains to be seen how many of the staff will be up for that. People can WFH if they want. I do worry about the small talk aspect. I’m really not sure how that’s going to turn out. It’s easier to shut it out when working remotely. There’s no point being in an office of people you can’t stand, and who can’t stand you. I’d almost favour banning covid as a topic of conversation, but I believe in freedom of speech.
I know people who take self-isolation seriously, but I speak to so few people these days I am really out of touch.
I did see your earlier comment after I wrote my post about everyone discussing which flavour vaccine they had – fills me with horror!! It’s bad enough on the phone, people cancelling meetings because 2nd jab, cancelling meetings after the jab because too sick to work and the endless discussions on how rotten it makes them feel. But as you say it’s easier to switch off if you aren’t face to face with it!
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Whatever Asda decide to do about working arrangements, it would be helpful if they gave some thought to reintroducing telephone customer services again. Like many other supermarkets, it’s nearly impossible to speak to anyone on the phone, other than a recorded message, blaming the impact of coronavirus and revised working arrangements. There’s a reminder that you can, of course, pop into the store and a colleague will help. No thanks, I wanted to avoid that, hence the phone call.
WFH is the thin edge of moving jobs to third world countries.
Do not be surprised when WFH becomes redundant in the UK.
Yes, people don’t seem to have cottoned on yet that if you can do your job from home over the Internet, then someone in India can do your job from India over the Internet for a tenth of the money…