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Working from home

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Southern Dvr

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Really? My employer hasn’t altered their guidelines so i am in next week (and I can work from home if needed).

I guess TfL were hoping people who normally use London Bridge would go to Victoria then use the District line to get to the city. I know it probably is quicker to walk from London Bridge, but I suspect I lot of people who normally take the tube can’t / won’t walk. Bus is an alternative but in my experience is slower than walking.
Southern (allegedly) didn’t amend theirs, or so i am told, and that’s why they are having to decimate the service.
Expect a lot of other TOCs to follow suit.
 
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Starmill

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Its akin to the only supermarket in town simply removing 50% of its products including many of the main staples & expecting all their customers to accept it
Although it's nothing like 50%, I haven't visited a large supermarket and been able to buy every item I wanted without some things being out of stock for a long time, certainly not since 2020. It's generally still completely random to the untrained consumer what you can and can't get too.

Unfortunately, higher prices for worse service is just the way it has to be now with many things.

I think you'll find increasing numbers of employers outside the public sector wanting bums on seats.
Most private sector firms want their staff to be working at their most productive, whether that's in an office or not. The claim that they want people in just for the sake of it doesn't stand up I'm afraid. Large proportions of office workers have worked just as productively at home, regardless of people's bias over it.
 
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Nicholas Lewis

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It's not the virus that is making otherwise healthy and available employees stay at home....
Enlighten us what is then.

Oh will that be common sense to minimise the spread of the virus or would you prefer to force even more people into self isolation as this is the end state here. Then you have the challenge of getting those people back when their LFTs keep coming up positive after 10 days or worse they can't get a test so they just stay away from the workplace anyway.

Anyone not worked out yet here that this has the potential to be far more disruptive to lives that last March's stay at home order.
 

najaB

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Any sensible employer is not going to want a covid outbreak in thier office.
Our current global WFH has been extended until Jan 31st at the earliest. And when we go back to the office it will be on a hybrid model where people will be expected to be in the office regularly but on an agreed schedule with their manager. Most people are doing either 2 or 3 days a week, at least one person I spoke with is only going to be in the office for sprint planning (once a fortnight).
 

island

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All office based workers should be working from home anyway at the moment.
What they "should" be doing and what their employers require them to do will not necessarily align. Under the current legislation in England, if employers want to require everyone full-time in the office there is little stopping them.
 

edwin_m

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What they "should" be doing and what their employers require them to do will not necessarily align. Under the current legislation in England, if employers want to require everyone full-time in the office there is little stopping them.
However many employers will consider that their duty of care under Health and Safety at Work Act requires them to follow current guidance to WFH where possible, even if it's not backed by legislation. Someone who caught Covid and suspected it was at the office could have a pop at suing their employer.
 

island

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Indeed. I myself am second in command at a bank and at the end of November we promptly suspended all obligations to attend the workplace for staff would are able to work remotely, because that is common-sense and we are a responsible employer. Not all employers are as responsible and the rather nonsensical and offensive attitude of "if we can't see you you're not working" still prevails in certain places.
 

Mag_seven

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I wonder if all those who are keen to continue working from home when the advice is lifted will remain as keen when their domestic electricity bill goes through the roof?
 

JonathanH

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I wonder if all those who are keen to continue working from home when the advice is lifted will remain as keen when their domestic electricity bill goes through the roof?
Doesn't that depend on the other savings being made? It is all a balance.
 

Mag_seven

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Doesn't that depend on the other savings being made? It is all a balance.

Yes but they well be using more electricity than if they were at the office and at a higher rate too - that may negate any savings made in say rail fares even with the rail fare increase coming.
 

gg1

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I wonder if all those who are keen to continue working from home when the advice is lifted will remain as keen when their domestic electricity bill goes through the roof?

For many people the costs of a daily commute exceed the energy costs incurred from working from home, especially in the summer when the heating's off and even where that's not the case, there are plenty of people who would happily trade higher energy bills for the shorter working day that comes with not having to commute.
 

najaB

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Yes but they well be using more electricity than if they were at the office and at a higher rate too - that may negate any savings made in say rail fares even with the rail fare increase coming.
Given that an annual season ticket into London might run over £5K I doubt the rise in electricity bill due to running a laptop and desk light is going to come close to wiping out the savings.
 

johntea

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You save money on the commute, potentially food and drink costs depending on how frugal you are/were, but you also save on something priceless too...time! My commute was 1hr-1.5hr each way excluding the potential of delays and the like so that was around 15 hours on top of my 37.5 hour working week!

Although I work with some great colleagues and a few 'regulars' who I get on well with so it can start to get quite lonely at home, Teams just isn't quite the same...our department actually won a 'team of the month' award for a recent project and there was a 'well done' conference call on teams, where I didn't even know who half the people attending were as I've never met them in person!
 

najaB

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Although I work with some great colleagues and a few 'regulars' who I get on well with so it can start to get quite lonely at home, Teams just isn't quite the same...our department actually won a 'team of the month' award for a recent project and there was a 'well done' conference call on teams, where I didn't even know who half the people attending were as I've never met them in person!
I know the feeling - I've not met two thirds of my current team in person, but then given that most of them are in different countries that's not surprising. ;)

More seriously though, I've trained about 10 local new starts since we've been WFM and the first time I actually met most of them in person was at our pre-Omicron office Xmas party.
Do people working at home have any tax benefits?
Yes. See: https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home
 

Class800

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Do people working at home have any tax benefits?
It depends on whether you are contractually designated a homeworker, or if you are officially office based but are working at home by mutual agreement. At least in the sector I am in
 

martin2345uk

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I don’t understand why some people have such an issue with people working from home - to me it seems like the only good thing to come out of the pandemic, a realisation that the 9-5 office culture just isn’t necessary any more.

Some people will prefer working in the office so I would hope they would still be able to when they want but to arbitrarily demand that all office workers go in if they can be productive at home just seems bizarre.
 

43096

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I wonder if all those who are keen to continue working from home when the advice is lifted will remain as keen when their domestic electricity bill goes through the roof?
I’d bet that the extra cost of energy price rises is more than offset by the saving on travel costs, particularly those who use the train for any distance.

In my case, I doubt my electricity bill will be going up by £3k per year!
 

D365

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Do people working at home have any tax benefits?
What happens for somebody like myself who’s moved into any office job since the pandemic started? AFAIK, the tax benefits won’t apply to me, a) because I went into the job knowing it had switched to wfh, and b) other than self-isolating I’ve had the office available since 12th April.
 

najaB

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What happens for somebody like myself who’s moved into any office job since the pandemic started? AFAIK, the tax benefits won’t apply to me, a) because I went into the job knowing it had switched to wfh, and b) other than self-isolating I’ve had the office available since 12th April.
As per the link I provided, if you choose to work from home then you're not entitled, but if your employer expects you to WFH even part of the week then you are entitled.

You may be able to claim tax relief for additional household costs if you have to work at home on a regular basis, either for all or part of the week. This includes if you have to work from home because of coronavirus (COVID-19).

You cannot claim tax relief if you choose to work from home.

So to me it comes down to your job description.
 

D365

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As per the link I provided, if you choose to work from home then you're not entitled, but if your employer expects you to WFH even part of the week then you are entitled.



So to me it comes down to your job description.
My employer, and the management, seem to be gently encouraging us to wfh. But the office is fully open and nothing’s stopping me from going in every day. So it’s all rather inconsequential.
 

najaB

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My employer, and the management, seem to be gently encouraging us to wfh. But the office is fully open and nothing’s stopping me from going in every day.
Talk with your direct manager and get them to suggest a schedule for working from home - that would meet the "have to work from home" wording as I understand it.

As an example, our offices are/will be open (different restrictions in different countries) but they're now classified as "collaboration hubs" and we've all been re-classified as hybrid workers. Meaning that while we have the option to come into the collaboration hub five days a week, the expectation is that we will WFH at least part of the time.
 

3rd rail land

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My employer has re-introduced a rile where you have to get a approval for an office visit. I had blanket approval in 2020, not sue if it would still be valid, and for quite a lot of 2021 offices opened back up and you simply had to book a desk and did not need approval.

My employer has turned a large portion of its office space into hot desking areas. Desks are kitted out with monitors, docks etc and you book a desk in advance. Hardly anyone has a fixed desk anymore. Those days are well and truly gone.

My wider team used to have a few 'away days' a year where we would meet up in an office. Sometimes it would be 2 offices to save on travel and hotel costs, one in Scotland and the other in south East England. These have been banned as company sponsored events are not allowed until further notice.

Home working can get lonely. I went to my nearest office, 42 miles away, 3 times last year and there were only a handful of people about. It really was a case of only come to the office if what you need to get done can't be achieved from home.

I could very well end up not visiting an office at all this year. Whilst I don't want to go to an office on a regular basis occasional visits would be nice if only for a brief change of scenery.
 

johntea

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If you’ve work from home for just a single day in the past couple of years you can claim £6/week relief (if your employer doesn’t cover it already which I’m guessing most probably won’t) for both the 2020/21 and 2021/22 tax years

There’s a useful article on the Money Saving Expert website about it all

 

gg1

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I don’t understand why some people have such an issue with people working from home

Either they're people who think homeworking = skiving, or they're people in jobs where homeworking isn't a feasible option and they're jealous.

Personally I loathe commuting, always have, and I'm lucky enough to have a relatively short one (30 - 40 minutes each way). Main advantage of home working for me is that hour or so each day is now mine, the fact I also save money is a nice bonus too.
 
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