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Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#61

Post by ainiriand »

dx034 wrote: post #57
Jonnax wrote: post #30

This will be great for those smaller towns which have been suffering a drain to the cities for decades.

Only mid-sized towns, really. At least currently, very rural areas often lack the infrastructure to allow several people in the household to use video streaming (calls for the parents, youtube etc for kids) simultaneously. Starlink could change that, let's see. But unless you get at least 50mbit/s to every household, remote work won't really be possible for many. And sadly, many countries are far from having 50mbit/s…

What about lte connections? I live 40km from Berlin and I get 5G. 4G would be quite decent too.

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#62

Post by RichieAHB »

kzzzznot wrote: post #31

I expect employers should offer an additional allowance for extra space to work in at home or (post lockdown) coffee shop/coworking space fees.

I’d like to think that most employers that have spent the time and effort to make this work would have policies that cater for the cost of working from home, rather than just saying “you’re saving money on your commute, deal with it”; but this may be naive!

I know that at Spotify this is the case. When choosing to work from home you receive Wi-Fi allowance, as well as being allowed to expense a standing desk, monitor, desk lamp etc. You are also allowed to claim for coworking space fees, but only if you are > 50 miles from the office. Since working from home has begun all employees have been given a prepaid food card for lunch expenses, and after the pandemic this will be available to both home and office workers. The other benefit for a multinational like Spotify is you can work from any country that they are legally registered. I don’t know how other companies will approach this.

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#63

Post by eecc »

sn_master wrote: post #6
Hendrikto wrote: post #3

I really much appreciate this aspect of the pandemic. The "home office revolution" has long been possible, but still would not have happened for a long time without COVID.

People with friends and family can't gauge how bad of a toll this has taken on lonely single guys like me. For most of them WFH been a Godsend. I really wish this ends or at least there remains enough places which require working from the office.

There's a whole new world of opportunities for co-working, mixed-working out there and they'll explode after this pandemic is over.

I had to cancel my co-work subscription when no client would accept my proposal to work remote. When the world reopens I'll never go back.

In your case, imagine yourself pleasantly walking to your local co-working space or to any of the urban entertainment facilities that will inevitably proliferate in the effort to capture all the time freed from lousy daily commutes.

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#64

Post by znpy »

dkarp wrote: post #16
sn_master wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with friends and family can't gauge how bad of a toll this has taken on lonely single guys like me. For most of them WFH been a Godsend. I really wish this ends or at least there remains enough places which require working from the office.

Is all of that loneliness from WFH or can some be attributed to National lockdowns and limits on social interaction outside your household? In a post Covid world, WFH could involve coworking spaces and cafes. I expect that industry will grow massively over the coming years as we migrate into a more distributed working style. It’s a new way of doing things things and it’s going to take time to adapt and replace the so…

an anecdotal example: a relative of mine is an electrical engineer, and has worked on satellite on-board software for the last 34 years or so.

she used to loathe working from home during the lockdown, but when the restrictions were eased she started enjoying it a lot.

if anything, she says, she's getting at least one hour and a half more sleep in the morning and she's skipping the commute on the way back, so that's another hour saved.

she still has to go in the office on friday, but according to her that's more of a management wish that anything really useful.

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#65

Post by dx034 »

f6v wrote: post #22

Meanwhile, here in Belgium, some companies force employees to come to the office despite government plea to allow remote work. Subjectively, there's been much less traffic on the streets in the beginning of the pandemic. Now, it seems like far too many people are still commuting every day.

It won't be for everyone but there has still been a huge revolution. Many businesses didn't even have laptops for employees before. Having the technical infrastructure makes it much easier to allow 1-2 days per week from home.

I've also seen WFH advertised much more in job ads. That in turn probably means that more candidates ask for partial WFH as part of their decision to join the company. In the end, that will drive change even if some managers object it.

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#66

Post by mschuster91 »

endymi0n wrote: post #53
el_benhameen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I “worked from home” for several years before covid, but I never worked exclusively at home until covid. I’d usually spend a few hours of a few days a week at a coffee shop, library or park, and not being able to do that during covid has definitely made remote work feel more isolating.

While there‘s truth to that, it doesn‘t bring home my own issue with WFH: It might be okay to much better for individual contributors, but it‘s harsh for me as a manager. Zoom (fatigue) meetings all day, staring at the screen instead of real people and any form of "managing by walking around" and watercooler chats are gone. This might not make a difference if my job was a corporate mess and sucked before already, but…

> Well, some do but I‘m sick of taking any additional video call beyond the 4h I’m enduring every day.

Looks to me like that is the root problem you're having...

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#67

Post by the-dude »

el_benhameen wrote: post #27
dkarp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is all of that loneliness from WFH or can some be attributed to National lockdowns and limits on social interaction outside your household? In a post Covid world, WFH could involve coworking spaces and cafes. I expect that industry will grow massively over the coming years as we migrate into a more distributed working style. It’s a new way of doing things things and it’s going to take time to adapt and replace the so…

Exactly. I “worked from home” for several years before covid, but I never worked exclusively at home until covid. I’d usually spend a few hours of a few days a week at a coffee shop, library or park, and not being able to do that during covid has definitely made remote work feel more isolating.

How are you not able to spend time at a park?

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#68

Post by quicklime »

globular-toast wrote: post #25
sn_master wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with friends and family can't gauge how bad of a toll this has taken on lonely single guys like me. For most of them WFH been a Godsend. I really wish this ends or at least there remains enough places which require working from the office.

Work isn't the only place you can socialise with people. You seem to have a deeper problem if you're using work to fill that void. Do you need help on finding alternative sources?

Work is also not the only place that is shut right now. In a lot of cities, it's not easy to go to meetups or bars to meet people and socialise.

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#69

Post by pts_ »

endymi0n wrote: post #53
el_benhameen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I “worked from home” for several years before covid, but I never worked exclusively at home until covid. I’d usually spend a few hours of a few days a week at a coffee shop, library or park, and not being able to do that during covid has definitely made remote work feel more isolating.

While there‘s truth to that, it doesn‘t bring home my own issue with WFH: It might be okay to much better for individual contributors, but it‘s harsh for me as a manager. Zoom (fatigue) meetings all day, staring at the screen instead of real people and any form of "managing by walking around" and watercooler chats are gone. This might not make a difference if my job was a corporate mess and sucked before already, but…

"managing by walking around"

Always reminds me of meth lab enforcers walking around and intimidating illegal immigrant meth cooks on a meth assembly line.

Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'

#70

Post by midasuni »

endymi0n wrote: post #53
el_benhameen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I “worked from home” for several years before covid, but I never worked exclusively at home until covid. I’d usually spend a few hours of a few days a week at a coffee shop, library or park, and not being able to do that during covid has definitely made remote work feel more isolating.

While there‘s truth to that, it doesn‘t bring home my own issue with WFH: It might be okay to much better for individual contributors, but it‘s harsh for me as a manager. Zoom (fatigue) meetings all day, staring at the screen instead of real people and any form of "managing by walking around" and watercooler chats are gone. This might not make a difference if my job was a corporate mess and sucked before already, but…

We have an open slack chat during the day.

Looking forward to going to the pub with colleagues when it reopens in a couple of weeks, but nobody wants to go to an office to sit around.

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