If Work From Home becomes a thing...

If working from home becomes a thing........
i'd crack up and find a job with an office and a desk because at the moment......
I'm using a make shift desk as my real desk
a crappy chair as my office chair
tripping over everything in my bedroom to access a million plugs to keep everything charged up

i'm isolated enough without having to traispe down stairs and avoid the other person working from home (and hope they are not on a conference call) to take a break from the "office" but i find i have no where to go.

I'm frequently to be found sitting on my doorstep to see a different view
family and friends think working from home means you are available to answer the door / phone / take in deliveries at all times

internet crashing and stupid team people ...... who think they can work from home........ but don't understand a bit about it at all..........don't get me started on microsoft teams and zoom..........

i miss saying hello to people
i miss the gossip and the craic
i miss having a tea break with (some) people
I miss having a proper printer and easy access to supplies
i miss having a head space to commute and i never thought i'd say that.....

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

I know three couples who in the last two years have moved to Clare from Dublin and kept their old jobs.
Know a partner in a major accountancy practice who told me last year that working at least part time from home was something most accountants in Dublin now expect if they are moving to a new job. She said it is hard enough to recruit them anyway, so not offering working from home part time wasn’t really an option.
Surely working from home is already a thing?

I don’t know what practice she is in but the big 4 don’t tend to go in for that and the rest of the firms aren’t major

Not my experience of hiring experienced accountants at all as it goes

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

Not in the big four, but at the top of the next tier, I’m told by my accountant wife, who knows more than me. Tbh if you’re in that game you probably know more than me. This woman told us it is very hard to get decent people, very good time to be an accountant.

Yeah that’s probably true but outside of the big 4 it’s a different ball game and if it’s where I think it is I can see why they need to offer things the top 4 firms don’t , we have hired a few from there and wfh hasn’t been on the table but they are very happy to be out of there for whatever reason!

I agree with this. In the short term office space is a waste. In the medium term, due to social distancing requirements office space is likely twice as expensive per worker.

This could be the start of the next "down turn" in big urban area growth that has been going on since probably the downturns of the 70s.

We could be locked into a depression cycle where big businesses look to reduce cost in office space, causing a spike in knock on closures in businesses that support huge numbers of people in City centres. This would effect all services from maintenance, engineering, shops, restaurants etc. Hence knock on reductions in spending.

It'll be a win for small towns and villages, who are well positioned to take in a few new people as they probably have spare capacity in terms of housing, schools, healthcare and shops.

I wouldn't like to be the ESB right now as they hope to become a major landlord after their new offices are completed.

My office just posted their list of rules for when returning. Have to register when you will be in the office, cannot be at the same time as the person beside you and opposite you, company will provide a mask and it must me worn when not at desk, now required to log in when arriving at work, no meetings unless super urgent, and then only 2 people allowed with distance, meeting room must be aired for 1 hour afterwards, no beer deliveries allowed, not allowed to move around building unless urgent and it must be logged, no more than 2 people in common areas at a time.

There's going to be a set of rules specific to this crisis.

When it's over and we have the opportunity to go back to "normal", I expect many of the more traditional managers to demand everyone goes back to the office. Fine, but that will impact on their ability to retain and recruit new staff.

For others, I expect that they will want to see the social side of the office remain, so probably a day a week at a minimum in the office with your team. Bigger organisations already have virtual teams from all over the world, so this is less important for them.

It's bad news for city-centre property, and I'd expect people to move to nicer areas (maybe outskirts of city?) which still have decent transport links to the offices, but offer more in terms of leisure, outdoor activities etc. I'm not sure that the dream of moving to a remote island and working from home 5 days a week is quite on the table for most people yet.

For me, 3 days a week in the office would be perfect. I would get to see my colleagues, have meetings, and be in the car. I also get to be in a different location for walks during my lunch, etc.,

Then at home the other 2 days, no M50, no commute, maybe get more workouts in, more family time, and hopefully less childcare costs for afterschool, because my children are of an age where that would suit us.

After breaking my back for a very long time suffering the payment of two children in childcare, I look forward to this as a silver lining.

I am lucky enough to be in a job that has a relative amount of flexibility, and I would have tended to spend around 2 days a week working at home most weeks for the last decade. Because of this, I am also lucky enough to have an office in the house, and is fully kitted out to support working from home, complete with monitors, printer etc. I knew I was likely to have a lot more working from home (nature of the project I am working on) back in December, so I bought myself a jabra spreaker to use with the likes of teams, webex and zoom, making video calls much easier.

But our current environment is not normal working from home. Most people are not set-up for it, and many people have children at home trying to mind/home school them while doing a day job. Lots are trying to juggle lots right now, and also many getting serious cabin fever at this point. Peoples work patterns have had to change to accommodate their situations, and while most employers have been accommodating, that wont last for ever. I have also found out over the years, 100% remote is very very difficult both socially but also you lose contact with your colleagues and becomes a case of out of sight/out of mind. And of course it really depends on the industry you work in and the role you do in it

The idea that one poster had about collecting kids from school multiple times, feeding them lunch etc while working from home would require serious flexibility and way beyond anything most people could expect to have, especially on a regular basis. It would require a role that is very output orientated and the ability to work in a very low touch environment (ie no calls or instant messages). I have found I was able to do this, on occasion, when by day was a bit freer than normal, but on the whole it was not practical. The bigger challenge was to be able to guarantee, every Wednesday (for example), I would be able to do pick-up and I could be relied upon. 90% of the time it would have been fine, but the 10% would make it very difficult.

I do think over time, a ~40% onsite/~60% offsite option will become more common place, but employers will end up putting restrictions on the home work environment - i.e. must have a dedicated work space that can be locked (for security purposes). But its likely it will come with expectations around response times for instance messages (i.e. you are online and available during the working day).

It will be interesting to see how it does work, and the impact on people's well-being also. It has positives and negatives, and its easy to focus on the positives in these cases. But one thing it should assist with is the migration of people from urban areas where housing demand is out of control and into more rural settings. It would be a bizarre twist of faith if covid-19 ends up being the savior for rural Ireland !

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

Know a partner in a major accountancy practice who told me last year that working at least part time from home was something most accountants in Dublin now expect if they are moving to a new job. She said it is hard enough to recruit them anyway, so not offering working from home part time wasn’t really an option.
Surely working from home is already a thing?

Yes, it was becoming a thing in a lot of work places, especially when its an employees market and companies have to be flexible. Its a much bigger challenge during a recession when employers tend to hold the balance of power.

Some companies (and managers) are better than others. Its all down to trust really and I have known as many employees to break that during working from home as managers who fail to understand it.

I believe in my current role, people who work remotely abroad are on contractor contracts and are paid at the local salary rates not Irish rates.

My previous manager used to live down the country, would come to the office once a week, sometimes twice.

Personally I used to work at home maybe twice a month, longest previous to this was a week while our office renovations. Wouldn't be a huge fan of 100% working from home but I have had a proper setup since my college days, desk, proper office chair (which I've let my fiancee use until our one on order arrives), dual monitors, etc... My own job have been setup from working at home since long before I started there over 2 years ago so always prepared - our office is usually empty on a Friday. We've several city centre offices, I can't see us keeping them all.

gnf_ireland wrote: »

Its not that they don't care about their career per se, its more they struggle with that level of responsibility to manage their own time properly.

what kind of career will someone have if they cant be responsible for themselves and their own time

If working at home becomes a thing, it will offer so much more flexibility.
Less petrol and parking costs will be like a raise, add less lotto money, birthday money, leaving money and lunches out. All nice of course, but not a necessity.

Where i work in the civil service, they have opened up the systems to allow us to work over a 7 day period ( to enable childcare responsibilities and other arrangements outside of work)
This flexibility would allow me to work more hours, no commute ( which was an hour each way ), I could work early in the morning and during school time, and work even an additional 2/3 hours in the evening if required. Thus fulfilling my work and childcare requirements.

Don't forget, creches are grand places, but they are not the ideal scenario for small children, especially ones already tired after a normal school day. I cant imagine parents wanting to go back readily to the madness before the Pandemic.

Also, the positive effects on the environment with less cars on the road. I see it as a win win.

A good manager doesnt need to see you in the office to know you are doing a good job