Austerity measures

[Miss Demeanour]

As part of the 'Every Penny Counts' new era we find ourself in ...the powers that be have decided this building in which I work will no longer be open at weekends.

It has a couple of teams in here that work 24hr shifts and they have had to be rehoused to huts in the vicinity - whether they were suitable or not.

However it would also seem that they have decided that as not as many people are in the building on Friday , they may as well not supply heating, disconnect half of the working lifts and only a limited menu in the staff canteen ...pie and chips, fish and chips or sausage and chips 

I am freezing 

[Nick]

Have some chips!

[The Moan Ranger]

Get rid of the canteen (subsidised?) and put the heating back on. Seemples!

[Miss Demeanour]

I think they are to get rid of the canteen.....concertina all staff onto half the floors they currently live on and rent out the rest and still keep the heating off !

[Snoopy]

Most staff could work from home for 3 out of 5 days a week. Hot desking on those days when people had to come in would save a fortune. It only requires some trust and planning. Rent, rates, heating and associated costs would plummet. Think of the carbon savings of all those cars etc off the roads. Life would be wonderful.

Most "Middle" management would however find themselves redundant and that is why progress to home working is so slow in the UK.

The numbers who do work from home for at least two thirds of the week have increased from 3 million to 4 million in the past two years (according to the Daily Telegraph recently). Town and city centres are emptying fast but not fast enough. One day (in about 75 years I would guess) most people will be home based to earn a crust and slowly people will move back into the centres of towns and cities. They will in turn use local "market places" and we will have towns and cities just like we used to have two hundred and more years ago. Then some bright spark will say "Hey! I've got a great idea..... why don't we get all our employees in one place .... we could call it an office and have managers to supervise them" and the whole damned mess will start over.

[Nick]

When I had a proper job I suggested to the CEO that she gave laptops to all staff and got them to work from home when necessary. There were offices all over the building empty and unproductive for most of the day while the staff were teaching and we were short of classroom space.

What happened?

A £24 million building extension instead 

[Miss Demeanour]

I do believe we will all be working much more from home in the near future. 2 or 3 days a week a probability....wouldn't want any more than that though ...I am a social creature as well 

[Nick]

Miss D in the office 

[Snoopy]

As a sales manager my job clearly was to visit and talk to clients. My MD could never comprehend that I wasn't at his beck and call in the office everyday. He was forever paging me (pre mobile phones days) and I would find a call box and phone in for him to say "I was just wondering where you were today"
Me "Do you not get the call plan I leave with your Secretary, as instructed, every Monday morning?"
Him "Yeah .... but things might have changed"
Me "Are you feeling lonely John?"
Him "Piss off you cheeky sod and do some work"

This went on for years.

He could never have coped with the concept of working from home.

You see. The problem is with managers who feel a lack of control when they cannot see how their staff are wasting the day. Work from home and you gain hours back. Apart from the unpaid travel time there's all that time at the copier, fetching tea, gossiping etc. At home you just hit the deadlines and the rest of your time is your own to squander as you will.

[Nick]

As a sales manager my job clearly was to visit and talk to clients. My MD could never comprehend that I wasn't at his beck and call in the office everyday. He was forever paging me (pre mobile phones days) and I would find a call box and phone in for him to say "I was just wondering where you were today"
Me "Do you not get the call plan I leave with your Secretary, as instructed, every Monday morning?"
Him "Yeah .... but things might have changed"
Me "Are you feeling lonely John?"
Him "Piss off you cheeky sod and do some work"

This went on for years.

He could never have coped with the concept of working from home.

You see. The problem is with managers who feel a lack of control when they cannot see how their staff are wasting the day. Work from home and you gain hours back. Apart from the unpaid travel time there's all that time at the copier, fetching tea, gossiping etc. At home you just hit the deadlines and the rest of your time is your own to squander as you will.

Precisely why my boss wouldn't consider it. I told her this only when she took me out to lunch on the day I left.

She was sacked a month later  

We had been through a gruelling OFSTED inspection. My area got a Grade 1  Management got a Grade 4 = instant dismissal!! 

[tel]

Working at home - as a support person in the past, it's a nightmare.
Very few homes would get through risk assesmment, H&S, insurance etc.

[Nick]

Not to mention being allowed to smoke 

[Barman]

Not to mention being allowed to smoke 

You're not tho are you as it becomes your place of werk... 

[Snoopy]

Good point tel ...... but how many support persons would be needed? One, who would be office based and could deal with matters there. If my laptop needed attention then I could drop it in and take a spare ~ just the same as when the company car needed servicing I would drop it at an appointed garage and pick up a hire car.
Take my job:
I worked out of an office in Holborn. I could just as easily telephone my clients and prospective clients from my home in Hertfortshire to set up appointments and then simply drive to their offices, again from my home. But the "management" insisted that I drive into Holborn everyday and then set off to call on those appointments I had to see. Could be anywhere from the City of London to East Anglia.
So my average day:
Leave home at about 6am. Drive into Holborn, park car in highly expensive company car park and walk half a mile to office. Show face, sign letters and leave to return to my car and drive out of London again to visit various clients and prospects. After last appointment of the day drive back to Holborn, dictating letters into a recorder en route and drop the tape on my secretary's desk (she would have left by the time I got there) for her to type the next day (which I could have done as well myself on a laptop at home). Then go to pub and wait for evening traffic to die down before setting off for Hertfordshire, arriving at about 9pm. The utter waste of time and manpower, not to mention fuel was mind boggling. Nothing done that I could not have achieved based at home with the company paying for a phone and laptop. Each day involved at least 3 to 4 hours on the road covering home to office journeys. For what? To gratify a control freak's desire to ensure that I wasn't skiving? Surely that time could have been put to better use and much wasted money in the form of wages (secretary) and fuel costs could have gone on the bottom line.
As for skiving, since 1/3 of my income was derived from performance bonuses and commissions he needed to have no fear on that score. He'd soon see if I wasn't bringing in the contracts.
As for insurance and H&S etc ~ what for? It simply would not apply as I carried no samples, held no stock and spent the better part of the day in other people's premises anyway. What I sold was knowledge that I carried in my head.
(Cue jokes about not having much to sell then)

And don't get me started on "Management Meetings"  

[Nick]

Not to mention being allowed to smoke 

You're not tho are you as it becomes your place of werk... 

Fuck that!