How many times have you been into your office/workplace since March 2020?

[krtek a houby]

Most days.

 

[Cloo]

Well this is… eye opening.

It’s a good thing, right? People prefer it, less pollution and expense and stress of commuting, more family time. Less work bullshit.

Is something lost though? What do you think?

I must say, I liked the buzz of being back in the office with some people, though editorial is mostly fairly solitary work. I miss (some) in-person meetings and things like training, but obviously they're the hardest thing to get back to, generally having to involve a group of people in an enclosed space.

And obviously home working is pretty shite for career starters and/or people without space at home, which would include most career starters.

 

[Cloo]

The tube has been a lot busier lately (compared to early summer) but that could change given recent announcements. I'll find out tomorrow when I head in .

It was fairly busy went I went in Sept/Oct, but not full on on the Northern Line, though other lines were much busier. That always feels like the 'riskiest' part of going into work - and indeed been observed as a key reason that larger cities are having a harder time recovering than smaller ones. First there's the fact that people can't afford to live centrally and are commuting longer distances, so they're disinclined to come in regularly; then there is the risk element of public transport at all.

Real estate is, at present, not too worried (I know this as I spend my day editing/writing articles about RE) - I'm not sure if their confidence is misplaced or not, but the feeling is that floorspace is not going to collapse catastrophically. Some people early on were talking about a 'hub and spoke' model where maybe there'd be a fancy central office and smaller satellites but other people have pointed out what I thought, which is that it would be hard to make those 'spokes' worthwhile, and, something that didn't occur to me (and was mentioned by an America commentator) was there would then be a risk of some 'spokes' as being seen as low status and not somewhere you want to be based, and thus social and race bias around it.

A really great idea for big cities would be to make it affordable for 'ordinary' people to live centrally, thus ending reliance on commuter custom and tourism for centres, generally being more environmentally sustainable and so on, but the absolutely insane underlying land prices of prime central seem to put the kybosh on that.

 

[petee]

A really great idea for big cities would be to make it affordable for 'ordinary' people to live centrally

this is one explanation for the application of rent stabilization programs here in nyc since the 1920s.

 

[starfish]

Twice. First time to get some stuff id left in my desk drawer, second was to get my new laptop. Was there for no more than 30 minutes on each occasion.

 

[Flavour]

loads, dozens of time, maybe 50 times

 

[StoneRoad]

Totally WFH [officially] during 2020 and early 2021.

Made a very small number of trips to the workshop at the end of March 2020.
A couple of times during the main lockdowns. Usually sorting out something.

During both of the summer relaxation of regulations, maybe once every couple of weeks.

After vaccinations in May/June 2021, stayed on the every couple of weeks, unless I needed to be there to deal with something ... although, I did make various "site" visits.

After my booster took affect, so late November 2021, a situation developed that has meant me, or OH, going in every day for supervisory purposes during the past couple of weeks.

 

[LDC]

Dangerous commute to work for some...

Fall on walk from bed to desk is workplace accident, German court rules

Man who slipped and broke his back while working from home was commuting, it is decided

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tankus]

nil........ the office has been sold

 

[quiet guy]

Don't have an office base as such but have been to many sites through the North of England as part of my role to view job requests, getting contractors to quote and then see the jobs through to completion.

 

[MBV]

I've been going in once or twice a week for just over a month. I found I was getting stale being at home all the time. Yesterday was a team lunch so lots of the team were in which was nice.

 

[quimcunx]

Not sure. Maybe 5 times. A couple of times on my own. A couple of times with one other person. Once with 2 other people. I think. Might go in one day this month.

There was talk of some sort of partial return from April. With 2 senior staff getting it badly enough to be off a week + each recently I'm hoping they wont be too bullish about it.

 

[Winot]

We’ve just given up 4500 sqft near Chancery Lane. Will be looking for serviced offices for after Easter. Maybe 800 sqft.

 

[marty21]

I was in occasionally at the height of lockdown , and pretty much full-time since July last year . Although I have wfh a bit this week due to the tube strike , and am today as it's Friday

 

[baldrick]

Since March last year more or less FT in the office though I negotiated WFH one day a week with difficulty in the understanding I would come in if the boss wanted. Towards the end of last year the boss was less and less frequently allowing me to WFH even though my job could be done 100% from home. One of the factors pushing me towards a new job where partial WFH is in the contract.

I wouldn't want to WFH all the time. I managed during lockdown, but I like the separation between work and home even though I have a decent space to work in.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I'm in two days a week now. I like the balance like that - working from home full time had got too much for me and I'm enjoying seeing actual people, but I don't feel like I want to go in full time.

 

[Cloo]

I'm trying to go in once a week, probably Tuesdays, but tube strike put kibosh on that this week, and I was at a conference week before. I'll be in next week to host my (still on teams) quarterly planning meeting. But I've been in twice this year so far. It's still very quiet and they're not mandating anything. It will be nice next Tues in that they're having their first event open to non staff in two years - for Women's Day - so there will actually be people around.

I'm looking for new jobs now so if I get something I'd probably want to be there 2-3 times a week, at least to start with.

 

[Elpenor]

Quite enjoyed it today. Think I may choose my day to be in with the same folk.

 

[William of Walworth]

Since I left hospital last year, most often three days a week, or occasionally four days a week.

No working from home -- not possible in my job.

But part-time working (thirty hours a week), along with a fair chunk of unused annual leave from hospital times last summer) rocks big-style!

Goodbye working on (almost all!) Mondays!

 

[mentalchik]

Have worked as normal all the way through it....it's a non-question for me

 

[Cloo]

So there's no pick-up at all in attendence at my office. I've been going in most Tuesdays since Feb and it's still not got over about a dozen people (absolute max) from an office of c200. That's generally a revolving cast of around 6, 2-4 facilities staff and one technology guy. Other than one day when there was an event, that's been it. People are talking about office attendence being still low in London, but we seem to be exceptionally so!

I'm starting a new job next month, so I'm going to mention in my exit interview that I do feel like a little more should be done to encourage people in - like, even declaring 'Tuesday is dept A and B day, Wednesday Dept C and D....' etc so people can think 'If I go in, I'll see someone I work with' because it's been a bit demotivating feeling I literally have to ask someone in if I might, y'know, just fancy working with a close colleague around. I get we've had a horrible 18 months and they don't want to impose on staff, but I think one can create conditions to do this.

 

[Voley]

So there's no pick-up at all in attendence at my office. I've been going in most Tuesdays since Feb and it's still not got over about a dozen people (absolute max) from an office of c200. That's generally a revolving cast of around 6, 2-4 facilities staff and one technology guy. Other than one day when there was an event, that's been it. People are talking about office attendence being still low in London, but we seem to be exceptionally so!

I'm starting a new job next month, so I'm going to mention in my exit interview that I do feel like a little more should be done to encourage people in - like, even declaring 'Tuesday is dept A and B day, Wednesday Dept C and D....' etc so people can think 'If I go in, I'll see someone I work with' because it's been a bit demotivating feeling I literally have to ask someone in if I might, y'know, just fancy working with a close colleague around. I get we've had a horrible 18 months and they don't want to impose on staff, but I think one can create conditions to do this.

Wednesday seems to have become 'our' day, almost certainly because it breaks the week up and you've done your one day a week bit.

It does seem a bit pointless going in on days when there's no other bugger in. I did a Tuesday a bit back and wished I'd saved the petrol.

 

[Winot]

Workers going into office 1.5 days a week, survey suggests

This compares to an average of 3.8 days a week pre-pandemic, research by a consultancy suggests

www.bbc.co.uk

“employees still appeared to be going into the office less than the policy mandated”

 

[marty21]

I'm in the office as usual , where I'm based there is potentially 43 other Housing Staff who could come in , today there are 5 of us , last week there was a day we hit double figures

 

[MickiQ]

I'm in the office as usual , where I'm based there is potentially 43 other Housing Staff who could come in , today there are 5 of us , last week there was a day we hit double figures

positively tripping over each other eh?

 

[marty21]

positively tripping over each other eh?

Piccadilly circus

 

[Stig]

We're still going on only once per week on a Wednesday, but we're thinking of moving it to Friday as the city is less busy on Fridays.

There are no plans at all to start going in more than once per week. (unless people want to. Some do, just because they like using the empty office.)

 

[Puddy_Tat]

i started a new job in february on a semi unofficial arrangement that i'd work from home most of the time (it has now become contractual for many previously office based staff) - office is about 70 miles from home.

contractual requirement is to go to the office at least one day a month (nobody has explained, or bothered too much whether that means once in each calendar month, or no more than 31 days between visits or what)

i've averaged slightly more than that, some months i've done 2 days together and done an overnight stay somewhere near work.

 

[Cloo]

I have to say I am really enjoying working somewhere that people go in. My new job does have an exceptionally nice office, as being a commercial real estate company, having a showcase HQ is quite important. There's about 70-80% occupancy midweek, so it's very lively, but still not packed as there's lots of workspace. There's no official line for my role re: attendence - my manager's in once a week as she's coming in from East Anglia, so I aim to come in when she does, and one other day per week, as there's no way I'm getting feel for the place on less than that. There is a monthly 'team day' when they encourage as much of the wider team as possible to come in.

I honestly don't know what my last workplace are going to do - it feels like they've missed the boat to get people back in and that their already shaky 'organisational culture' is just going to fall to bits.Reall 3-6 months ago they should have, I dunno, gone 'We're reopening the whole office, and internal/external event hosting and the cafe and we'll kick it off with a few days with free food and drink so you can all come back and see one another if you'd like to do so'. But instead, 2.5 years in they still have no cafe, only 2 floors open, no events as far as I can tell and at this juncture. TBH their only way round things might be to sell up the HQ (a building they own) and relocate to somewhere much smaller in London, but then they'd be giving up somewhere that is supposed to be a focal point for their membership and miss part of the point of their existence.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

TBH their only way round things might be to sell up the HQ (a building they own) and relocate to somewhere much smaller in London, but then they'd be giving up somewhere that is supposed to be a focal point for their membership and miss part of the point of their existence.

my professional body closed its london base and moved to corby 'because it's central' some years ago...