Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Aladdin]

I think the approach of companies largely depends on their size.  Small to medium sized businesses are far more likely to feel the disruption of staff leaving.  I absolutely loathe interviewing and, whenever staff leave, its generally a massive pain in the arse reallocating work.  

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Im currently at work, sitting in a big office by myself, in a building with about 3 other people.

Fucking joyous tbh.

If the wife wasnt at home I'd be there though.

[flyingscot]

The company I work for had surveys and discussions about it and the results were that a return to the office with some allowance for flexible working, up to a couple of days a week to be agreed in advance with line manager. Most of us felt our productivity at home isn't as good, particularly on projects with a lot of collaboration. 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

We got a pretty even home/office split being confirmed as our new standard set up post-covid a few weeks back. Pretty chuffed tbh

[Todd_is_God]

15 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

That's Wembley announced proof of full vaccination + 14 days or a negative LFT result within 48hrs for all 3 group games so absolute NAP the same will be announced today for Hampden and the Fanzone.

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm not a massive fan of the idea of vaccine passports, but any move away from everyone, vaccinated or not, requiring a negative test to enter a venue is a welcome one. It's another nod in the direction of acknowledging the vaccines work.

Ultimately, the number of those not fully vaccinated + 14 days is shrinking every day (currently 53.0% of all UK adults), and will surely reach a stage in the relatively near future where it is insignificantly large to warant the need for producing a negative test result. At which point the vaccine passport idea also becomes moot.

Isn't that essentially what Israel did? Gove visited there so a similar "middle ground" here would not be a surprise.

Edited June 8, 2021 by Todd_is_God

[Donathan]

28 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

I have never seen evidence of that though. Just the rollercoaster of having too many (layoffs)  or too few (recruit) 

I have honestly never seen a business act in anything other than its on interest in the bottom line, and pre emptively make moves to improve staff happiness. Most dont have an issue with unhappy staff, only an issue if so many actually do something about it and leave that they can't operate the business. Most whining in real life doesn't translate to doing something about it and leaving that job.

Again though, I'm not daft. Places must exist that do. Just as places exist that already trusted and allowed folk to work flexibly pre-pandemic. I just think theres an overestimation happening re how many employers trust their employees, or give a single f**k about their happiness. Therese a shit load of moving parts at play tbh, and I think its clear we are a good few months away from "normal" still, so who knows how its all going to go. This only started really because depsite it not being something that affects me, the BBC had me slightly peeved this morning when I seen that ridiculous article. I dont have a horse in the race as such, I just think folk need to be ready for a fight over it 

Working from home is good for the bottom line though:

 

- Lower variable costs of heating and lighting the office 

 

- Smaller officer so lower fixed costs

 

- Access to better quality employees who will in turn generate better results 

[Bairnardo]

1 minute ago, Todd_is_God said:

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm not a massive fan of the idea of vaccine passports, but any move away from everyone, vaccinated or not, requiring a negative test to enter a venue is a welcome one. It's another nod in the direction of acknowledging the vaccines work.

Ultimately, the number of those not fully vaccinated + 14 days is shrinking every day, and will surely reach a stage in the relatively near future where it is insignificantly large to warant the need for producing a negative test result. At which point the vaccine passport idea also becomes moot.

Isn't that essentially what Israel did? Gove visited there so a similar "middle ground" here would not be a surprise.

The same logic would also apply to requiring everyone to be vaccinated surely. We need to get away from the idea that its the right of the individual to be protected from breathing in germs at a given venue, and focus on population scale data. Have enough people been vaxxed such that an outbreak of any scale is unlikely, and if it did occur would not result in significant hospitalisation. 

Agree with what you are saying that vaccine proof is better than LFT test, but neither are good, or particularly fair

[Bairnardo]

2 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Working from home is good for the bottom line though:

 

- Lower variable costs of heating and lighting the office 

 

- Smaller officer so lower fixed costs

 

- Access to better quality employees who will in turn generate better results 

I dont think you can stroke as broadly as that tbh. If it was that obvious it would be home and hosed for all, including those who dont want it

[Thorongil]

Just now, Bairnardo said:

I dont think you can stroke as broadly as that tbh. If it was that obvious it would be home and hosed for all, including those who dont want it

Not quite. The only reason it isn’t completely a done deal is because of the resistance from traditionalists who want everyone back in the office full time. They are a very small minority but some are powerful/influential. 

[Todd_is_God]

1 minute ago, Bairnardo said:

The same logic would also apply to requiring everyone to be vaccinated surely. We need to get away from the idea that its the right of the individual to be protected from breathing in germs at a given venue, and focus on population scale data. Have enough people been vaxxed such that an outbreak of any scale is unlikely, and if it did occur would not result in significant hospitalisation. 

Agree with what you are saying that vaccine proof is better than LFT test, but neither are good, or particularly fair

I don't disagree with you. I'm just trying to see where the Gov can go with this that allows them an out, without setting off the Lovejoys they helped create.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

The state of washington in America (not DC but the bit in North West that includes Seattle) is launching a ‘joints for jabs’ initiative. Im not really down with the 420 or whatever but here its just constant unimaginative pish. We seem to have things going slower now than before its so fucking frustrating. 

[hk blues]

6 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Working from home is good for the bottom line though:

 

- Lower variable costs of heating and lighting the office 

 

- Smaller officer so lower fixed costs

 

- Access to better quality employees who will in turn generate better results 

For larger employees this will be the case, but how about smaller ones?  They may not be able to downsize their offices much so points 1 and 2 will be negligible.   As for the 3rd point, there may be those who don't want to/cannot WFH.

It's a leap of faith to some extent and won't work for all employers/employees.

[Raithie]

3 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

Shout from the school at 8 this morning to say daughters class isn't to go in, because someone in the class might have covid. Not confirmed, might  

Meltdowns everywhere, folk without a clue who has to isolate etc. 

This happened at our wee boys school a couple of weeks ago. He came home on the Wednesday to say his friend was sent home because he couldn't taste his packet of crisps and was coughing a lot - he must have been able to taste his breakfast though (!?!?). The entire class were back in as normal on Thursday (minus this one kid) then at about 6pm on the Thursday night we got an email from the school telling us his class were not to show up on Friday as a 'precaution'.  Further email on the Sunday to say kids can return on the Monday. Two days later someone else gets sent home for same reason - no email to say the class were to isolate though. Think the kids are getting wise on how to get a cheeky day off 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Raithie

[Bairnardo]

Just now, Raithie said:

This happened at our wee boys school a couple of weeks ago. He came home on the Wednesday to say his friend was sent home because he couldn't taste his packet of crips and was coughing a lot - he must have been able to taste his breakfast though (!?!?). The entire class were back in as normal on Thursday (minus this one kid) then at about 6pm on the Thursday night we got an email from the school telling us his class were not to show up on Friday as a 'precaution'.  Further email on the Sunday to say kids can return on the Monday. Two days later someone else gets sent home for same reason - no email to say the class were to isolate though. Think the kids are getting wise on how to get a cheeky day off 

I managed to log into the school app and the score is, they are awaiting the result of a covid test, and kids were not to attend today because thats what "public health" said. I think thats fairly reasonable if you get that message the night before, but not at 0800. 

In general though this bedshitting has to stop. 

[101]

4 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

The state of washington in America (not DC but the bit in North West that includes Seattle) is launching a ‘joints for jabs’ initiative. Im not really down with the 420 or whatever but here its just constant unimaginative pish. We seem to have things going slower now than before its so fucking frustrating. 

Tbh I do think it's quite funny that America needs to provide incentives to get a Jag that protects you and your family, especially if you are obese by handing out doughnuts and weed.

[Rugster]

31 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm not a massive fan of the idea of vaccine passports, but any move away from everyone, vaccinated or not, requiring a negative test to enter a venue is a welcome one. It's another nod in the direction of acknowledging the vaccines work.

Ultimately, the number of those not fully vaccinated + 14 days is shrinking every day (currently 53.0% of all UK adults), and will surely reach a stage in the relatively near future where it is insignificantly large to warant the need for producing a negative test result. At which point the vaccine passport idea also becomes moot.

Isn't that essentially what Israel did? Gove visited there so a similar "middle ground" here would not be a surprise.

Wait, how is the number shrinking? Are they taking vaccines out of people now?

[Todd_is_God]

1 minute ago, Rugster said:

Wait, how is the number shrinking? Are they taking vaccines out of people now?

I'll let you delete that silly question

[Ross.]

Still no confirmation on what my mob will be doing with regards to WFH when "Normality" returns, but most of the rumours suggest it will be up to the individual team managers to decide. I fully expect it to be 2/3 or 3/2 in terms of days in the office and days at home. A few of what would be classed as our competition for staff have already set their stall out in that regards, with one allowing everyone in the same general field to work from home and another doing 2 in the office and 3 at home. If we deviate too much from that, it would make it significantly more difficult to attract and keep staff.

A lot of blue chip companies will make the decision based on how much their offices cost to maintain. If you are paying 500 quid per m2 for an office in a relatively central location(Basing this on what my mob get charged here) and you have 100 staff,  you are going to be looking at the arse end of half a million a month in rent. That leaves significant potential for savings if they can reduce the space required.

[Rugster]

2 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I'll let you delete that silly question

Oops!

[Abdul_Latif]

16 minutes ago, Thorongil said:

Not quite. The only reason it isn’t completely a done deal is because of the resistance from traditionalists who want everyone back in the office full time. They are a very small minority but some are powerful/influential. 

When the work from home crowd start getting overlooked for promotions by those that have the bosses ear all day in the office their attitudes will quickly change IMO.