What's most likely to prevent you from going back to the workplace?

[Cloo]

Interested in what the main barriers are likely to be for those who are working from home from returning to the workplace. I think we could manage social distancing reasonably well in our office, but hardly anyone will be able to get there without public transport, I certainly can't.

For desk jobs that can be done from home, like mine, I don't see why many employers would bother to go to the trouble and expense of adapting for socially distanced work, especially when they will have naff-all spare cash and it's not going to be needed forever. It'd be better for everyone to work from home for the next 12-24 months.

Presumably anywhere taller than about 5 floors is totally fucked for the foreseeable - even my small office (5 storeys) they worked out it'd take 15 hours to get everyone who works there up in lifts one at a time, not that we'd all need them.

 

[Supine]

I’m back this week. No vote option

 

[maomao]

Spoke to a colleague yesterday who reckons we'll start going back part time in August. They're currently runnning about 25% of normal business with most staff on furlough. Unless it can get back to normal business levels there will be redundancies. I can easily work from home but can't get there without public transport and I'm on more money than the person currently doing my job. I'm 90% sure I'll be made redundant.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Indifference, and sheer bone idleness.

 

[blairsh]

I was back in Monday, also been to a couple sites in different parts of the country. Employers have been good tbf but still feel well anxious.

 

[weepiper]

Where's the 'I'm already back' option?

I was furloughed for a month but now back fixing bikes 3 days a week. I would normally be full time but we haven't worked out how to manage everyone being in together yet - usually we would have 3 or 4 mechanics on together but at the moment we're only doing two people in max at the same time, and only open to the public 3 days a week ('normal' opening is 7 days). Social distancing is quite difficult in the shop space that we have to work with. Customers aren't allowed in the shop - everything is being handed in/out at the door, with a sort of rope barrier affair. Bikes get sprayed with disinfectant as they come in and the card machine etc gets a wipe down between each payment. We've a box of N95 masks coming and once they're here I think we'll be going to open 6 days a week with 3 mechanics at any one time. I'm reasonably happy with the situation and the efforts that are being gone to - it's unbelievably busy though with a constant queue of up to ten people waiting to be served at any time. People are not great at managing their queuing and if you have to go in or out to test ride a bike etc it feels risky.

 

[cyril_smear]

I don't have a job.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

No real way of social distancing at gigs and conferences that we've been able to work out yet.

 

[D'wards]

I'm type 1 diabetic so am not allowed until we are clear of it

Coronavirus: A quarter of COVID-19 patients who died in England had diabetes

NHS England said of the 22,332 people who died since 31 March, 5,873 (26%) of them had diabetes as an underlying health condition.

news.sky.com

 

[Mogden]

Much of my work needs to be done in small manufacturing and packing areas. You'll be lucky to get a half a metre between people in some rooms, never mind 2.

 

[mx wcfc]

I'm type 1 diabetic so am not allowed until we are clear of it

Coronavirus: A quarter of COVID-19 patients who died in England had diabetes

NHS England said of the 22,332 people who died since 31 March, 5,873 (26%) of them had diabetes as an underlying health condition.

news.sky.com

Yeah, I saw that. Worrying. (I'm Type 2). I won't be going back to work any time soon.

 

[planetgeli]

Schools.

The final frontier.

 

[kebabking]

Childcare.

Mrs has got to go back in June (teacher), and the kids aren't going back till September.

Fortunately my workplace has gone completely WFH, and my boss is very supportive.

 

[Winot]

Small law firm (20 people) central London. I’ve answered for most of the firm - public transport. Not me though, I cycle. In fact I was in today.

 

[MickiQ]

Where I currently am is great, they sent everyone who could work from home (almost everyone) to do so apart from a few people who have to be on site and the building is now virtually a dark site. Did it a week before the Govt said so as well. Getting everyone back in would be a pain since its all hotdesking and pretty much full all the time.
Bright side is that they are proceeding with extreme caution and I have only 5 weeks left on my contract so I expect it to be over by the time they're anything like all back in.
Major downer is finding another contract, I've had the odd dry spell of 2 or 3 months in the past but I have a feeling that the next one could be LOT longer.
Plus unless it's somewhere I have been before, especially someone willing and able to let me work from home most if not all the time then I would be taking a risk of going into a working environment where I have no advance idea what it would be like.
I'm in good health no underlying conditions but I am 62 well all is said and done. Mrs Q is fretting enough as it is over middle daughter, our son's girlfriend (both nurses), our pregnant eldest daughter and 2 sets of elderly 80+ parents, the last thing I want to do is add her husband to the list of things she is going to worry about.
I have started to think of retirement but apart from the fact that I don't feel ready, Mrs Q and I always envisaged our retirement as a time for Sunday lunches out, weekends away and spoiling grandchildren not staying permanently at home for fear of the fucking lurgy.

 

[dessiato]

I don't have a job to go back to.

 

[Cloo]

Sorry, should have been more explicit that I meant 'for those currently home working and in a job that can reasonably be done from home', obviously I recognise lots of people are back or never stopped

 

[quimcunx]

Several reasons. The 'other' reason is because my boss is utterly paranoid people are not working because she cant see them. She resisted lockdown and is pushing for us to return using every lie she can muster about why and how we can go back despite the fact that even our idiot PM says if you can work at home you must do so and anyone with common sense can see their staff are safer at home.

 

[wayward bob]

i don't have a paid job. answering for mr b - i think the lifts/people flow are the main thing they have to look at. he can walk in if there's no bus. they've been calling people back according to those who can't wfh, not sure how that sits with the call centres that make up a fair chunk of the place. (financial services/software engineer). he's not been called back yet.

 

[Orang Utan]

Sorry, should have been more explicit that I meant 'for those currently home working and in a job that can reasonably be done from home', obviously I recognise lots of people are back or never stopped

I think this applies to some people who are still going to work though.
I'm going to work (a library/community centre where people also access essential council services and seek work on public PCs) but the building is not open to the public right now. Right now, it's easy to social distance as the place is big and virtually empty, with self-contained booths, but even without the public, social distancing will become impossible if the full staff return to work. And if the place were to open to the public, it would be a nightmare as many of the customers would not social distance. And how would public PCs be kept clean of germs? We also wouldn't be able to help anyone struggling with the tech, as you have to be quite hands on, and even if you don't touch the mouse or keyboad, you wouldn't be able to see the screen from two metres away. And we have loads of kids who like to hug us every time they see us. When we open they're gonna flood in and give us a fond welcome back and it's difficult to stop a happy 8 year old from hugging you. I would have to return to working from home again, but there'd be no work at home if we're open.

 

[Poot]

Because I don't have to.

Anywhere I go is more risky than home. So I'm going to work from home from now on. They'll just have to get used to it.

I will still have to go to site meetings but they're all outdoors so meh.

 

[Tankus]

Working from home is probably going to be stretched until Sept. Then it will be staggered.
There's a bit of a rethink as productivity has improved

 

[Orang Utan]

I think this applies to some people who are still going to work though.
I'm going to work (a library/community centre where people also access essential council services and seek work on public PCs) but the building is not open to the public right now. Right now, it's easy to social distance as the place is big and virtually empty, with self-contained booths, but even without the public, social distancing will become impossible if the full staff return to work. And if the place were to open to the public, it would be a nightmare as many of the customers would not social distance. And how would public PCs be kept clean of germs? We also wouldn't be able to help anyone struggling with the tech, as you have to be quite hands on, and even if you don't touch the mouse or keyboad, you wouldn't be able to see the screen from two metres away. And we have loads of kids who like to hug us every time they see us. When we open they're gonna flood in and give us a fond welcome back and it's difficult to stop a happy 8 year old from hugging you. I would have to return to working from home again, but there'd be no work at home if we're open.

Also I don't know how we'd deal with circulating books - they'd carry the virus - paper and plastic. We'd have to quarantine returns untouched for a few days before shelving them, and even then, you can't prevent people from picking books up and putting them back on the shelf

 

[Supine]

Plus unless it's somewhere I have been before, especially someone willing and able to let me work from home most if not all the time then I would be taking a risk of going into a working environment where I have no advance idea what it would be like.

Decent companies should now have a covid policy and / or a formal risk assessment. This should be shared before you go to a new potential work site. And don't go if they can't provide it.

 

[Looby]

I'm type 1 diabetic so am not allowed until we are clear of it

Coronavirus: A quarter of COVID-19 patients who died in England had diabetes

NHS England said of the 22,332 people who died since 31 March, 5,873 (26%) of them had diabetes as an underlying health condition.

news.sky.com

Thank you, I’ve saved that to send to the person (not my manager) who made me cry yesterday because apparently I could be going to the office and doing visits in a safe way.

 

[xenon]

I work part time and I doubt we'll be asked to work back in the office any time soon. Can do most of it from home and the face to face bits we've suspended weren't done from our office anyway. Plus I'd have to get the bus. Which I'd rather not.

 

[xenon]

Also I don't know how we'd deal with circulating books - they'd carry the virus - paper and plastic. We'd have to quarantine returns untouched for a few days before shelving them, and even then, you can't prevent people from picking books up and putting them back on the shelf

Yeah this impacts on some of the face to face work we do as it's based in libraries. Many of the clients are over 70 as well...

 

[mauvais]

Other people with more urgent need to access the building.

I work for a national broadcaster, but I'm a software engineer working on products. We can successfully work remotely, always have been able to to various degrees. Not so much if you're a journalist or you need an edit suite or particular hardware etc. - so all those people will get to go back first, whenever that is. Big open plan offices and air conditioning probably mean that isn't any time soon either.

All (with some exceptions) Twitter engineers are able to WFH forever now. They probably won't be the last to do this.

 

[NoXion]

My employer gave me and the rest of my colleagues the equipment for WFH just before the lockdown started. No idea when they would want us to come back in, the best I've been able to determine is that we're going to be doing it for the foreseeable future.

Not that I mind WFH at all; I would not be able to get into work without using public transport, and it sure beats being furloughed on 80% pay or being made jobless.

 

[planetgeli]

Also I don't know how we'd deal with circulating books - they'd carry the virus - paper and plastic. We'd have to quarantine returns untouched for a few days before shelving them, and even then, you can't prevent people from picking books up and putting them back on the shelf

I think the jury is still out on the exact details of fomite transmission of Covid. I'm not criticizing you, but the point you raise applies to almost anyone who works with anyone and anything. How do schools get past this? I spend my day passing objects back and forth to pupils, typing in passwords on their keyboards, opening doors they touch too etc etc.

It's either PPE for everyone (and we've seen how well that's gone so far) or a communal shrug of the shoulders and 'get on with it' from government and management. I suspect B) might happen before A).