Remote Working - the saviour of the common man?

[Thomas]

The proponents of the "work from home is the way to go" mentality deliberately ignore the elephant in the room, which is that such technologies can just as well be performed by some asian in a sweathouse with none of the HSE, pension of indeed tax that burdens the UK. This is why we now have a race to the bottom for Min wage Call Centre Jobs instead of genuinely productive innovation which we used to be rather good at....

Dont worry john , as i keep saying in my opinion i dont think it will happen , and is nothing more than wishfull thinking on workers part , and short term fear of covd health and safety prosecution on employers part.

I think sampan and streetwalker both raised interesting points though.

[johnofgwent]

Its not so easy to repair nuclear subs from your back yard, nor do anything requiring production.

Apollo 13 was repaired and reprogrammed from Houston after an explosion on board when it was 300,000km from earth.
Remotely overseeing the servicing of a sub a few hundred miles away should be easy for a man with your background and lineage...

And there was I thinking the day to day repairs were done by the crew.

The issue I have is nothing to do with the technology of remote working. 

You can fly a drone and kill hundreds with it from the relative safety of a seat in Cheyenne Mountain, but f you need to replace any of its avionics it is a bit hard to do that without landing it and walking over to it.

The proponents of the "work from home is the way to go" mentality deliberately ignore the elephant in the room, which is that such technologies can just as well be performed by some asian in a sweathouse with none of the HSE, pension of indeed tax that burdens the UK. This is why we now have a race to the bottom for Min wage Call Centre Jobs instead of genuinely productive innovation which we used to be rather good at....

[patman post]

Its not so easy to repair nuclear subs from your back yard, nor do anything requiring production.

Apollo 13 was repaired and reprogrammed from Houston after an explosion on board when it was 300,000km from earth.
Remotely overseeing the servicing of a sub a few hundred miles away should be easy for a man with your background and lineage...

[johnofgwent]

I worked from home when it was unfashionable.

I have a whole third floor dedicated to being an office area. In our previous home I had an extension built for the same purpose.

Few homes constructed after 1950 have the space needed.

And that's before we get to the isolation.

I'm sure some people love the idea. Good for them. Its not so easy to repair nuclear subs from your back yard, nor do anything requiring production. Butvthesecarevoverlooked by the tree hugger brigade.

[Sheepy]

In all honesty, it sounds like one of those mend and make do ideas. Because less people want to go back as was foretold and the legal repercussions if they catch Covid by returning.

[patman post]

I have 50 Mbps with Virgin, sometimes 100 Mbps, but to work online, it is reliability that is important, not speed. 10 Mbps is far more than we need unless sending and receiving huge files.

You're just one. Virgin has about 5m broadband subscribers. The whole UK has approx 25m, about 75% of which are connected through BT/Openreach, despite who sends the bill. Outside cities and main towns, accessibility to reliable broadband is patchy and generally poor.
10Mbps may be OK for emails, ordering, invoices, etc. But it's not fast enough for online interaction with distant mainframes for many types of design, remote control and verification of various processes, or even international consultation involving several locations where designs and documentation are discussed, amended and agreed in real time.
Then there's mobile, where even voice is not reliable. 5G is going to be essential to take the growing demand and traffic load...

[Sampanviking]

Well this is my view, what the rest of you think?

I dont know if you read the debate between myself and cromwell on this very subject recently ?

I think there are as many cons are there are pros , you list a lot of good points  , but i suppose it boils down to trust and the self motivation.

Anecdotally im hearing its a mixed bag working from home , some love it , others dont.

I also listed a few articles where the record over decades for companies trying to get staff to work from home has proved a failure time and again , mainly it seems down to the majority abusing  the trust placed in them working from home yet doing the business for the company that employs them.

So i think it remains to be seen if it will be a success this time.

If it did , then as you say it could solve a lot of real issues i the modern world that afflicts the ordinary man.

Yes I did which is what is set me to do this dedicated thread

I realise that it would not work for everyone or as a permanent method for the whole of somebody's working life.
I do think it should be an option open to a substantial portion of the workforce at any one time. I hope it will and that as a practice, it will grow.

Streetwalkers points I think I can deal with. What if you lose your remote working job, when you are in the sticks. Well you go find another one. If the practice becomes common, it should not be too difficult.
The Indian worker is more interesting. I would imagine that most companies would want some form of regular contact with their employees and so a monthly meeting at the office seems likely. Raj is unlikely to want to fly in from Mumbai just for this.

Some jobs will never be done remotely and for others who want to get out the house, fine, what is there to stop you?
When I was a kid, I moved from the south Coast to London for more reasons than just work and I am sure many young people will still want to try the bright lights and meet exotic members of the opposite sex before making decisions about how and where to settle down.

I would say though that if remote working becomes more common place and if demand for service industries increases in the more remote areas of the country, more youngsters will have the option of staying local and have a future, rather than feel obliged to move away, even if they do not really want to do so.

[Thomas]

The Mrs hates it . Like me going to work ,the job , is only half the reason for going . Getting out of the house , interacting with other people ,having a laugh and going to the pub on the way home for a swift half dozen are all the things in life that make it well 'life'

Besides Id be hard pushed to build a house twenty miles away from my back garden . Like many working from home is not an option and for those who think its a good idea they are assuming the whole household will be able to do so .

Another problem I foresee is redundancy for a home worker who has moved to St Ives for a bit of peace and quite .  What do they do then when their company realises that they can have a home worker at half price in India just as easy as one in Cornwall ?

Good post mate.

[papasmurf]

has moved to St Ives for a bit of peace and quite .

Quite what?  Anyone moving to St Ives for a bit of peace and quiet would soon realise the gravity of their mistake.
I have been to St Ives once, once was enough.

[Streetwalker]

The Mrs hates it . Like me going to work ,the job , is only half the reason for going . Getting out of the house , interacting with other people ,having a laugh and going to the pub on the way home for a swift half dozen are all the things in life that make it well 'life'

Besides Id be hard pushed to build a house twenty miles away from my back garden . Like many working from home is not an option and for those who think its a good idea they are assuming the whole household will be able to do so .

Another problem I foresee is redundancy for a home worker who has moved to St Ives for a bit of peace and quite .  What do they do then when their company realises that they can have a home worker at half price in India just as easy as one in Cornwall ?

[Thomas]

Well this is my view, what the rest of you think?

I dont know if you read the debate between myself and cromwell on this very subject recently ?

I think there are as many cons are there are pros , you list a lot of good points  , but i suppose it boils down to trust and the self motivation.

Anecdotally im hearing its a mixed bag working from home , some love it , others dont.

I also listed a few articles where the record over decades for companies trying to get staff to work from home has proved a failure time and again , mainly it seems down to the majority abusing  the trust placed in them working from home yet doing the business for the company that employs them.

So i think it remains to be seen if it will be a success this time.

If it did , then as you say it could solve a lot of real issues i the modern world that afflicts the ordinary man.

[GregB]

Working from home is great, long may it continue for those that can. 10-20 meg broadband is more than adequate for remote working be it video calls os accessing work servers.

I see it as more productive and efficient than a commute although before it started I wouldn't have thought it viable.

[Barry]

Remote working, working from home or even running a small business requires access to good broadband speeds outside the big cities. But despite Maggie Thatcher's recognition that cabling Britain was essential, the country remains way down on speed and coverage.
The UK boosted its average broadband speed to 64Mbps in 2019, but it's still way behind places like Taiwan, Singapore, and the Nordic countries.
Viewing TV and radio programmes over the past few months where pictures disintegrate and the sound distorts and cuts has shown how poor the UK's bread and butter communications really are...

No.
I have 50 Mbps with Virgin, sometimes 100 Mbps, but to work online, it is reliability that is important, not speed. 10 Mbps is far more than we need unless sending and receiving huge files.

[Borchester]

Remote working, working from home or even running a small business requires access to good broadband speeds outside the big cities. But despite Maggie Thatcher's recognition that cabling Britain was essential, the country remains way down on speed and coverage.
The UK boosted its average broadband speed to 64Mbps in 2019, but it's still way behind places like Taiwan, Singapore, and the Nordic countries.
Viewing TV and radio programmes over the past few months where pictures disintegrate and the sound distorts and cuts has shown how poor the UK's bread and butter communications really are...

Dunno. In my experience speedy communications just mean that mistakes are made faster.  It might make conference calls easier but I can't see it ever making them productive, although that said, it does keep management out of the way which has to be a good thing.

I think the main point is that a lot of folk like being in the workplace. We love our wives and husbands and sweethearts and children, but Jesus Christ, a few hours break from them does no harm.

[patman post]

Remote working, working from home or even running a small business requires access to good broadband speeds outside the big cities. But despite Maggie Thatcher's recognition that cabling Britain was essential, the country remains way down on speed and coverage.
The UK boosted its average broadband speed to 64Mbps in 2019, but it's still way behind places like Taiwan, Singapore, and the Nordic countries.
Viewing TV and radio programmes over the past few months where pictures disintegrate and the sound distorts and cuts has shown how poor the UK's bread and butter communications really are...