Is there a stranger creature born of this pandemic than the slavering office obsessive? The kind of person who glorifies the five-day week and longs for an end to home working, insisting that office attendance means greater productivity (an idea that has repeatedly been disproved).
Their figureheads tend to be some of the more divisive characters in business, such as Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin and businessman-cum-reality star Alan Sugar. They are resistant to the idea that another, better work life is possible, and to a future where workers have more free time at the cost of their vested interests.
While the spike in Omicron cases at the start of December cut these people’s dreams short – as home-working rules were reinstated by the government – their pain has been short-lived. As of Thursday (20 January), work from home orders in England have been scrapped. Addressing the House of Commons last Wednesday, Boris Johnson said workers “should now speak to their employers about arrangements for returning to the office”. (In the rest of the UK, though, people have been told to continue to work from home if they can).
Unsurprisingly, Johnson’s language suggests staff should be going back to an office, rather than having a choice. This government’s position has, since the summer of 2020, been staunchly pro-office. This helps it appear pro-business – aiding economic recovery and saving Pret – and makes it easier to withhold support for industries such as hospitality hit hardest by people staying at home. It also makes it seem as if ministers have ended the pandemic and that everything is, somehow, back to normal.
When the government has encouraged returning to the office in the past (most prominently in July 2020 and September 2021), either case numbers were extremely low or most of the population was recently vaccinated. While case numbers are currently dropping, deaths are still high and the NHS has tens of thousands of Covid patients in hospital on top of the usual winter pressures. So why remove restrictions now?
While Johnson’s government broadly had the public’s support earlier in the pandemic, today it is dealing with near-daily scandals that have outraged the public. The sudden move away from Plan B measures seems more like a distraction, or a bid for public favour, rather than being founded in a sincere belief that caution is no longer required.
The result is that many workers are being told to go back to the office at a time when they have a greater risk of catching Covid than ever before. Employees at some organisations could face severe repercussions – including job losses – if they refuse to return to the office.
It’s easy to see the current decision-making for what it is: political, not scientific. Employers, backed by a government mandate, may argue that the relative mildness of the Omicron variant is a good enough reason to insist employees return. But this fails to consider the reality for many workers: some are especially vulnerable, others have vulnerable people in their household, and vaccine effectiveness is waning for everyone. There are risks even for the young and vaccinated, such as a lack of sick pay if they do fall ill and the threat of long Covid. These were valid concerns even when case numbers were significantly lower. Now, workers are in an even tougher position, despite having produced even more evidence that they can do their jobs just as well from home.
After two years, should people really be forced into an office at all? Let’s say the pandemic ended tomorrow: if workers prefer to work from home, and have proven that over 22 months they can do so, what’s the objection?
So many of the pandemic’s cultural shifts will be forgotten when it does finally end, but others cannot be undone. No matter how much bosses and managers may want a return to the old ways of working, many have realised that they prefer to cut out expensive commutes and kitchen small talk. The pushback against this reality from both employers and the government – especially right now – is a dangerous impediment to progress.
Of course it’s political.
Lots of rich landlords and investment companies have money tied up in commercial properties, and they don’t want to see their investments fall by an increase of working from home.
Companies are perfectly capable of making their own decisions and employees should be more outspoken about it. The government aren’t forcing people to work from the office and it’s not their place at the moment to force companies to get people working from home.
Lots of online spaces are echo chambers when it comes to working from home but my experience in the real world has a much more mixed outlook on it. Working from home or office isn’t necessarily good or bad, it’s down to the individuals involved to decide what works and what doesn’t.
Eh. I get to see people in person again rather than my only socialisation coming from that carcinogenic blue video call app, so I’m alright.
But like… it should be a political decision? Covid is here to stay and ultimately it’s a decision we must make as a society, what trade off we want between normal life and safety from covid. It’s not something experts should decide, if experts in some particular area were to decide everything, we could for instance also as well cancel all the planes because of the pollution, but obviously (almost) no one wants that. So yes, that will include making various decisions which are not good ones when looked at just from the public health point of view.
Isn’t it funny how we have the people on here preaching the Gospel of centrist politics and “incremental change” … until it comes to lockdowns and WFH at which point they are revolutionaries?
For an article about putting science over politics this seems very light on science and very heavy on people just not wanting to work in an office.
Tories don’t deal in silly things such as reality, science or fact.
Lies, propaganda and misinformation are the weapon of choice for Tories.
I’ve mainly worked from home for over 15 years, aside from one company that didn’t like the idea (I didn’t work there long, spending 2-3 hours a day commuting is horrendous when you have got intro the habit of wfh).
Companies don’t need the government’s permission to let staff work from home. If the job can be done from home, they can just allow their staff the choice.
And didn’t I read the other day about them trying to introduce a tax on workplace parking?
I realise that was a council policy rather than central government, but couldn’t they get together and agree policies that don’t leave workers with the worst of both worlds?
Just as letting people drive is a political decision. If you look at everything from a zero covid standpoint, nothing will be safe.
I don’t really see it as very political.
The government previously mandated that people work from home to reduce virus spread.
They’re now saying that requirement/request/advice is no longer in place/necessary.
It’s upto employers and employees who comes back and who doesn’t.
Without wanting to speak for anyone, I honestly don’t think any business or even employee gives a shit what the government says anymore. Absolutely zero authority. People & organisations will decide for themselves what the best approach is and do not need a government on life support to tell them how to act.
Homeworking was political so of course the decision to reverse it would be…
Fine. As long as they agree to £2m payout on my death.
Political how? A company can stay with WFH. My company does 50% in office and at home but not for another month or so. Companies want you in the office to micro-manage you.
Weird how for decades we were told we needed to start working from home to save the environment, yet now it’s here they’re pulling out all the stops to bullshit us back into the office.
What happens to all the retail workers across the cities if Office workers no longer need them?
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Did someone say Mass unemployment? Naturally, as long as it’s not your job, who cares, just makes me annoyed we Furloughed and saved the wrong people jobs.
Hasn’t been much science for last 2 years.
My husbands company doesn’t want them back as it’s cheaper to have them stay at home and us to waste our electricity , internet etc. than him going to the office which they will have to re employe cleaning staff and turn on the lights. Also when working from home. it’s nice and easy for the 7 hr day to become 14 working hours.
They’re forcing us to spend roughly £2k+ a year (in London), and 2-3 hours a day (every day) on JUST commuting to and from an office.
When we get there, we either eat food out of a Tupperware box reheated in a microwave, or spend a tenner a day on lunch.
Our time is used far less efficiently (From home we’re able to fit in a gym session, cleaning, cooking an actual meal, dealing with home chores, not missing deliveries, school runs etc) whilst still maintaining the he same level of productivity… because nobody is always working in the office. You just end up scrolling through shitty news articles while you’re chained to your desk.
Now, instead of being in a comfortable home environment where you’re comfortable being yourself, with family, maybe some music in the background, or (during the summer), sitting in the garden with your work, we’re forced to sit in some office with people we may not really care for, putting on the office work mask and act.
Why? Because commercial landlords want our money. Because TfL wants our money. Because Pret wants our money.
Forcing everyone back into the office is completely unjustifiable nonsense. I am not more productive there, I’m less productive. I’ll make a point of being less productive in the office.
“But what about training etc?”
Fine. If there’s training to be done, go into the office for the training. Not everybody needs to be trained on a daily basis.
ALL these expenses mentioned above and all of these drawbacks and sacrifices we have to make, for what? To sit in a grey office under sickly lights, in one chair for nigh on 8 hours, staring at a screen, rather than in the comfort of our own homes. Why? To line someone else’s pockets with the money we earn from these jobs. It costs us a huge amount of the money we earn just to GO TO WORK. They already tax our earnings before we even see them.
Forced on-site office working is essentially just another tax at this point, next to the rise in NI etc.
All of this… while the cost of living goes up and the value of the money we earn and have already earned decreases. We’re paying EVEN MORE just to earn LESS.
My brother works a mixture from home and in the office he says it suits him. It’s only old school boomers who feel the need to look at their staff while they input data.
All decisions are political- no matter the scientific facts.
Like the way cannabis is illegal in some European countries and legal in others.
The countries where it is illegal say the science backs them up and society would be worse if it was legalised.
How are the countries where it is legal making it work and their society isn’t collapsing?
It’s always about protecting money and keeping hold of power….
Why don’t they just turn all the empty office buildings into apartments and kill two birds with one stone?
COVID is not finished with us yet. Johnson can’t turn COVID off and on as it suits him. The commuting and office working model has been thoroughly proven to be broken. Returning to “normal” is no good for net zero and the climate issues.
Many forward thinking employers have ditched the expense of office rentals forever. Employees forced to return will be seeking wfh for the future.
The Tories are the wrong government for the future the UK is facing.
Offices promote charisma over ability.
WFH promotes output over relationships.
Of course the senior managers who built a career on relationships and personality are wanting to go back. They feel threatened by a world where that no longer matters.
Wtf this isn’t political in the slightest its not down and shouldn’t be down to the government but the Employers and the Employees
I think work is going to become an increasingly big political topic. In fact, I suspect it will be changes to working patterns that are the greatest consequences of Covid.
However, people who *can’t* wfh need to be included in conversations about the future of work. We are moving to a society where half the population can wfh, have no commute, have greater flexibility in exercise, diet and sleep and the other half have none of those things. And it’s largely drawn along class, and regional, lines. What might the effect of this be?
The situation so far has felt temporary but it will be interesting to see how it unfolds once the ‘new normal’ is properly established.
The daily interaction face to face is probably important for society as a whole.
It’s neither. It’s just reality kicking back in after 2 years of COVID. We are in a far better position than out countries due to vaccination rates and infrastructure.
Move to Africa or South America. Plenty of other people who give up everything for even a chance to live here.
28 comments
Article text:
Is there a stranger creature born of this pandemic than the slavering office obsessive? The kind of person who glorifies the five-day week and longs for an end to home working, insisting that office attendance means greater productivity (an idea that has repeatedly been disproved).
Their figureheads tend to be some of the more divisive characters in business, such as Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin and businessman-cum-reality star Alan Sugar. They are resistant to the idea that another, better work life is possible, and to a future where workers have more free time at the cost of their vested interests.
While the spike in Omicron cases at the start of December cut these people’s dreams short – as home-working rules were reinstated by the government – their pain has been short-lived. As of Thursday (20 January), work from home orders in England have been scrapped. Addressing the House of Commons last Wednesday, Boris Johnson said workers “should now speak to their employers about arrangements for returning to the office”. (In the rest of the UK, though, people have been told to continue to work from home if they can).
Unsurprisingly, Johnson’s language suggests staff should be going back to an office, rather than having a choice. This government’s position has, since the summer of 2020, been staunchly pro-office. This helps it appear pro-business – aiding economic recovery and saving Pret – and makes it easier to withhold support for industries such as hospitality hit hardest by people staying at home. It also makes it seem as if ministers have ended the pandemic and that everything is, somehow, back to normal.
When the government has encouraged returning to the office in the past (most prominently in July 2020 and September 2021), either case numbers were extremely low or most of the population was recently vaccinated. While case numbers are currently dropping, deaths are still high and the NHS has tens of thousands of Covid patients in hospital on top of the usual winter pressures. So why remove restrictions now?
While Johnson’s government broadly had the public’s support earlier in the pandemic, today it is dealing with near-daily scandals that have outraged the public. The sudden move away from Plan B measures seems more like a distraction, or a bid for public favour, rather than being founded in a sincere belief that caution is no longer required.
The result is that many workers are being told to go back to the office at a time when they have a greater risk of catching Covid than ever before. Employees at some organisations could face severe repercussions – including job losses – if they refuse to return to the office.
It’s easy to see the current decision-making for what it is: political, not scientific. Employers, backed by a government mandate, may argue that the relative mildness of the Omicron variant is a good enough reason to insist employees return. But this fails to consider the reality for many workers: some are especially vulnerable, others have vulnerable people in their household, and vaccine effectiveness is waning for everyone. There are risks even for the young and vaccinated, such as a lack of sick pay if they do fall ill and the threat of long Covid. These were valid concerns even when case numbers were significantly lower. Now, workers are in an even tougher position, despite having produced even more evidence that they can do their jobs just as well from home.
After two years, should people really be forced into an office at all? Let’s say the pandemic ended tomorrow: if workers prefer to work from home, and have proven that over 22 months they can do so, what’s the objection?
So many of the pandemic’s cultural shifts will be forgotten when it does finally end, but others cannot be undone. No matter how much bosses and managers may want a return to the old ways of working, many have realised that they prefer to cut out expensive commutes and kitchen small talk. The pushback against this reality from both employers and the government – especially right now – is a dangerous impediment to progress.
Of course it’s political.
Lots of rich landlords and investment companies have money tied up in commercial properties, and they don’t want to see their investments fall by an increase of working from home.
Companies are perfectly capable of making their own decisions and employees should be more outspoken about it. The government aren’t forcing people to work from the office and it’s not their place at the moment to force companies to get people working from home.
Lots of online spaces are echo chambers when it comes to working from home but my experience in the real world has a much more mixed outlook on it. Working from home or office isn’t necessarily good or bad, it’s down to the individuals involved to decide what works and what doesn’t.
Eh. I get to see people in person again rather than my only socialisation coming from that carcinogenic blue video call app, so I’m alright.
But like… it should be a political decision? Covid is here to stay and ultimately it’s a decision we must make as a society, what trade off we want between normal life and safety from covid. It’s not something experts should decide, if experts in some particular area were to decide everything, we could for instance also as well cancel all the planes because of the pollution, but obviously (almost) no one wants that. So yes, that will include making various decisions which are not good ones when looked at just from the public health point of view.
Isn’t it funny how we have the people on here preaching the Gospel of centrist politics and “incremental change” … until it comes to lockdowns and WFH at which point they are revolutionaries?
For an article about putting science over politics this seems very light on science and very heavy on people just not wanting to work in an office.
Tories don’t deal in silly things such as reality, science or fact.
Lies, propaganda and misinformation are the weapon of choice for Tories.
I’ve mainly worked from home for over 15 years, aside from one company that didn’t like the idea (I didn’t work there long, spending 2-3 hours a day commuting is horrendous when you have got intro the habit of wfh).
Companies don’t need the government’s permission to let staff work from home. If the job can be done from home, they can just allow their staff the choice.
And didn’t I read the other day about them trying to introduce a tax on workplace parking?
I realise that was a council policy rather than central government, but couldn’t they get together and agree policies that don’t leave workers with the worst of both worlds?
Just as letting people drive is a political decision. If you look at everything from a zero covid standpoint, nothing will be safe.
I don’t really see it as very political.
The government previously mandated that people work from home to reduce virus spread.
They’re now saying that requirement/request/advice is no longer in place/necessary.
It’s upto employers and employees who comes back and who doesn’t.
Without wanting to speak for anyone, I honestly don’t think any business or even employee gives a shit what the government says anymore. Absolutely zero authority. People & organisations will decide for themselves what the best approach is and do not need a government on life support to tell them how to act.
Homeworking was political so of course the decision to reverse it would be…
Fine. As long as they agree to £2m payout on my death.
Political how? A company can stay with WFH. My company does 50% in office and at home but not for another month or so. Companies want you in the office to micro-manage you.
Weird how for decades we were told we needed to start working from home to save the environment, yet now it’s here they’re pulling out all the stops to bullshit us back into the office.
What happens to all the retail workers across the cities if Office workers no longer need them?
​
​
Did someone say Mass unemployment? Naturally, as long as it’s not your job, who cares, just makes me annoyed we Furloughed and saved the wrong people jobs.
Hasn’t been much science for last 2 years.
My husbands company doesn’t want them back as it’s cheaper to have them stay at home and us to waste our electricity , internet etc. than him going to the office which they will have to re employe cleaning staff and turn on the lights. Also when working from home. it’s nice and easy for the 7 hr day to become 14 working hours.
They’re forcing us to spend roughly £2k+ a year (in London), and 2-3 hours a day (every day) on JUST commuting to and from an office.
When we get there, we either eat food out of a Tupperware box reheated in a microwave, or spend a tenner a day on lunch.
Our time is used far less efficiently (From home we’re able to fit in a gym session, cleaning, cooking an actual meal, dealing with home chores, not missing deliveries, school runs etc) whilst still maintaining the he same level of productivity… because nobody is always working in the office. You just end up scrolling through shitty news articles while you’re chained to your desk.
Now, instead of being in a comfortable home environment where you’re comfortable being yourself, with family, maybe some music in the background, or (during the summer), sitting in the garden with your work, we’re forced to sit in some office with people we may not really care for, putting on the office work mask and act.
Why? Because commercial landlords want our money. Because TfL wants our money. Because Pret wants our money.
Forcing everyone back into the office is completely unjustifiable nonsense. I am not more productive there, I’m less productive. I’ll make a point of being less productive in the office.
“But what about training etc?”
Fine. If there’s training to be done, go into the office for the training. Not everybody needs to be trained on a daily basis.
ALL these expenses mentioned above and all of these drawbacks and sacrifices we have to make, for what? To sit in a grey office under sickly lights, in one chair for nigh on 8 hours, staring at a screen, rather than in the comfort of our own homes. Why? To line someone else’s pockets with the money we earn from these jobs. It costs us a huge amount of the money we earn just to GO TO WORK. They already tax our earnings before we even see them.
Forced on-site office working is essentially just another tax at this point, next to the rise in NI etc.
All of this… while the cost of living goes up and the value of the money we earn and have already earned decreases. We’re paying EVEN MORE just to earn LESS.
My brother works a mixture from home and in the office he says it suits him. It’s only old school boomers who feel the need to look at their staff while they input data.
All decisions are political- no matter the scientific facts.
Like the way cannabis is illegal in some European countries and legal in others.
The countries where it is illegal say the science backs them up and society would be worse if it was legalised.
How are the countries where it is legal making it work and their society isn’t collapsing?
It’s always about protecting money and keeping hold of power….
Why don’t they just turn all the empty office buildings into apartments and kill two birds with one stone?
COVID is not finished with us yet. Johnson can’t turn COVID off and on as it suits him. The commuting and office working model has been thoroughly proven to be broken. Returning to “normal” is no good for net zero and the climate issues.
Many forward thinking employers have ditched the expense of office rentals forever. Employees forced to return will be seeking wfh for the future.
The Tories are the wrong government for the future the UK is facing.
Offices promote charisma over ability.
WFH promotes output over relationships.
Of course the senior managers who built a career on relationships and personality are wanting to go back. They feel threatened by a world where that no longer matters.
Wtf this isn’t political in the slightest its not down and shouldn’t be down to the government but the Employers and the Employees
I think work is going to become an increasingly big political topic. In fact, I suspect it will be changes to working patterns that are the greatest consequences of Covid.
However, people who *can’t* wfh need to be included in conversations about the future of work. We are moving to a society where half the population can wfh, have no commute, have greater flexibility in exercise, diet and sleep and the other half have none of those things. And it’s largely drawn along class, and regional, lines. What might the effect of this be?
The situation so far has felt temporary but it will be interesting to see how it unfolds once the ‘new normal’ is properly established.
The daily interaction face to face is probably important for society as a whole.
It’s neither. It’s just reality kicking back in after 2 years of COVID. We are in a far better position than out countries due to vaccination rates and infrastructure.
Move to Africa or South America. Plenty of other people who give up everything for even a chance to live here.