Hybrid working? Buckle in, there's no turning back as survey takers insist: You can't make us go back
- Reference: 1622717230
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/03/hybrid_working_survey/
- Source link:
More than a year since the start of the [1]first national lockdown , staff are becoming used to the idea of swapping their daily commute for an extra hour in bed and booting up their tech wearing a dressing gown and slippers.
So keen are they on the kimono and slipper combo it seems they may even want it enshrined in law.
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According to security outfit Okta – which canvassed the views of 10,000 people in Europe including 2,000 Brits – more and more people want to choose the way they work.
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[4]
“Many Brits have spent more than a year following the rules and working from home,” said Samantha Fisher, head of dynamic work at Okta.
“Going forward, it’s clear they want the freedom to work on their own terms, whether that’s returning to the office, working remotely, or a mix of both.
[5]
“A change in legislation would put the choice in the hands of employees, and give organisations the opportunity to undertake assessments, re-evaluate processes, and enable better methods that support working across a multi-location strategy,” she added.
Digging a little deeper, it seems Brits prefer permanent remote working more than their European chums, with one in five (19 per cent) hoping to permanently ditch the commute-to-the-office-and-clock-watch-until-it’s-time-to-bugger-off-home vibe.
Four in 10 Brits (43 per cent) can’t seem to make up their minds and would prefer, instead, to opt for a hybrid approach splitting their time between home and the office.
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For those happy to return to the workplace, it seems they want the reassurance of social distancing, sanitised desks and tech kit, and greater flexibility when it comes to the daily commute.
From many people, least of all readers of El Reg , the survey findings will come as no surprise and merely mirrors – to a greater or lesser degree – their own experiences of the last year and a bit.
Yesterday, for example, Zoom
[7]PDF
reported a huge jump in Q1 revenue of 191 per cent year on year to $956.2m.Announcing the figures, CEO Eric S Yuan said that “work is no longer a place” and that the company was ready to “help lead the evolution to hybrid work that allows greater flexibility, productivity, and happiness to both in-person and virtual connections.”
A life without Zoom video conferencing calls would no doubt widen the smiles on many people's faces.
Elsewhere, SAP – which claims to have "embraced a location-agnostic work style for decades" - has become the latest employer to harness flexible working. In a statement yesterday the company said it pledged to "provide a setup that fits every role, style, and location with… a 100 per cent flexible and trust-based workplace as the norm, not the exception."
[8]Work life balance? We've heard of it. Pandemic means 9-5 shifts are a thing of the past for many
[9]Home office setup with built-in boiling water tap for tea and coffee without getting up is a monument to deskcess
[10]Big Tech workers prefer 3 days at home, 2 in the office. We ask Reg readers: What's your home-office balance?
[11]Microsoft tells staff work-from-home is now ‘standard’ – with caveats galore
[12]Don't forget to brush your teeth, WFH staff told as Dropbox drops the office, declares itself 'virtual first'
[13]Dell: 60% of our people won't be going back into an office regularly after COVID-19
[14]Salesforce's get-back-to-work strategy starts with 'Volunteer Vaccinated Cohorts' on designated floors
In other words, SAP is more than happy for its 100,000-workforce to sign up to hybrid working following a show of hands from staff working at the German giant.
Last month, Forrester published details of its reading of the tea leaves adding further weight to this shift in working patterns. While it noted plenty of benefits, it cautioned against a one-size-fits-all approach.
J.P. Gownder, VP, principal analyst wrote: “Our research shows that a variety of employee experience (like flexibility, autonomy, and lessened commutes) and business benefits (like higher retention rates and long-term recruitment advantages) will accrue to companies that master this opportunity.”
In a sense, that’s what this is all about. As has been pointed out plenty of times before, working from home for many office workers was a short-term fix. As individuals emerge blinking into the sunlight following COVID-19, decision-makers will be scratching their heads trying to figure out how best to proceed. It’s not just an IT issue but something that involves a legal, regulatory, financial and human response as well.
As Ian Lowe, head of industry solutions EMEA at Okta points out, “one thing is for certain: we’re never going back to the way things were before.” ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/23/uk_coronavirus_lockdown_measures/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YLj8naOkA3MwmfkS5xkGSAAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YLj8naOkA3MwmfkS5xkGSAAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YLj8naOkA3MwmfkS5xkGSAAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YLj8naOkA3MwmfkS5xkGSAAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YLj8naOkA3MwmfkS5xkGSAAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://investors.zoom.us/static-files/2d917a17-6ad3-49f7-9642-2fb138f5ff84
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/16/work_life_balance/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/16/ultimate_working_from_home_desk/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/19/home_work_report/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/12/microsoft_work_from_home_policy/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/14/dropbox_wfh/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/28/dell_q2_2021_work_from_home/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/13/salesforce_office_reopening_plan/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
" Offices are full egotistical wankstains, generally "
Owned by wankstains.
Managed by wankstains.
Employed by wankstains.
HR'ed by wankstains.
Farts in the elevators by wankstains.
At least at home you have the choice of what wankstain you allow in there.
The future will obviously be a mixture - not every job can be done from home, and most jobs will require occasional presence at a central location. But even people keen to work in an office alongside familiar faces may be dubious about the value of paying thousands of pounds a year in order to spend 2-3 hours a day with their face pressed into another's armpit. And if company's what you need, you can do your homeworking from a shared office location or your local coffeeshop without the commute.
Businesses have already seen the advantage of dispensing with expensive city centre locations. I'm retired now, so my contacts aren't as extensive as they once were, but I personally know of two major financial services operations in the city that have been able (because the timing of their lease worked out for them) to close offices with hundreds of desks and replaced them with serviced accommodation for 40-50 seats.
I'm not sure how all this will pan out - buy shares in Regus?* But train operators are wondering whether peak passenger volumes will eventually recover to 75% of 2019 levels, or only 50%. I think it's worse than that, because even people who do need to commute will find the roads significantly quieter, reducing further the demand for train travel. Remind me, why are we spending £100++ billion on a new train set to 'relieve congestion'?
* this should not be taken as financial advice
why are we spending £100++ billion on a new train set to 'relieve congestion'
I suspect that infrastructure investment will quickly wither once Great British Rail is in place. However, HS2 isn't really in the commuter market - it's inter-city travel. If cities are going to continue to exist, they'll have to re-invent themselves on the back of leisure and culture, for which travel would be essential. It's clearly not a given that this will happen, however.
I can't help feeling that the Elizabeth Line is going to look like a rather expensive white elephant, though, when/if it finally opens.
I thought HS2 was to link the throbbing industrial heartland of the west midlands to our customers in the Eu, via HS1 and the channel tunnel?
As the channel tunnel is evil and European and will probably be left to go bust as soon as a way to blame France and the EU is found, HS2 must look northwards and embrace the joyous possibilities that the future Boris Bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland offers.
With a new Crossrail tunnel to go under the rebellious Scots and link to our new trading empire in the Faroe islands ?
As the channel tunnel is evil and European and will probably be left to go bust as soon as a way to blame France and the EU is found
Getlink, the tunnel owners, are a public company listed on Euronext. As such, sod all to do with HMG.
The roads are most definitely not quieter, I think we'll go back to old habits a lot more than you envisage.
I wonder how much of that is due to the reopening of businesses (such as cinemas) where WFH isn't an option for most employees, combined with (as the article alludes to) the reluctance of some other employers to give their employees much choice in whether or not to continue WFH?
How soon we forget! Are the roads as quiet as they were 12 months ago? Obviously not. Are they busier than 2019? I don't think so.
"even people who do need to commute will find the roads significantly quieter, reducing further the demand for train travel."
OTOH, if the trains are no longer rammed every morning and evening, it may encourage people who used to drive to work rather than face being crammed into a carriage, to give the train a second chance for their commute. I can also imagine that, if employers properly embrace flexible working, then there'll be some employees who choose to split their time between home and the office during the same day depending on what it is they're doing that day, rather than just heading into the office for a full day, which could lead to a rise in passenger numbers outside the traditional periods.
Costs and being competitive
I'm curious as to how much difference having most, or possibly all, of your staff working from home, has on costs for the companies themselves?
We seem to be in a situation where many companies are embracing this new at-home work model, with plans to continue even after the World gets back to (mostly) normal (assuming it does of course).
But many companies seem to be the opposite, insisting people return to the office, with no plans to extend home working beyond what they have to do.
So won't that leave some of these companies at a potential competitive disadvantage?
e.g. If it's cheaper (I'm assuming it is) to have people working at home, then those companies will presumably have less expenditure, so can either make more profit from the same income, or pass some of the saving on to customers, and so undercut the competition that's still running out of an office.
I imagine likely varies between industries.
I could imagine after a few years, that any company still insisting everyone work from an office (without a valid reason to do so, such as security/regulations etc), will end up uncompetitive, and also unattractive to potential employees. Which might involve having to put wages up to attract people, or just not having the best people, as all the good ones have gone elsewhere!
Re: Costs and being competitive
Some businesses trus ttheir people and are all too happy to let them work from home so they don't have to lease office space for them.
Others are micro-managing bean-counters who don't trust their staff as far as they can throw them and can't STAND the possibility of them working autonomously without them hovering over every keystroke.
Guess who wants the staff back in the office?
Welcome back to work, slave! :(
Re: Costs and being competitive
So why do you need a law?
Goodd employers that want to keep staff will have to have work from home anyway
It's obviously going to be full of so many exemptions that bad employers can force anyone back into to the office for 'security' or 'reasons'.
It's going to become an excuse for that one person to insist on working from home, then goes sick for 6months because their kitchen table wasn't ergonomic
It really does seem to depend on the business. My employers are quire happy to have me working remotely while they save money on the no-longer-leased downtown office space, along with the rest of the project team. But I know of several businesses friends work at that insist on everyone coming back to the office. Their management consists of micromanaging bean-counters, and they can't STAND people not being under their thumb and eye. :(
If they are 'micromanaging bean-counters' as you put it (and I'm sure there are some), then isn't it going to be a case of which takes precedence?
i.e. The micromanaging side want's people to be in the office. but the bean-counter side would save more money/make more profit, by having people work from home. Can't really have it both ways!
Having it both ways
Make savings by getting rid of office space - happy beancounters. Then notice that productivity doesn't plummet cos of WFH so get rid of the micro managers - happier beancounters.
Now, we just need a plan to get rid of the beancounters.........
Re: Having it both ways
3-bean salad?
It seems that the worst is to come for companies that rent office space
The tendancy is getting clearer every day : beancounter's preference for diminishing costs is going to prevail over manager's ego trip in being able to count heads.
Suits me.
Re: It seems that the worst is to come for companies that rent office space
beancounter's preference for diminishing costs
well worth remembering that it's trivial to skew "costs" by acts of parliament and general taxation policies.
Working from home ? How about you pay extra tax on your mortgage for dual use of your home. Or have to pay a mandatory insurance for work activities ?
Re: It seems that the worst is to come for companies that rent office space
>Working from home ? How about you pay extra tax on your mortgage for dual use of your home. Or have to pay a mandatory insurance for work activities ?
This would be a better use of new laws.
Come to sell the house - the government wants some capital gains tax because this was a business premises not just your home.
Tree falls on your roof - find out that your home insurance isn't valid because you are now operating a business?
Get evicted/rent rise because you are operating a business not just renting a place to live.
Find that your local authority doesn't zone your house for business use / wants to charge you business rates.
Re: It seems that the worst is to come for companies that rent office space
My point was that a better law would be something allowing you to do your normal office work from home, and protecting you from a bunch of organisations using it to claim you are running a business to get money out of you.
this seems more sensible than the "companies must allow you to work from home, unless they want to make up a reason why you can't proposal.
Sure.
If you can deliver the engine blocks to my place, it'll be much appreciated.
Re: Sure.
Depending on where you live, you may not actually be allowed to commercially build engines in your garage.
Re: Sure.
Artisanal home made engine blocks hand fettled in the cottages of olde England
A tradeoff here
It seems to me that the main problem with widespread hybrid in any given workplace is that when actually in the office, you'd quite likely find yourself having to hotdesk - making it distinctly (at least in my opinion) unattractive, and pushing me way further towards full home working more than I would find ideal.
When so many of us have worked our arses off from home over the last year and a bit, remaining as productive (if not moreso) as we'd have been if we'd been in the office "as normal" all that time, and proving to our employers that full time WFH really does work, it feels like a particularly hefty kick in the teeth that so many of us are now faced with having to return to the office even part-time just because our respective manglements think that getting back to normal means getting bums on seats in the office again regardless of whether or not there's any solid business need for having those people in the office on those days.
I'm quite happy to continue heading into the office as and when required, just as I'd been doing throughout the past year, but I really don't appreciate being told that, once our new policy takes effect, I *have* to be there for at least x days a week regardless of what I'm working on that week. Especially not when, if what I'm working on does require me to spend all week in the office, the policy doesn't then allow me to "bank" the WFH days I wasn't able to make use of that week for use in subsequent weeks where there really isn't any need for me to be in the office at all.
So sadly, I'd have to side with those survey respondents who indicated a preference for making enforced time in the office illegal - treat employees as professionals and give them the freedom to choose for themselves/within their teams how they want to split their time between home and office dependent on whatever it is they're working on at the time, with the understanding that if their productivity suffers as a result of their choices then they're at risk of a bollocking from their line managers, exactly the same as they'd get if they were in the office all day but not pulling their weight.
For every person who is more productive WFH, there is someone who just can't do it. Whether that ratio is 1:1, 5:1 or 1:5 I don't know...
The other possibility, as my other-half's daughter can testify, is that management had just signed and paid for a new building in Dec. 2019... They've been full time back in the office for a couple of months now. Her last day will be next week...
Yes, which is why I'd be happy for the choice of WFH vs WFTO to be left to the individual employee, and for their managers to then decide - just as they've always done - whether or not that employee is working as effectively as they need to be and whether any adjustments need to be made as a result.
What I'm not happy about is the way rather a lot of companies (including some who you'd think would be more attuned to embracing WFH) are/will be insisting that every employee returns to the office for at least x days a week, with the option (various conditions permitting) of working the remaining few days from home. Great for those who don't like WFH - they simply don't take up the option of WFH on any day, and go back to working in the office every day - but rather less favourable for those who do like WFH who aren't being given a similar level of flexibility to choose their preferred working location.
So how dies this square with a Tory-backing electorate ?
Hint It doesn't
Travelling pointlessly to a destination is a huge waste of time, and I value time, we have a finite amount of it and quite honestly we should value it more than others seem to, they take it for granted.
The thumbnail of a crowded underground station almost gave me PTSD just by looking at it, 3% of that crowd are probably sociopaths and could push you into a moving train at any moment.
I’ll take the working from home thanks
Offices are full egotistical wankstains, generally