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Working from Home


john luke

Working from Home  

10 members have voted

  1. 1. Did you work from home, rather than travelling to a place of business?

    • Yes - I did home working prior to and during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
      2
    • Yes - I worked from home during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
      2
    • No - The nature of my work made it necessary for me to travel to a place of work.
      6
    • No - It would have been possible to work from home but my employers would not allow it.
      0
    • No - It would have been viable for me to work from home, but I chose not to.
      0


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A member raised the issue of working from home on another thread.

What are your views on the subject.

Were you able to work without distraction and achieve better results?  Did you miss 'face to face' contact with other staff?  If you had a managerial or supervisory position, did you find your staff worked more efficiently and productively or otherwise?

 

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The majority of my working years I worked from home and loved it. It's not for everybody, but in my line of work it was almost an ideal situation. The only thing I missed out on was the exchange of ideas with co-workers which would probably have saved me from recreating the wheel on a couple of occasions. It also allowed me the flexibility to live my motto "I work to afford my time off".

Here's a post from last year on the subject.

 

Edited by forcebwithu
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20 minutes ago, john luke said:

A member raised the issue of working from home on another thread.

What are your views on the subject.

Were you able to work without distraction and achieve better results?  Did you miss 'face to face' contact with other staff?  If you had a managerial or supervisory position, did you find your staff worked more efficiently and productively or otherwise?

 

Very good idea.

Unfortunately I am unable to complete the poll twice on behalf of my two sons in UK. Each response would swing the results in opposite directions!

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I have contracted all over the world in a job that needed hands on, face to face mentoring of local employees, so NO it would never have worked for me during this covid period.

My favourite was a time in Africa when a bunch of Engineers sat around a very large cable drum and I said that we were all equal and can say what we think as there was no "Head of the table, the same as King Arthur" ...It then became a "thing" that whenever something needed to be discussed openly somebody would say "Can we sit at King Arthur's table" .It enabled empowerment, acceptance of responsibility but retained respect for authority.....Try doin THAT working from home!

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37 minutes ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

I have contracted all over the world in a job that needed hands on, face to face mentoring of local employees, so NO it would never have worked for me during this covid period.

Much the same,difficult to work from home when you do aircraft maintenance.

Anyway I last worked Jan 2019.I was offered work Jan 2020 at the same place but after thinking about it for about a nanosecond told them I was enjoying doing nothing.

In retrospect it was quite prescient of me.

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As I spend most of the day driving a forklift I can't work at home. Sure, sometimes it would be nice to have the odd day away from work but not full time. The social aspect of work is good for people. We worked all through the pandemic so nothing changed for us. Can see how people don't want to go back to work, no travelling time or cost etc, but the lockdowns convinced me I'd be bored shitless after a while through lack of social contact. 

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I think the whole work from home thing applies to a small percentage of the population, but media reports on it like it’s the norm. Same as the increase in home prices in most cities, I don’t care if mortgages are under 2% for now, $1m + dollars is still a lot of dosh, it’s not like 90% of folks qualify 

Very interested to see where Canada, and the world, will be economically in 5-10 years. What goes up must certainly come down, but the Dow Jones has been on a nonstop bull run since Obama was inaugurated……it defies logic

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6 hours ago, Golfingboy said:

I think the whole work from home thing applies to a small percentage of the population, but media reports on it like it’s the norm. Same as the increase in home prices in most cities, I don’t care if mortgages are under 2% for now, $1m + dollars is still a lot of dosh, it’s not like 90% of folks qualify 

Very interested to see where Canada, and the world, will be economically in 5-10 years. What goes up must certainly come down, but the Dow Jones has been on a nonstop bull run since Obama was inaugurated……it defies logic

Here the house prices are going through the roof my dads house was valued at $985k in January , just had s appraisal for probate at 1.5m plus as its s prime site for redevelopment with apartments interest rates are tipped to get up to 4% After new year

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1 hour ago, Bazle said:

So it looks like a disaster is on the horizon: people getting large mortgages that many won't be able to pay when the interest rates go up.

Maybe then there'll be a "correction" in the housing market. 

With the cost of living rising sharply, gas/electricity, fuel, food etc., its unsustainable to keep rising the way it has been. People will struggle to keep up with living costs now never mind taking up a big mortgage. 

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1 hour ago, Bazle said:

So it looks like a disaster is on the horizon: people getting large mortgages that many won't be able to pay when the interest rates go up.

Maybe then there'll be a "correction" in the housing market. 

We'll see if 2008 taught anybody anything.

 

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Me and the wife both worked "on site" through Covid (until she got ill) but many of my and her colleagues took the wfh option where applicable.

Like @galenkia my contracted job role needs me to be there and diagnose / fix / update / operationally test stuff, not possible to do it remotely at all, even if I wanted to, which I don't.

wfh would save me £50 a week on fuel, so that's a pay rise of circa £3k pa right there, but not taking into account the increased use of electricity etc, plus I'd fairly quickly turn into a big fat pudding because I snack too much when in front of the PC, whereas my job keeps me in relatively good physical shape, but as each Winter passes I keep telling myself it is a young man's job.

Ironically though wifey is due to leave the NHS at the end of the year and has picked up a role in the private sector which is mostly wfh. I did ask if there was a new GoGo bar opening in town which got me a thump in the melon for my troubles, but on a serious note though, many employees feel the NHS is going nowhere fast and for some they think the writing is on the wall, but that's another yarn for another topic.

From my standpoint which is an operational responsibility rather than managerial (although I do have authority I prefer our team to work on a basis of equality and shared responsibility - but the buck does stop with me) wfh has meant there has been a very visible and discernible decline in operational standards in some areas. It has also shown that at certain middle management levels, a chunk of responsibility has been effectively pushed down the line to those working on site.

 

Edited by Butch
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Although I am now technically retired, I still take on a few contracts that suit me or come my way, and for the last 2 years at least, all have been from home including meetings and interviews using Zoom, as its not manual work related. 

Whilst I am happy with that, I do miss the real physical environment although not the travel into centre of London. 

 

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Yes myself and the rest of the company I work for worked from home. In fact we were basically sat at home doing training stuff for the first few months of the pandemic as accessing hospitals to sell stuff to them was near impossible. It’s still not easy now, but via a combo of teams and getting into some hosps now we are getting enough done.

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8 hours ago, galenkia said:

With the cost of living rising sharply, gas/electricity, fuel, food etc., its unsustainable to keep rising the way it has been. People will struggle to keep up with living costs now never mind taking up a big mortgage. 

In Canada’s 2 priciest markets, Vancouver and Toronto, the higher-end stuff, say $3m+, was largely being snapped up by Chinese, many doing it through a 3rd party from back home, just to have somewhere to park their cash. But now it’s gotten ridiculous, everyone seems to want to have a home, at any price. In simple terms, let’s say a youngster got in 5 years ago @300K, needing only 15K down(5%). His place he sold for $500K,  now maybe he has 250k equity. We now have rules where any purchase over $1m requires 20% down, but even at that, he can now have a budget of $1.25m, payments would be around $4k/mo but with 2 borrowers still can easily qualify. 
 

The other problem being reported on in the hot markets, is the complicity of the real estate agents. They collude  to push up prices, it means more commission $, which they always refuse to negotiate. People selling privately get blackballed, as do agents who dare offer a low commission rate like 1% vs 5-6. 
 

What it comes down to is, with home prices up at least 400% since the millennium, realtors’ pay has gone up by the same amount. Do you know anyone else who has gotten a 400% raise in 20 years, for doing the exact same thing and not furthering their education? Bargirls excluded of course 

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1 hour ago, Golfingboy said:

What it comes down to is, with home prices up at least 400% since the millennium, realtors’ pay has gone up by the same amount. Do you know anyone else who has gotten a 400% raise in 20 years, for doing the exact same thing and not furthering their education? Bargirls excluded of course 

"Estate Agents" here in the UK are looked upon with a fair bit of derision. They have a stigma attached to them as being dishonest and untrustworthy, mostly for the exact same practices you describe.

However, with the advent of online options such as "purplebricks" it has started to bite them in the backside a bit, and not before time. It is going some way to encouraging healthy and long overdue competition in the sector.

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15 minutes ago, Butch said:

"Estate Agents" here in the UK are looked upon with a fair bit of derision. They have a stigma attached to them as being dishonest and untrustworthy, mostly for the exact same practices you describe.

However, with the advent of online options such as "purplebricks" it has started to bite them in the backside a bit, and not before time. It is going some way to encouraging healthy and long overdue competition in the sector.

I was a cabbie, UBER has pretty much destroyed that profession, and for consumers who are probably just saving a few $ on every ride. 
 

Now I’m thinking the real estate must have some powerful lobbyists, I don’t see why they wouldn’t be rendered obsolete as well. No way should someone be making $30,40 or even $250k for what probably amounts to as little as 10-20 hours of work in a hot market. They will say “ oh it’s expensive to be an agent, and we are worth it”….. Ah, no, not anymore when houses are selling themselves. If anything the lawyers/notaries and house inspectors  should charge $500 more for their vital services….they are worth it. We have private sales too in Canada, but agents till control the bulk of sales

When things go south and prices drop, then we see which agents are good at their job. Usually the old man in his 60’s who has been in business 30 years

Edited by Golfingboy
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13 minutes ago, Nickrock said:

Here real estate agents charge 3% plus about 3-4k in other fees 

On a 1.5m house thats about a average annual income for a semi skilled worker ( excluding plumbers and other in demand tradies lol)

I pay 1% here in the uk. So a big difference 

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