I expect employers should offer an additional allowance for extra space to work in at home or (post lockdown) coffee shop/coworking space fees.
Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
31–40 of 200 posts
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#32Flexibility sounds good but what I have seen over the last year is that all boundaries in terms of when and where work begins and ends are being eroded. This started accidentally but it is now being actively exploited on an unprecedented scale.
At will employment is the problem. You should be able to switch off at a certain time and ignore work comms. But I think in US you’d be scared of being fired. In other countries like UK this has never been a concern, and WFH doesn’t change that.
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#33How would that work in terms of taxes? The UK doesn't have taxes based on location like the US?
I doubt it's anywhere as in 'you can work from the beach in Thailand'. Going abroad means complying with the local tax regime and if spent enough time outside the UK, no taxes need to be paid there.
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#34Earlier 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?
On a weekday pre covid many people would spend about half their waking hours at work so its reasonable for work to be a major social component in their lives. I'd guess that other social activities they might have been doing were also curtailed due to covid. As another single person I can definitely relate to feeling very isolated over the past year.
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#35This will be great for those smaller towns which have been suffering a drain to the cities for decades.
Nationwide is based in one of those smaller towns (Swindon, pop approx 220,000).
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#36Earlier 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.
I have been remote for around 8 years. When speaking to people new to remote (since covid) I always tell them this is the worst version of remote.
Generally remote working means flexibility and freedom (to varying degrees). We don’t have that now.
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#37Earlier 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.
Being home alone in a tiny apartment, the desk placed next to my bed - that's not the home office I want to spend all my time in. With family and house, sure. But I literally don't have the real estate to make a nice home office. Mixed mode works very well tough, I can go to the office if I want and stay home if I want, so I mostly spend 4 days in the office, 1 at home.
I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a 2br (65-70m^2 internal) to myself, so I have more than enough room and don't feel cramped. As such, I tend to go the opposite direction - 4 days at home, 1 day in the office out of obligation. Sometimes I just skip that 1 day a week if my workload requires more focus time, as office time is generally me helping more junour staff. I agree though that a mixed mode can be a best of both worlds scenario.
If we as a whole continue down the path of more WFH, open shared office spaces may eventually begin to find their feet and fill that 'mixed-mode' equivalent if the company itself does not have office space. I predict there might also be more public spaces such as libraries opening up with work areas for people to get out of home when working.
The other challenge is the social component of work, but I think that will change post-Covid too. Being in Australia has afforded me the extremely lucky capability of being able to get out and socialise almost completely freely during the last year, and it undoubtly helps immensely. I think that for people who live alone, working from home will become less isolating when they can socalise outside of work hours more freely again. For example, social sport is a lot easier to fit in to your day when you're not then also losing an hour or more in your day to travel. You can do it and still easily have time to prep dinner or do your daily chores.
In short, I think that the shift to WFH due to covid will be a lot easier for a lot more people once the restrictions of Covid subside.
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#38Earlier 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…
I hope this is going to take off. I'd happily take a stroll across a park to a shared workspace, then go back home, rather than spend 3 hours commuting.
The problem (not for me, but potentially for my employer) is that I will not be sitting with my coworkers, so building this sense of "community" is going to be much harder for them. The solution? Force everyone back in to the office as soon as possible...
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#39Earlier 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.
You're not alone. I just couldn't work without a varied selection of places to work from. I kind of froze, and couldn't bring myself to wake up and go 2 meters to my desk and work all day. The office was worse, but having coffee shops to go to was my previous solution.
Re: Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'
#40Flexibility sounds good but what I have seen over the last year is that all boundaries in terms of when and where work begins and ends are being eroded. This started accidentally but it is now being actively exploited on an unprecedented scale.
At will employment is the problem. You should be able to switch off at a certain time and ignore work comms. But I think in US you’d be scared of being fired. In other countries like UK this has never been a concern, and WFH doesn’t change that.
I'm based in Ireland. I think your view is a bit one dimensional in terms of the employer-employee relationship. A lot of soft pressures exist for employees even when their actual employment is secure.