You've heard of the cost-of-living crisis, now get ready for the cost-of-working crisis
- Reference: 1663842490
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/22/cost_of_working/
- Source link:
In its [1]Digital Etiquette: Reinventing Work Report , digital transformation specialist Adaptavist quizzed almost 3,500 professionals from the US, UK, Australia, and Canada on their views about hybrid vs office work, productivity, collaboration and isolation, communication tools, health and wellbeing, and the future of work.
Adaptavist found that for the 1,200-plus UK employees surveyed, inflation and shocking cost-of-living increases have folded into a new "cost-of-working" crisis affecting not only where they work but how.
[2]
Although the cost of working from home is increasing with stomach-turning energy bills, 44 percent of Brit respondents said they are worried about the additional costs of working in an office if they return full time.
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Of the 38 percent that said they were anxious about returning to the office, 35 percent said the anxiety was due to the commute. Everyone has felt the pang of stupidity in traveling to work to be able to afford traveling to work, and according to the Office of National Statistics, the annual increase for transport in the UK was 15.1 percent in July 2022.
As a result, 29 percent say they'd want to see commute reimbursement and free parking as the carrot that would get them back in the office full time.
[5]
"The transformation of work over the last few years has been long lasting, but will also continue to evolve," said John Turley, head of Organisational Transformation at Adaptavist.
"Just as employees have grown accustomed to questioning the level of flexibility and freedom their organization provides, they're now understandably considering the costs associated with heading back to the office, working from home or some combination of the two.
"Whether these costs are mental, emotional or financial, employees and employers will need to find a new equilibrium between business as usual and the way people want to work now – one that supports well-being as well as creating value for customers."
[6]
Meanwhile, the flexibility of working from home has allowed respondents to supplement their income with freelance gigs or additional hours as recession looms, opportunities they feel will be stripped by a mandatory office schedule. Some 28 percent plan to take on additional work and 16 percent already have, with 51 percent citing an increased income of £6,000-£12,000 annually (c $6,800 to $13,600). It's clear why some would not want to lose this.
The downside to these ventures is that they could cause burnout. Adaptavist said 31 percent of British employees are so overwhelmed with work that they don't have time to talk to colleagues, while 89 percent said in-person communication with co-workers is critical or important. This could contribute to loneliness or isolation, though more than half of professionals have not accessed their employer's mental health resources.
Psychotherapist Petra Velzeboer commented: "Often we find that mental health and well-being resources do exist within organisations, but the communication about them is poor and awareness low.
"An effective Employee Assistance Program and communication strategy is essential to ensure companies and employees have the right tools in place, but it's only half the solution. We need to proactively combat loneliness by creating a culture of connection, with mental health and well-being at the forefront. Companies need to prioritize mental health before people start to struggle, not after."
[7]BT CEO orders staff: Back to the office or risk 'disciplinary action'
[8]Red Hat says staff can stay away from the office forever
[9]Amazon CEO says company will slow hiring rate, no hard return to office planned
[10]Apple to compel workers to spend '3 days a week' in the office
The Great Reset
For better or worse, with 43 percent of respondents in either hybrid or remote positions, this flexibility could be coming to an end as employers begin to mandate a return to the office. Whether driven by recession, the need for control or to boost productivity, nearly three quarters of British workers said returning to the office would negate all, some, and the most important of their workplace freedoms.
This has pushed more than a third to look for a new job elsewhere. However, 66 percent of those who quit as part of the pandemic-inspired "Great Resignation" said they either regret or sometimes regret the decision – so proceed with caution.
Among the tech companies herding workers back to HQ are [11]BT , [12]Apple , and [13]Google , which have all mandated a "3 together, 2 wherever" (as BT put it) model – three days in an office, and two remote.
On the other hand, [14]Red Hat has no qualms with staff working remotely for the foreseeable future, [15]Amazon has said it has no hard return to the office planned, [16]Dell envisioned 60 percent of staff staying away after the pandemic, and [17]Salesforce believes "office mandates are never going to work."
At the more disturbing end, [18]Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri famously said "maybe five days is too much family time. One or two days is a good amount," when explaining why staff had to come back in.
Time for a four-day week?
Adaptavist also asked professionals for their take on the future of employment. While 63 percent said they were working the same hours as before the pandemic, more than 62 percent wanted to see an end to the 40-hour work week, with 49 percent angling for a four-day schedule.
Almost a quarter of those surveyed said their employer already offers four days. This follows a huge [19]UK pilot of the schedule shakeup for 3,000 workers across tens of companies between June to December.
At the [20]half-way point of that pilot , 88 percent of companies that respondended said the four-day week is working well for their business; 46 percent said business productivity has stayed the same; and 86 percent said they are 'extrememly likely" to retain the four-day week policy.
Tool fatigue
The survey also looked at communication and productivity tools, with Brits frequently experiencing "tool fatigue." This was most acutely felt by asynchronous workers – those on a team that does not require all members to be online simultaneously – who had tool fatigue rates twice that of synchronous workers.
Just over half of employees said they lose time due to task switching, and 41 percent complained that their organization had too many tools that do the same thing.
Email remains the most used communication method for work at 31 percent, followed by in-person talking (17 percent), then collaboration tools like Slack as the primary communication method (12 percent). However, those working asynchronously in larger companies with more than 250 employees were more likely to use such tools, with Microsoft Teams (75 percent) and Zoom (53 percent) considered essential for collaboration. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.adaptavist.com/ebooks-white-papers/digital-etiquette
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YyyGlxwovgk2@iAY8@BvsQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YyyGlxwovgk2@iAY8@BvsQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YyyGlxwovgk2@iAY8@BvsQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YyyGlxwovgk2@iAY8@BvsQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YyyGlxwovgk2@iAY8@BvsQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/21/bt_ceo_orders_staff_back/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/14/red_hat_wfh_policy/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/08/amazon_andy_jassy_hiring_return_to_office/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/16/apple_office_mandate/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/21/bt_ceo_orders_staff_back/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/16/apple_office_mandate/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/03/google_covid_office/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/14/red_hat_wfh_policy/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/08/amazon_andy_jassy_hiring_return_to_office/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/28/dell_q2_2021_work_from_home/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/back_to_office_benioff/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/18/workday_ceo_says_oracle_way/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/11/4day_workweek/
[20] https://www.4dayweek.com/news-posts/uk-four-day-week-pilot-mid-results
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
"Fuck that for a game of soldiers." A much underused phrase, thanks for speaking up from the trenches.
p.s. any day now many folks will get their new gas bill (projected) and be glad to go back to a warm office rather than keep the heating on all day at home, what's that phrase again?
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
If your home office is small enough you won't need to spend much on heating. My home office is the smallest bedroom and with the door shut the computer kit can keep it warm enough almost throughout winter. On those rare days when it needs heating I have an oil filled radiator that helps out (though it's rarely on for long).
I don't put the house heating on because there's only me and no point in heating up any other rooms. In the UK it's never going to get cold enough during the day to make going into the kitchen for a brew problematic without heating.
But if you're concerned about the environment or domestic bills it's worth running the sums. If you put the house heating on just because you're working from home(*) it may well be cheaper and more 'planet friendly' to drive twenty minutes to work and let your employer provide the heating and lighting.
(*)Obviously if it would have been on anyway because other people are home that doesn't matter.
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
Of course, then you are paying for gas for your car. Not much home heating savings at that point...
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
Not much home heating savings at that point...
With today's pricing a twenty minute drive (about what I used to do before WFH) would cost me around £1.40. There are other costs associated with driving but most of them are more to do with car ownership so are fixed regardless of whether the car is parked up or mobile.
7.5 hours of electricity is probably about £1 if we include kettle use and lighting so clearly for me I'm ahead purely on fuel. But if I were foolish enough to put the heating on I reckon that would tip the scales the other way. My parents always said that heating the house during the week had a huge effect on their gas bills when they retired.
But my post was just to suggest that it's not as clear-cut as 'WFH is better than sharing an office'. Nonetheless I'd also like it be known that I love WFH and wouldn't go back to an office for anything. In fact just before Covid I was planning to approach my boss and say that he either let me WFH or I'd retire.
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
I was surprised when I did the current costs of running a server 24x7 that uses about 150W according to the UPS and iLO. It came out about £1.60 per day.
It does not take much with lights, kettle and a laptop to start mounting up and whilst is still cheaper for those with a long or expensive commute is reaching the point where it actually matters.
The DL server will get turned off and I will migrate what I need to an HP Microserver that users 35W that is currently underused.
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
The phone is such a PITA.
There's always the chance to miss calls,
and then there's the chance of information loss,
because what was discussed in those phone calls way back?
In a similar way to a paper-less office,
in which one tries to print as little as possible,
I would like to propose a phone-call-less office,
in which nobody bothers you with phone calls.
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
What tune are we supposed to sing this to?
-mobailey
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
The phone has the advantage of putting you into a real world conversation, whereas Emails tend to be cold lifeless bastards where even a slight grammatical error can slip the whole conversation down into the proverbial shit-hole..
Teams etc are just the telephone with little moving images attached, so basically the same thing.
What do you suggest in order to replace the phone ?
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
Whats worse is a specific company in Bracknell who keep calling the company I work for up saying they're from Dell - when they're only a Dell supplier.
The cheeky f**ks know that the person answering the phone is on a Dell laptop (or at least recognises that we could use a lot of Dell stuff), puts it through to me, for me then to have that awkward conversation of "no thanks, we are sorted for procurement. No I don't want to know your name" kind of thing.
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
Had that sort of thing a few years back, only with people claiming to be from Microsoft. Got to recognize the type and forced them to admit they were a reseller. My standard response was "You started your very first conversation with me with a lie. Why would we trust you on anything else? Goodbye, and don't call again." Seemed to work, eventually.
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
[1]oblig Seinfeld
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEyQ7gY5C8M
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
No I don't want to know your name" kind of thing.
How about, "Yes, I want to know your name. I'll be quoting it when I complain to Dell."?
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
Someone I know was once buying so much stuff from Dell that they had their own account manager. The account manager's name was Derek - they called themselves Dell.
"Hi I'm Dell from Dell"
Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work
Register with the corporate TPS, then tell the nuisance caller that you will report them if they keep on calling.
I've found it usually works...
The daily commute
Years ago I turned down a job that was offered to me because it was an extra 10 minutes each way from my existing job. It's only ten minutes, but that's nearly 2 hours a week. It's my time and my life.
The best decision I made for commuting was getting a motorcycle. In the years of commuting by motorcycle I was never once late. It wasn't practical in the snow. But even in the rain it was better than the Tube. I feel sad for those people who regularly commute by train from outside London. I've seen their bewildered faces when "something happens" and they are marooned in London. Good luck to those who commute by bicycle too.
Commute time, unless you are lucky enough to get a seat, is basically lost time.
Re: The daily commute
I had a 40 minute commute, through nice countryside. I always found it a useful time to decompress and get work out of my mind, so that when I got home I could relax. WFH just meant that I never had a clear separation of work and non-work life.
Re: The daily commute
My commute is too long. I'm ok with two days per week, and that's what we will likely settle for (for my case at least). When it is not raining it is a nice 40km bike ride. One way. (I bike one direction, take the train the other way, otherwise I'll have legs like Eddy Merx soon). And yes, having that clear separation between work and non-work is nice. I did not have this in the last job, and now I do know what I was missing.
Shame I don't like many aspects of the current position, but hey, maybe I can train up one of my sidekicks to do the part of my job I don't like...
Re: The daily commute
> I bike one direction, take the train the other way, otherwise I'll have legs like Eddy Merx soon
And how is that a bad thing?
Re: The daily commute
"I had a 40 minute commute, through nice countryside."
So did I, at least for the half of it closest to home.
"I always found it a useful time to decompress and get work out of my mind"
So did I but only at the end of the day, not at the beginning.
I also, at one time, had about an hour and a half each way by train. A quick calculation showed it was the equivalent of working every weekend for no pay.
Re: The daily commute
Similar circumstance. I motorcycle like the OP, but in the PNW, I took a ferry to get from Kitsap Peninsula to 'the mainland' near Seattle. On the one hand, being on the bike made commuting much easier. On the other, it sucked 3 hours of my day every day going back and forth. Yes, part of it was decompression time, but I'd much rather have the 15 hours a week of my life back, thank you very much. And like above, that's just like working on a weekend. With the extra hours, I can get small projects around the house done and free up my weekend time for other things.
Thankfully, my employer has no intention of mandating a return to office for the IT staff.
Relative pronouns
> 41 percent complained that their organization had too many tools that do the same thing.
Should that be too many tools that who do the same thing
"Everyone has felt the pang of stupidity in traveling to work to be able to afford traveling to work"
Speak for yourself. My wife, a civil servant had a 30 minute commute by train that cost just over a fiver return. It goes through some lovely countryside and seaside and is a relaxing start and end to the day.
Now her government building has been mothballed and ready to be sold because it cost an absolute fortune to heat and power and all those other occupation costs - water, cleaning, food, maintenance, and so on.
Her office based Monday to Friday 08:00-17.30 day, which was strictly enforced by the building opening at 7am and closing at 6pm, now comprises of logging on at home by 7am, and staying online until 6pm, with at least 4 hours on two Saturdays or Sundays a month also expected.
And to add insult to injury you have dicks like Rees-Mogg going on and on about lazy staff refusing to come back to the office. For her branch of civil service, nothing could be further than the truth.
How does the economics of hybrid working using public transport work out?
It's a very long time since I had to do this but as I remember it the season ticket was a good deal cheaper than day tickets on a 5-days-a-week basis but would it be cheaper for 3-days-a-week? Even if it would the cost per day would still be perceived as greater.
Also, if most workers choose Tuesday to Thursday as their in-office days what effect does this have on the costs of running the transport network?
It doesn't work!
The 'flexible season tickets' they introdued a while ago are a joke - basically a carnet-style thing, which work out massively more expensive per day than a standard season ticket.
You're forgetting that the "per day" cost of the flexi seasons is what you're paying to travel on those days where you actually are commuting, whereas the "per day" cost of a standard season is calculated on the presumption that you'd be travelling 5 days a week for *every* week of the season period.
e.g. according to the National Rail site, the annual season for my commute would cost me £2520/year, which it helpfully notes is £9.70/day. Meanwhile, the flexi season is £111.20, or £13.90/day.
However, given that my employer is gracious enough to give me a few days leave each year, and also doesn't expect me to work bank holidays, the per-day cost for me of an annual season would actually be £11.10/day. Still a saving over the flexi, and certainly enough to justify the upfront cost of buying the ticket (my employer doesn't, alas, offer any form of season ticket purchase scheme), but not quite as impressive a saving as it first seemed.
However however, given that my employer is also gracious enough to operate a 3 days in/2 days out hybrid working scheme, the per day cost of that annual season would in reality be £17.87, which is more expensive than even the cost of a daily return, and massively more expensive per day than a flexi season ticket...
4 Day Week
Could very well be the answer to a lot of prayers.
For the majority:
- improved mental health from being able to spend more time with family/relaxing/admin
- more money in the pocket
- more time to spend that money locally
- reduction in energy overheads for companies
- better retention?
Given the UK is fast sliding back to the 1970s, a 3/4 day week option could well be a benefit to everyone.
Re: 4 Day Week
-> Given the UK is fast sliding back to the 1970s, a 3/4 day week option could well be a benefit to everyone.
I fear we have seen nothing yet.
The lockdowns were promulgated by people who have guaranteed incomes. It matters not one jot to them if people could work (and therefore be paid) or not. We have an energy crisis now, which started years ago because we have had no energy policy for 30 years. The war in Ukraine is just the icing on the cake. Don't worry, the market will take care of it. We saw how quickly the market wiped out the energy companies that thought the party would not end.
But don't worry. We have people in charge who have PPE degrees from Oxford and Cambridge but don't actually know anything. Well they know how to fiddle expenses. And they know how to talk down to the plebs.
Re: 4 Day Week
But four days where? At home or local? Or at the end of an insanely long, expensive and ultimately unsustainable commute?
Apart from Moggie we've learned that there are alternatives to the city-based long commute employment model that post-war planning regulations ave created. Now is the time to take what we've learned and start building something more rational.
"a quarter of those surveyed said their employer already offers four days"
I'd be interested to know how many of those are condensed-hour positions, where you still work 40 hours a week but it's 8 to 6 on four days instead of 9 to 5 on five days.
4 day week
Code for: we’d like you to do in 4 what you currently do in 5.
Less 20% pay of course!
Cost to *who* exactly?
I'll give you 2 different scenarios...
Before the (first) lockdown I did a daily commute where I could drive. The *direct* cost to me of doing this was £11-12 per day. By which I mean the cost of fuel, depreciation on my car, and parking (yes I work at one of those places where you need a parking permit to come to work!). Coffee, toilet roll, cleaning, heating, electricity? £0 to me.... £some-cost to my employer. Indirectly there were environmental costs of me driving / carbon footprint etc. Tiredness from driving and less family time were indirect "costs".
Working at home 5 days a week during (any) lockdown: Direct cost of driving = £0. Coffee, toilet roll, cleaning, heating, electricity? Maybe £3/day to me; £0 for my employer. Reduced my carbon footprint in terms of driving... but was contributing in other ways since loads of people were heating their homes etc whilst an office remained empty. Some costs to my employer for having said empty office. Some indirect mental health costs for not interacting with people as much due to working from home. Indirect gains: more family time, not tired from driving.
Now: some combination between the first and second paragraph.
Nothing is free and costs are direct and indirect. It depends who and what you want to attribute "cost" to. If you're sensible you have a rough idea of the direct costs to you, and factor that in (i.e. subtract it) from your salary to work out whether the job is financially viable. Anything indirect is subjective and should still be a consideration, albeit one where you have to work out whether on balance you're prepared to accept it.
Re: Cost to *who* exactly?
I WFH (very occasional "socialize centric" office visits) - accepted role on basis it was remote working.
Extra costs are minimal (electricity consumption of PC / monitor, extra coffee maker or kettle use on drinks, light on towards the end of the day in late Autumn / Winter when it gets dark early). I live with (retired) partner & infirm OAP relative, so heating is on anyway.
Big saving on commute costs & wasted time (& environmental benefits), especially as office nowhere near a train station so only option is drive there only (approx 50 miles away so cycling not really an option - I live out in the sticks & not near London so any IT job is a commute - nearest locations with any decent amount of IT jobs probably at least 20 miles away ).
If the office was quick & easy to get to I would be there quite often to interact "face to face" with colleagues, but with my circumstances minimal office visits suit me best. 3/2 with 300+ miles driving each week would see me hand in my notice.
"66 percent of those who quit as part of the pandemic-inspired "Great Resignation" said they either regret or sometimes regret the decision"
This one has always befuddled me. Your employer took care of you during the worst employment crisis since the Great Depression and you reward them after the dust has settled by jumping ship? Anyone who did this and regretted it had it coming, IMHO.
Aircon for a typical office block. Yeah, that. Property budgets should be skyrocketing accordingly.
Heating is a comparable problem.
And then you have dumb office blocks like the one I occasionally use where the A/C and heating control systems are on separate circuits, so it's frequent that the heating will blast out high temperatures in winter while the A/C then works to remove it from the building.
Email remains the most used communication method for work
????
I had the misfortune to get sucked into a "find a cheaper ISP" website for my employer 2 weeks ago.
It wasn't clear until the "submit" that it was (yet another) of these money-for-old-rope outfits.
Within 1 minute I started getting calls from people who all wanted "just a minute" to sell me their wares. Not one of them had anything they could send by email.
Fuck that for a game of soldiers. Luckily it was a disposable VOIP number we operate (for just such eventualities).
Telephone is a 19th century invention (and email is 20th Centurty). Even Jacob Rees Mogg finds the telephone old fashioned !