Moderator note : posts #1 - #5 originally in this thread
Really? A survey just last week said that only 1 in 10 businesses thought home working was more productive. There's been other surveys which back that up too, noting that collaborative work has been diminished. A friend of mine who's a senior manager at a business has said as much about his work too, noting it's incredibly difficult to manage his staff and ensure that they are being as productive as they would've been 8 months ago. The argument that home working is the panacea is usually made by people who've got a very comfortable home and can't be bothered making their journey into the office anymore - I know this personally from friends who've said as much. It's not about productivity, it's self-interest.
You say that office working is less productive, an unsubstantiated claim and that government can't force them. No, they can't, but they can incentivise this. If you cut tax breaks for those working from home and introduce taxes on companies of a certain employee size where staff work from home for say more than 1 day a week then suddenly there's a big incentive to get people into office spaces. Now, there's no question that Covid has shown that WFH is doable and companies should be more flexible with staff and personally I am all for it. Having worked in office jobs pre-railway I saw both sides. 1) A company that didn't allow for any home working (except senior managers) meaning I had to take days off for deliveries and once for a boiler repair 2) A company that allowed one home working day a week. All I'll say is - I much preferred Job 2, especially when I had to prepare presentations or an asos delivery was coming I could work in peace at home.
Anyway, this argument will rumble on. The economy will dictate the future of working and the railway will need to adapt. Flexi-Season Tickets are the obvious short-term solution but I'd want to see loyalty cards introduced, offering 10 journeys a month. However, that makes the railway pricing much more complicated.
Time to scrap season tickets and peak fares?
Commuter traffic has collapsed and working from home for a considerable proportion of rail commuters is likely to continue long after Covid-19 is forgotten about. Business travel is also likely to reduce due to the massive take up of video-conferencing and organisations moving to net zero. This...
www.railforums.co.uk
Many companies have found that their staff are more productive when working from home. Where this is the case I think the likely end point will be some sort of split with staff in the office 1-2 days a week. While the government may be concerned about the impact on city centre service businesses and office occupancy, I don't see what they can do to force companies to work less productively.
Really? A survey just last week said that only 1 in 10 businesses thought home working was more productive. There's been other surveys which back that up too, noting that collaborative work has been diminished. A friend of mine who's a senior manager at a business has said as much about his work too, noting it's incredibly difficult to manage his staff and ensure that they are being as productive as they would've been 8 months ago. The argument that home working is the panacea is usually made by people who've got a very comfortable home and can't be bothered making their journey into the office anymore - I know this personally from friends who've said as much. It's not about productivity, it's self-interest.
You say that office working is less productive, an unsubstantiated claim and that government can't force them. No, they can't, but they can incentivise this. If you cut tax breaks for those working from home and introduce taxes on companies of a certain employee size where staff work from home for say more than 1 day a week then suddenly there's a big incentive to get people into office spaces. Now, there's no question that Covid has shown that WFH is doable and companies should be more flexible with staff and personally I am all for it. Having worked in office jobs pre-railway I saw both sides. 1) A company that didn't allow for any home working (except senior managers) meaning I had to take days off for deliveries and once for a boiler repair 2) A company that allowed one home working day a week. All I'll say is - I much preferred Job 2, especially when I had to prepare presentations or an asos delivery was coming I could work in peace at home.
Anyway, this argument will rumble on. The economy will dictate the future of working and the railway will need to adapt. Flexi-Season Tickets are the obvious short-term solution but I'd want to see loyalty cards introduced, offering 10 journeys a month. However, that makes the railway pricing much more complicated.
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