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How has your work life changed since March 2020?

What has changed at your job since March 2020?

  • More working at home

    Votes: 65 56.0%
  • Less working at home

    Votes: 2 1.7%
  • No changes

    Votes: 41 35.3%
  • Moved job / industry

    Votes: 14 12.1%
  • Retirement / redundancy

    Votes: 4 3.4%
  • Some / all locations closed or consolidated

    Votes: 8 6.9%
  • Changed how you commute

    Votes: 16 13.8%

  • Total voters
    116
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westv

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Our external professional advice was that there would be adverse tax implications for us if we didn’t have a minimum expectation of 40% of time in the office.
I've not heard that one before.
 
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Jamesrob637

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12 Aug 2016
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5,208
I WFH even pre-COVID
Then I was put on furlough in March 20 (13th to be precise)
Then I tried for temp jobs but only started one last month. Now I'm in the office full-time.
I want hybrid working in future as it seems do many on here.
I have chosen the "less working from home" as that reflects my current situation, however I could be singing a different tune in a few weeks' time.
 

kristiang85

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Joined
23 Jan 2018
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2,650
Our external professional advice was that there would be adverse tax implications for us if we didn’t have a minimum expectation of 40% of time in the office.

We've been told that for those working abroad - we've now had pretty much a blanket ban on people 'working from holiday' due to the tax implications.

But I've not heard that one either. Is it linked to London allowances? That's the only one I can think of that might be a serious issue.
 

island

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0036
I asked my colleague today and got a confused semi-answer about tax rules on permanent workplaces. If I get anything else I will revert, but in the face of alleged professional tax advice any attempts on my part to change things will inevitably fall flat.
 

43055

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Joined
8 Mar 2018
Messages
2,884
Been working from home since last march with the occasional visits to the office if needed. By September a mix of 2-3 days a week at home/office is planned.
 

3rd rail land

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623
Location
Where the 3rd rail powers the trains
No change for me as I've been WFH since September 2019.

My nearest office is 42 miles away and even if I went there I wouldn't see anyone from my team very often as we are based all over Scotland and England and all WFH.
There are people in the office but not people I work with and only ever interact with very occasionally.
The office is not open plan and due to nature of the work we do we are only allowed in areas relevant to the programme(s) we work on.

I haven't been to the office since December 2020 and unlikely to go anytime soon. My team used to meet up every few weeks as we were getting a bit fed up with 100% WFH but I don't know if these will ever resume.
 

Jamesrob637

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Joined
12 Aug 2016
Messages
5,208
Hybrid working will be crucial for staff loyalty in the months to come for many businesses.
 

Bayum

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Joined
21 Mar 2008
Messages
2,902
Location
Leeds
I teach. So it entirely depends on circumstance. Most of my time has been in school but as a CEV I’ve spent more time recently working from home then I have at work. If a bubble burst, I would be working from home for a week or so. Not sure which category I fit into!
 

Furrysquid

Member
Joined
15 Apr 2020
Messages
22
Location
Solihull
Been back to the office twice since March 2020, the first time purely to clean out my locker and discover that someone had stolen my mug. What I do involves running jobs on boxes in remote data centres, then sitting on conference calls to discuss the results. Where my desk actually is doesn't make a difference to this.

Over the last year my mental health has improved noticeably, I've got much better at time management, I've been introduced (via Microsoft Teams) to various cats and dogs, some fish and a pet lizard, and I've taught our modern apprentice (and, presumably, his lizard) to do pretty much everything I do. Oh, yes, and I've saved three hours/day and £180/month by not having to do the commute. We as a team realised at the outset that we were going to have to be proactive about the social side of things (in particular, making time for non-work chatter in the daily stand-up, and the understanding that it's actually ok to phone someone just to have a natter), and that seems to have worked well too.

It's nice to be able to accommodate requests for early conference calls without having to get up at 5am, and it's nice to be able do something productive with the odd slow afternoon by working through something relevant on Coursera/Udemy/whatever, none of which will play on a work PC.

Going forward, we will probably be in the office 2-3 days/week. The only people who appear to be looking forward to this are senior management.
 

Cdd89

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Joined
8 Jan 2017
Messages
1,451
We as a team realised at the outset that we were going to have to be proactive about the social side of things (in particular, making time for non-work chatter in the daily stand-up, and the understanding that it's actually ok to phone someone just to have a natter), and that seems to have worked well too.
That's interesting and it's good to hear your team have been proactive about making that work, as it hasn't been my experience.

The main thing I have missed - and which I don't see could be easily replaced - is hearing other conversations (work-related or otherwise) at nearby desks and being able to jump in on them; for obvious social reasons, but also because (especially in technical roles) "you don't know what you don't know" and it is a way of finding that out given that training is not 100% perfect.
 

Tramfan

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Joined
19 Mar 2011
Messages
343
Location
.
That's interesting and it's good to hear your team have been proactive about making that work, as it hasn't been my experience.

The main thing I have missed - and which I don't see could be easily replaced - is hearing other conversations (work-related or otherwise) at nearby desks and being able to jump in on them; for obvious social reasons, but also because (especially in technical roles) "you don't know what you don't know" and it is a way of finding that out given that training is not 100% perfect.
I've now upped my office days to 4 per week, and i'm certainly finding that on the one day where all of my colleagues are also in, I am more productive for the same reason above, in that I find it easier to bounce ideas around in person than over Teams or over the phone.
 

Ianno87

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Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
I've now upped my office days to 4 per week, and i'm certainly finding that on the one day where all of my colleagues are also in, I am more productive for the same reason above, in that I find it easier to bounce ideas around in person than over Teams or over the phone.

Yes, I had a proper "bounce ideas" day last week, and I was far more fruitful than an entire week of Teams calls.
 

nlogax

Established Member
Joined
29 May 2011
Messages
5,352
Location
Mostly Glasgow-ish. Mostly.
Yes, I had a proper "bounce ideas" day last week, and I was far more fruitful than an entire week of Teams calls.
Still waiting here, it seems our T&E policy is a month behind the change in rules allowing meetings with clients and colleagues. Soon though..mere weeks away.
 

westv

Established Member
Joined
29 Mar 2013
Messages
4,203
That's interesting and it's good to hear your team have been proactive about making that work, as it hasn't been my experience.

The main thing I have missed - and which I don't see could be easily replaced - is hearing other conversations (work-related or otherwise) at nearby desks and being able to jump in on them; for obvious social reasons, but also because (especially in technical roles) "you don't know what you don't know" and it is a way of finding that out given that training is not 100% perfect.
I always found it difficult hearing conversations on other desks as they are almost always either just too far away to hear or spoken too quietly for me to hear.
 

LancasterRed

Member
Joined
21 May 2018
Messages
291
We've had an email through recently regarding the changes we'll be making from July 19th, ensuring that our workforce stays safe while ensuring that restrictions are lifted where possible. As we are in a critical industry to the economy we cannot lose employees to illness during the summer when holiday days have a higher uptake so we've made the transition to in-person working slower while ensuring anyone who would massively benefit from being in the office is issued a desk on the 19th.

We're taking a more blended approach while encouraging social distancing and PPE use (but not mandated except where mandated by other safety rules) while slowly reintroducing more touchpoints to improve the working experience.

Having quality bosses that care about the work experience but also understand the implications of a COVID breakout has made a huge difference and I am extremely excited to spend more days in the office at work knowing that I will be safe but not subject to overzealous restrictions.
 

Eyersey468

Established Member
Joined
14 Sep 2018
Messages
2,135
I have worked all the way through, though from late May 2020 for a year I was floating spare on local bus until NX picked up again. From late March 2020 to late May 2020 I was not furloughed even there was no NX work as there were a couple of shifts that needed tacho drivers on because of the distance some of the journeys were.
 

Tracked

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Worked at home since 18th March last year, not sure what's happening yet about returning to work; when the government extended emergency powers to last until September we heard it'd probably be WFH until then, which would be the 5th/6th return date we've had so far (When the WFH was dropped for a week last September they were looking at getting some people back in, but the guidance changed before anyone was actually asked to return ... ).

Nothing definitive on how many days a week we'd be in, our area are keen for WFH apart from meetings, after a year of not having a 1.5 hour journey each way I'd look for something nearer home if they wanted us in full time (as, I think, would a few of my colleagues).
 

Jamesrob637

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Joined
12 Aug 2016
Messages
5,208
Worked at home since 18th March last year, not sure what's happening yet about returning to work; when the government extended emergency powers to last until September we heard it'd probably be WFH until then, which would be the 5th/6th return date we've had so far (When the WFH was dropped for a week last September they were looking at getting some people back in, but the guidance changed before anyone was actually asked to return ... ).

Nothing definitive on how many days a week we'd be in, our area are keen for WFH apart from meetings, after a year of not having a 1.5 hour journey each way I'd look for something nearer home if they wanted us in full time (as, I think, would a few of my colleagues).

Yes so you're one of those who can tolerate, nay quite likes an odd commute. Like myself.
 

The Ham

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Joined
6 Jul 2012
Messages
10,283
I was furloughed early on in the first lockdown, as I work related to the construction industry and they needed the first bit to sort out new method statements before they could start working again.

Had a time of Flexi Furlough last summer before returning full time from September in person (a small office where there's 6 of us), when we had the November and January to Easter lockdowns back to WFH full time.

Had another week of WFH due to a child self isolating recently.

There's some flexibility to WFH, however we are mostly encouraged to work in the office.

Being in the office leads to much better working relationships with others, for instance during the times of lockdown I could go weeks without even talking to some people, on occasions including my boss!

There's definitely some big advantages of the changes which have come about, as I've spoken to people from the other office much more. I probably spike to one of them more yesterday than the whole of 2019.

Even as someone who likes their own company WFH was surprisingly hard for to the lack of interactions. I was however fortunate that the two of us who were working on the main project in working on were happy to Teams call eachother for at least an hour each day with the balance of work/social talking being 1:3.

As others have pointed out it's the incidental chats, overheard conversations, general office banter which is hard to get the culture of the company to accept when working remotely.

Generally I think flexible working is a good thing, as WFH all the time would require a lot of hard work to ensure that you aren't isolated. To the extent that companies who try it soon find that they lose staff almost as quickly (as there's no loyalty to the work colleagues) as those who insist on 100% in the office (and the wasted travel time).

This thread has confirmed that there's still quite a lot of people who haven't returned to their offices since starting WFH (with the exception of the odd free days), which will likely see travel (especially by rail) increasing fairly noticeable once they go back (even if that's 1 to 3 days a week).
 
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