exiledclaseboy said:
Those are all valid points. But they’re not an argument against home working on their own because it ignores the benefits. They’re very valid arguments for a hybrid model with some time spent remotely and some in some kind of office environment. I agree that everyone’s living arrangements will be different so full time home working won’t be for everyone all the time. But to dismiss the benefits out of hand while only listing the potential negatives is a bit one sided. Fact is home working was forced on everyone who could do it two years ago and front line services suffered because there were too many roles which couldn’t be done remotely. Forcing everyone who has worked from home successfully in the last two years back into an office full time is counter productive, regressive and will end up costing far more given how much has been invested in facilitating remote working over the last two years. As always the right answer is some kind of sensible medium ground, not to tell everyone that they must work at home all the time or must work in an office all the rime.
We operate a successful smart working policy that provides both the employer and the employee with a framework that delivers that balanced approach. Our industry is manufacturing and prior to March 2020 we would never dreamed of allowing support functions of engineering, purchasing and finance to work remotely. Being forced to change all that led to the measures that we saw in the aftermath of the Covid outbreak, which was a work from home policy unless absolutely necessary. However it also quickly became clear that this would not be sustainable in the very long term and that some office based time would be essential. Cue the development of the smart working policy - to the employee this could mean a little extra time in bed, money saved on commute, and the flexibility to deal with any domestic that may arise; to the company this has enabled the downsizing of offices and the sale of under utilised assets, money which is then being reinvested for future growth. Overseeing this is a HR policy that ensures effective performance management of employees. Productivity has not suffered in either manufacturing or support function areas, employees acknowledge that they may need to be on site at any given time and overall we are in a better place as a result of the situation.
