Working from home, good/bad?

[Mister Carlton]

Everyday seems the same.
Only positive has been spending more time with my dog.

 

[Hamingja]

What's the appropriate action from both parties if you are working from home and have a power / internet outage?

 

[Alesana]

WFH in Melbourne is basically living to work, instead of working to live. Not the way it should be

 

[Themanbun]

Love not having a commute. More time to exercise and spend with my family. Only wish there were some guarantee of permanency so I could move to regional Victoria or even interstate.

 

[Gralin]

no commute is good
no AC currently is bad

 

[branedotorg]

i live about 5 minutes walk from work but would never go back in if my role didn't require some on-prem effort

 

[AFDogs]

Working from home outside of lockdown = good

Working from home because of lockdown = bad

In my experience so far.

 

[burge13]

Yeah having the flexibility is fantastic but being forced for long stints less so

Everyone be WFH again soon with these idiotic 'close case' rules anyway so may as well prepare for it

Multiple CBD offices here enforcing masks then staff just said they won't be in. Simply impossible to fathom the level of stupidity of this country atm

 

[toxic]

Once health orders cease to exist

Are employers still willing to have people work from home?

OH&S extends to the home (workplace)
Home Risk Assessments?

It's about to get very very grey (messy)

 

[burge13]

Once health orders cease to exist

Are employers still willing to have people work from home?

OH&S extends to the home (workplace)
Home Risk Assessments?

It's about to get very very grey (messy)

Flip side to this

Are employers going to want to keep paying expensive rent in the city for jobs they now know people can do remotely at 90% efficiency?

Suggest many won't be extending their leases and the government will end up having to subsidize costs or something to keep the CBD alive

Who the hell wants an hour + on public transport every day? it's unnecessary for almost all office jobs to actually be in an office

 

[AFDogs]

Flip side to this

Are employers going to want to keep paying expensive rent in the city for jobs they now know people can do remotely at 90% efficiency?

Suggest many won't be extending their leases and the government will end up having to subsidize costs or something to keep the CBD alive

Who the hell wants an hour + on public transport every day? it's unnecessary for almost all office jobs to actually be in an office

I'm guessing some would still like to work on site in the city for the experience. And to make friends, meet people etc.

However you're right, a lot would love to WFH. You'll see outer cheaper suburbs like Melton etc. benefit from this.

 

[Caesar]

Once health orders cease to exist

Are employers still willing to have people work from home?

OH&S extends to the home (workplace)
Home Risk Assessments?

It's about to get very very grey (messy)

We have already sublet half our office space

All employees signed off on HRAs at the beginning of the pandemic as part of our BCP

Aside from lower overheads we are also saving money on salaries for new positions - ‘Location Flexible’ means we are getting applicants from lower COL areas

We will never go back to the office full time

 

[Deliverance]

I can split my days between home and office. Life is sweet.

 

[Themanbun]

We have already sublet half our office space

All employees signed off on HRAs at the beginning of the pandemic as part of our BCP

Aside from lower overheads we are also saving money on salaries for new positions - ‘Location Flexible’ means we are getting applicants from lower COL areas

We will never go back to the office full time

Companies with this attitude will likely win out.

It makes economic sense, and you get the bonus of being able to attract talent from anywhere.

 

[burge13]

Companies with this attitude will likely win out.

It makes economic sense, and you get the bonus of being able to attract talent from anywhere.

But also remember if you can do your job from the beach, someone can likely do it for 10% of the price from India...

I agree remote work is the way to go but there is a cost to it

 

[Themanbun]

But also remember if you can do your job from the beach, someone can likely do it for 10% of the price from India...

I agree remote work is the way to go but there is a cost to it

For the most part, that's correct, but that happens regardless mate.

The job can either be done from home, or it can't. Making the job cheaper and better for the employer (lower overheads, rental spaces, greater talent pools, etc.) to hire a remote worker in Australia is not going to influence any outsourcing decision. The jobs that are 'eligible' for WFH have always been susceptible to outsourcing, and the key characteristics that make it eligible to be worked from home haven't changed much even with the pandemic.

 

[Gralin]

But also remember if you can do your job from the beach, someone can likely do it for 10% of the price from India...

I agree remote work is the way to go but there is a cost to it

Hope you're not living in fear mate

 

[burge13]

Hope you're not living in fear mate

Not remotely unlike you and the cult. How sad following people around the site to try and bait . Parasite

 

[Gralin]

Not remotely unlike you and the cult. How sad following people around the site to try and bait . Parasite

keep up the insults, it works out so well for you

 

[wertystyy]

I think introverts are much more comfortable working from home. If you are an extrovert then working from home will be unbearable for you.

 

[chunkylover53]

If I had to choose between permanently doing either, I'd choose the office. I get cabin fever at home. But I'm lucky enough to have the option and I'm doing about 3 days office/2 days home, or 4 days office/1 day home.

I've been with the company about 3.5 years across a few roles, currently I'm in a team with 2 other girls who are relatively new (<12 months) and they just never come into the office - and I gotta say, it pisses me off (very boomer of me).

It's a family business (not mine), we have offices, a warehouse, trucks coming and going, staff everywhere - you know, the actual core and foundations of the business. I think more effort should be made to get on-site, connect with the rest of the organization and involve themselves.

FWIW their reasons for not coming in, ever, are "I've got an office at home". One of them lives 15 mins away against the traffic.

I dunno, it's just beginning to irk me. Am I an old-school hardass? Or is this reasonable?

 

[Themanbun]

If I had to choose between permanently doing either, I'd choose the office. I get cabin fever at home. But I'm lucky enough to have the option and I'm doing about 3 days office/2 days home, or 4 days office/1 day home.

I've been with the company about 3.5 years across a few roles, currently I'm in a team with 2 other girls who are relatively new (<12 months) and they just never come into the office - and I gotta say, it pisses me off (very boomer of me).

It's a family business (not mine), we have offices, a warehouse, trucks coming and going, staff everywhere - you know, the actual core and foundations of the business. I think more effort should be made to get on-site, connect with the rest of the organization and involve themselves.

FWIW their reasons for not coming in, ever, are "I've got an office at home". One of them lives 15 mins away against the traffic.

I dunno, it's just beginning to irk me. Am I an old-school hardass? Or is this reasonable?

If they are permitted to work from home, are able to, and choose to do so, you should work on building more flexible employee connectivity rather than getting angry at them exercising a right that they've (presumably) been given by the employer.

There's probably a wider HR/change piece about how to connect virtually. Even though in person is the easiest, it can be done. I've made very good friends at work who I never met in person up until an Xmas party or whatever, and we hit it off in person as well.

 

[Caesar]

If they get the job done then more power to them

I’m all for having people come to the office when it’s necessary but the whole “you should come in just because” thing is the sort of bullshit that made me leave my last job

 

[Gralin]

reckon for a lot of jobs the main benefit of going into the office is building relationships with your co workers

you don't need to be in 5 days a week to do that, you just need to have a regular team catchup

 

[HirdsTheWord]

Once health orders cease to exist

Are employers still willing to have people work from home?

OH&S extends to the home (workplace)
Home Risk Assessments?

It's about to get very very grey (messy)

Depends who you work for I guess.

It is almost as a guarantee that government will soon start to provide incentives for companies to get workers back in CBD's, I'm guessing it will be tax based among other things. I trust many companies wanting these incentives will start to being office workers back in.

I don't think WFH is hard to navigate as long as the employer and employee are on the same page about expectations.