back to article UK chancellor: Getting back to the altar of corporate dreams (the office) will boost young folks' careers

Getting back into the office after a pandemic spent home working and on video calls would be "really beneficial" to young people's careers, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer has said. Talking to LinkedIn News – no, really – Rishi Sunak reflected on his own career, and observed that he would not have been able to build …

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Good advice.

            For a few seconds I thought you were passing on question 3 as if you thought you might just be Hatt Mancock so didn’t know the answer.

            1. Cederic Silver badge

              Re: Good advice.

              Let's face it, many of us are Matt Hancock at least in spirit. Hopelessly all at sea trying to do a good job in the face of constant criticism and adversity, under appreciated, blamed for all that goes wrong and desperately accepting the first shag that's been offered in two years.

  1. lglethal Silver badge
    Trollface

    Look at what hanging around the water cooler did for me, says son-in-law of billionaire Infosys founder

    Well it obviously helped him to remove any last traces of humanity and understanding of professional ethics. I mean why else would you join the Conservatives Party?

    1. Wellyboot Silver badge

      Better dinner invites than the Libs or Labour?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "professional ethics"

      His professional career was Goldman Sachs, a Stanford MBA and a couple of hedge funds (with an internship at Conservative Campaign Headquarters while he was at Oxford). Which one of those would you say would have given him an understanding of professional ethics that needed removing?

    3. Man inna barrel

      > I mean why else would you join the Conservative Party?

      Because the other lot are raving commie bastards, fomenting revolution and the destruction of civilisation as we know it.

      Some people support the Conservatives because they believe they are doing some good for the country, by defending it against malign influences. They may be wrong, but they are not lacking in humanity just because you disagree with them.

  2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    Cisco

    Cisco has become the latest big biz to talk about the big return to the office.

    Lets face it, if faces with using WebEx for all their meetings I can see why Cisco is thinking this whole remote working malarkey is bad.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Cisco

      To be fair, CISCO has always done its best to stop people working outside the office

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Cisco

        Bullshit

        Cisco has had a work from home policy for at least 20 years

        And even the divisions where working from an office has been encouraged (some of the startup acquisitions) have now pivoted so that employees can chose to work from home, hybrid, or be in the office full time. The choice is theirs.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Cisco

          Presumably using someone else's network kit

  3. codejunky Silver badge

    Hmm

    Worker interaction can make a difference to people. Not all of us like it or work that way but some people do.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hmm

      >>>Not all of us like it or work that way

      Lighthouse Keeper?

      1. Blofeld's Cat
        Coat

        Re: Hmm

        "Lighthouse Keeper?"

        I thought that job paid too well considering it was just "light housekeeping" ...

        1. Fred Dibnah

          Re: Hmm

          As per The Goodies:

          https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x35q4cz

  4. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    Donors

    Just Google:

    Property donors provide one-quarter of funds given to Tory party

    Property developers got caught with pants down and are desperate to get the cattle back to their buildings.

    Now, is it appropriate for a Chancellor to manipulate young people like that?

  5. Eclectic Man Silver badge
    Unhappy

    The Office

    In order to chat to the VP of Marketing around the Water Cooler, you have to be not only in the same office building as the said VP, but on the same floor, and have access to the same office area. When you are located in an office in Reading and Head Office is in central London, the chances of meeting the VP of marketing (or any other VP for that matter) are very remote, especially when the water cooler is in a secure office that the VP of marketing wouldn't be seen dead in. Or maybe Mr Sunak is talking to people like him - public school and Oxford educated PPE* graduates with lots of rich connections.

    This is all of mere historic (/histrionic) interest for me, having retired.

    *What exactly do they teach people in PPE? I mean there are loads of them in government, high up in the civil service, but none of them gets a good press in the Register, and from what Mr Sunak has just been reported as saying, they don't seem all that well acquainted with the world of work as experienced by us lesser mortals.

    1. Tom 38

      Re: The Office

      I wanted to apply to read PPE, but then I found out it wasn't studying the code of seminal 80s BBC Micro game Purple People Eaters.

    2. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: The Office

      Also VP unlikely is going to be drinking the "pleb" water.

      1. lglethal Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: The Office

        And if he wanted "water" he'd send his secretary out to get him an Evian.

        Water fom a communcal fixture, no VP would be caught dead around such a thing.

        Unless of course it was for a publicity shot.,After which he/she would have to gargle some Champagne and disinfect for an hour or so with a fine cognac to make sure that none of those plebian germs infected him/her...

        1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

          Re: The Office

          Not sure if VP is even going to drink Evian. There are companies that deliver best water from any place in the world straight to your door.

          You can also easily spot a VP who is only there to take a hit if something goes wrong - they all drink alcohol, it's a sign of weakness. If you want to climb the ranks don't drink.

      2. Eclectic Man Silver badge

        Re: The Office

        One company got those water coolers with large bottles which you up-ended and used a tap to get a cup of water out of. They got lots of coolers. But the deliveries went to the management team, and then they re-filled the empty bottles with tapwater for the 'workers'.

    3. Coastal cutie

      Re: The Office

      Agreed - our Directors have commented that one of the benefits to remote working is that they are actually interacting with a wider range of staff than they were previously because of geographic separation. There's a wider range of views and thoughts in meetings because people aren't being squeezed out by windbags/rank pullers plus no problems with getting rooms. The informal socials online have been attended by people who would never have gone to the pub (which was the usual venue), either because they didn't drink or just didn't feel comfortable in that environment, thus increasing their networking. Eventually we are returning to blended working when the infection rates drop further and all of us who can be are vaxxed but our organisation is keen to hang on to the benefits we've gained.

  6. Roger Kynaston
    Trollface

    freudian misread

    I saw this:

    "...government's first effort at getting people to return to the office..."

    and read:

    " governments first effort at getting rid of people ..."

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: freudian misread

      The first effort was sending people back to care homes without testing. How many properties this has released for rich party donors?

      1. codejunky Silver badge

        Re: freudian misread

        @elsergiovolador

        I was concerned to find hospitals leaving the doors wide open when all the signs on it say clearly that its a covid ward and the doors must be shut and people buzzed in.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: freudian misread

          No money released by government to spend on ventilation so it's the best way they've got of generating an air flow through the ward?

          1. codejunky Silver badge

            Re: freudian misread

            @AC

            Laziness. The reason I know about that ward was due to an older relative being placed on that covid ward without having a covid test, luckily not having nor catching it from others on the ward and left on the ward for a couple of weeks after testing negative (I can only assume laziness and not malicious intent to kill off a patient). Visitors being given different levels of PPE or none at all each visit with entirely different advice about quarantine afterwards.

            Luckily it all turned out ok in the end but the gov are the ones who get blamed when that is the level of practice on the front line.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: freudian misread

              Yes, it's because doctors and nurses on Covid wards and in ICUs working all hours God sends in wave number x of y are lazy.

              And this while the PPE they're wearing or supplying to patients and visitors is out of date, unavailable, or simply isn't fit for purpose as the government used the occasion to spread a bit more money to their chums instead of going to established PPE suppliers for a fraction of the price.

              Neither you nor I have ever worked that much in our entire lives. Consider yourself lucky you're not a doctor or nurse and have the luxury to pontificate your vacuous thoughts on a message board.

              1. codejunky Silver badge

                Re: freudian misread

                @AC

                "Yes, it's because doctors and nurses on Covid wards and in ICUs working all hours God sends in wave number x of y are lazy."

                Aka dont dare speak out against serious failures which would most certainly spread the virus causing a pandemic in the institution that should stop it? All hail the exalted ones. Because no way at all is it acceptable to acknowledge serious failures?

                These being putting vulnerable uninfected people in covid wards, leaving them in covid wards, not even following the bloody rule of closing the doors spelt out on the signage all over the door that should be shut to stop people wandering into the infected ward, giving varying levels of PPE depending on the nurse giving it out and differing advice depending on the nurse giving it.

                But of course its the NHS so never speak a bad word. All hail the exalted ones.

                1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

                  Re: freudian misread

                  I think it is more about targetting your criticism at the right people. (If the hospital staff had been even lazier, there wouldn't even have been signs up.) If we are going to attack "lazy" people then I'd have thought that the place to start is the git who skipped the first few Cobra meetings on Covid.

                  1. codejunky Silver badge

                    Re: freudian misread

                    @Ken Hagan

                    "I think it is more about targetting your criticism at the right people."

                    No doubt there is plenty to go around. And of course doctors and nurses have been fire fighting this pandemic with the limited supplies and information available to deal with this developing situation. But other parts of it has been spreading the virus and putting people at unnecessary risk.

                    I am aware my limited experience doesnt necessarily translate to everywhere else but as its my relative with such poor handling by the health service and putting her at mortal risk it does bother me. Somehow the AC doesnt seem able to understand that

                2. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: freudian misread

                  "Lazy" ?

                  What a thoroughly nasty series of posts, from a private healthcare fan apparently devoid of empathy or compassion. Visiting "an elderly relative" ? Doubtful they been near a NHS hospital in decades.

                  1. codejunky Silver badge

                    Re: freudian misread

                    @AC

                    Stick to posting your stupidity as AC. Hopefully you wont be put in a situation where an elderly relative develops a serious condition which puts her in hospital and even though she tests negative is left on a covid ward (before the vaccine) and kept in those conditions.

                    May you one day grow up to understand how that could take some shine off your glorious religion.

                    1. Anonymous Coward
                      Anonymous Coward

                      Re: freudian misread

                      "Stick to posting your stupidity as AC. Hopefully you wont be put in a situation where an elderly relative develops a serious condition which puts her in hospital and even though she tests negative is left on a covid ward (before the vaccine) and kept in those conditions.

                      May you one day grow up to understand how that could take some shine off your glorious religion."

                      @codejunky

                      One of my parent died last year. Had to nurse them at home through this pandemic. With the help of brilliant, caring, professional & thoughtful NHS staff. Get bent.

                      1. codejunky Silver badge

                        Re: freudian misread

                        @AC

                        "One of my parent died last year. Had to nurse them at home through this pandemic. With the help of brilliant, caring, professional & thoughtful NHS staff. Get bent."

                        Lucky you and I am glad they were helpful to you and yours. Considering they were little help to my dad in discovering his heart condition nor when it came to actually getting it sorted out and dumping my elderly relative in a badly run covid ward you can bend yourself.

                        1. Anonymous Coward
                          Anonymous Coward

                          Re: freudian misread

                          Lucky? Fuck you.

  7. Blofeld's Cat
    Childcatcher

    Er ...

    Many years ago it was quite common to sort out development issues while chatting at the water cooler, or during a smoking break for that matter.

    Unfortunately the efficiency of this practice was not generally understood by the numerous managers brachiating though the corporate tree.

    It appears they believed that if the minions were talking they were not working, and that such issues could only be sorted out by endless scheduled meetings anyway.

    1. gv
      Joke

      Re: Er ...

      I believe the correct terms are "agile" and "scrum".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Er ...

        Around here it’s “a while” and “scum” …. :-)

    2. spireite Silver badge

      Re: Er ...

      Some of the best ideas have emerged from a watercooler discussion in my decades.

      Never had the same result whilst yapping at the urinals though..... not so flushed with success in that environment.

  8. cornetman Silver badge

    Where I work, talking to the VP of marketing is something that I do most days but since our company consists of about 60 people, then that's probably understandable.

    Looking at some of the above comments, people seem to have the impression that companies are by necessity enormous pan-world organisations, but a large number are not.

    I really do think it depends on what your job is and how you see your career trajectory heading. If you want to schmoose your way into the "big time", being able to rub shoulders with influential people has always been the way to do it. Not so easy when you're stuck at home.

    For me, I just want a quiet place to get my head down and get through the work, but I also understand that in business that doesn't work for everyone.

    1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

      Quote

      "If you want to schmoose your way into the "big time", being able to rub shoulders with influential people has always been the way to do it."

      Rub shoulders? as far as I've seen its not rub shoulders... more like rub tongue against buttocks .... and for the dedicated , climb inside until only your feet still show....

      Me? I've always been honest eg mangler comes up to me

      "Hey whats your opinion of the new employee?"

      "I've had more of a spark out of a potato battery than him"

      "Thats not very nice"

      "Its true though......"

      Wheres the ass kissing icon?

      1. codejunky Silver badge
        Pirate

        @Boris the Cockroach

        "I've had more of a spark out of a potato battery than him"

        I am stealing that! I know a few times I could have made use of that line

        1. Electronics'R'Us
          Devil

          Re: @Boris the Cockroach

          One head of science in a school apparently wrote in an end of term report, of a student:

          "Warms the seat".

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Management potential

        One place I worked, if the technical interviewers thought someone was an idiot, they would report to management that the interviewee had "management potential" (and management would know just what that meant).

        In that era, the term "severe and profound disabilities" was in use, and one particularly hopeless interviewee was described as having "severe and profound management potential".

        1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: Management potential

          "severe and profound management potential".

          Now thats one I'm going to steal

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      people seem to have the impression that companies are by necessity enormous pan-world organisations, but a large number are not.

      Those watercooler moments at that small family business Goldman Sachs must have paid off for Sunak.

    3. Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells

      > Looking at some of the above comments, people seem to have the impression that companies are by necessity enormous pan-world organisations, but a large number are not.

      In 2017 El Reg pivoted to being a left wing publication, presumably to try to attract student readers.

      This article was posted for the express purpose of whipping up those children and getting more "engagement" from their readers. Hit this Conservative with a virtual stick.

      So of course most of the commenters have a stereotypical view of what working in an office actually entails - because they've never done it.

      1. Dave314159ggggdffsdds Silver badge

        It's more alt-right than pseudo left. Just look at all the conspiracy theories trotted out here. 2nd generation immigrant does well, must be because he's part of the 'joo' conspiracy, because brown people can't do that well on merit. Vile.

        1. Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells

          That's a left wing trope.

          He is forrin' therefore he belongs to the left. He should know his place.

          The left are awful at that.

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