Institute of Directors survey says most bosses expect no mass return to the office if COVID-19 crisis ever ends

The work-from-home revolution may be here for good with the majority of company bosses surveyed by the Institute of Directors saying they will allow the workforce to be more flexible even after the pandemic is over. The study of close to 1,000 company directors found 74 per cent had made provisions for increased working from …

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like the sports option extended to work

I'd like to sponsor a cardboard cut-out with my face on it to be placed in the office. If it could be made to cadge a cup of tea every 15 minutes and mutter passive-aggressively under its breath, it could actually replace me completely

[druck]

Re: I'd like the sports option extended to work

We did that for one of our remote team members a few years ago, so we could remember what he looked like during the morning stand-up. A nice touch was it gained a Santa hat at Christmas.

[Steve Foster]

No, absolutely not!

"The IoD called on UK government to provide tax incentives so small businesses have the wherewithal to invest in digital tech"

No, stop it. "tax incentives" add complexity to the tax system, are generally badly defined, rarely achieve the stated goal, and usually introduce new loopholes that can only be exploited by big companies/multinationals. We've enough idiocy in the tax system already - it'd be much more useful to work on getting rid of such.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: No, absolutely not!

Indeed, added to the fact that businesses can already offset investments against tax, there is no need for additional incentives. I'm also not convinced whether small businesses would really benefit at all from "more digital". Assuming they really are small, they probably already have efficient and flexible communication.

[John Robson]

Re: No, absolutely not!

You clearly aren't getting it - that's the point of them... Why would the government (particularly this one) want to let small companies pay less tax, they won't get executive directorships with them will they...

[veti]

Re: No, absolutely not!

Tax incentives don't have to be carrots. Could be sticks.

For years I've been advocating local authorities to raise money by taxing car parks. That would be one way to raise the cost of commuting, at least for everyone who makes any of their journey by car.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: No, absolutely not!

And you then end up with a situation where the local authority makes most of their money by taxing the town centre, which ends up putting it's prices up to compensate. Then the local town centre ends up being taxed into unviability and it's market share is eaten alive by out of town options leading to a collapse of local authority income.

[veti]

Re: No, absolutely not!

I don't think you thought that one through.

Out of town shops require more car parks. Town centres, with people living in walking distance and bus services, would gain a competitive advantage over them.

[Robert Grant]

Re: No, absolutely not!

As long as you never buy anything you can't carry home you're golden. Pack of crisps?

[John Smith 19]

As it could have been done *decades* ago

All it took was 10s of 1000s of people dying for it become possible.

Proving the old adage that "The school of life is a hard school, but some Directors will learn at no other"

We, who did not die, salute your sacrifice.

[bombastic bob]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

All it took was 10s of 1000s of people dying for it become possible.

We, who did not die, salute your sacrifice.

is that how a number of people REALLY see this?

From the article title: if COVID-19 crisis ever ends

Look like I'll just have to keep wearing my Guy Fawkes mask in public... because capricious tyranny certainly hasn't gone away.

[John Smith 19]

"is that how a number of people REALLY see this?"

Some of us don't have a rose tinted view of capitalism. Some of us have seen quite a lot of it.

It goes with my view that quite a lot of managers are remarkably like nappies.

Always round your backside and full of s**t.

[katrinab]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

It could have been done _a_ decade ago. Two decades ago, most people were still on dial-up and paying 3p per minute in phone charges to access the internet.

[John Smith 19]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

Given RDP was in Windows XP since at 2001 yes.

I went to home working in 2006 in a firm that was far from technologically competent.

It didn't take much technology, just management will.

[Steve Todd]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

RDP may have been there since 2001, but the internet infrastructure to allow large numbers of remote workers wasn’t. You need fast and economical connections at both ends to make it work.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

With respect, I think your looking at what is available now and assuming that before the current methods existed it was absolutely impossible.

Remote access work(ed) perfectly adequately on a 56k modem. You didn't actually need fast and economical connections at both ends to make it work. Have you ever noticed the "Dial-in" tab in Active Directory? Prior to cheap high speed upload internet connections you ran a bank of modems in servers.

Let's say you have 32 modems in a server. Every user gets their own dedicated 56kbps worth of data which people used to get by with perfectly adequately and the bank of modems is effectively pushing just shy of 2MB worth of data simultaneously, which was cheaper and delivered more bandwidth than the contemporary (UK) Kilostream internet connections while also only needing a single primary rate interface to run it all.

To be frank, the biggest problem with these systems was persuading companies to ditch them once they'd gotten them, even if they'd upgraded to a single high speed internet connection since, as the licensing for RDP discouraged replacing the old setup. Once place I worked in 2005 said that theirs had failed after falling out of the rack and landing on the floor, then bouncing up 3 flights of stairs, a ladder and then falling off the roof. Three times.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

The downside of 56k is learning to speak Morse on Skype calls

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

Skype's initial release was 2003, well into DSL territory.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

I did a fair bit of work remotely over a 1200bps dialup link (which was prone to dropping spontaneously; saving your work often, or using an editor that could recover a dropped session, was a good idea).

1200bps sync connections, for example to IBM midrange or mainframe machines, were even better, since they had less overhead than async dialup.

I did a little work over 300bps dialup, but to be honest 300bps was very tiresome. 1200 was where it became reasonable.

[Robert Grant]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

Remote access work(ed) perfectly adequately on a 56k modem

For certain jobs. For all the many jobs that are better done with face to face video, not so much.

[Cliffwilliams44]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

IN 2004 the company I worked for had a robust work from home policy. As a company that employed a majority of women, located in a heavily Military city we would setup employees to Work from Home during Maternity and after child birth and several whose husbands were transferred to other parts of the country. We did this with modems and RDP, luckily our primary ERP was on an IBM AS-400 so green screen over a modem was not that hard.

[Down not across]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

Yes it was.

I was working remotely with PPP connection over a analogue modem way back in 20th century. Can't speak for RDP as I didn't work with Microsoft things, but was perfectly fine for my ssh sessions.Granted X11 over it was painful.

As for economical, at some point I had a Centrex line to the office so it was very economical (for me at least) to dial up with.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

It could have been done _a_ decade ago. Two decades ago, most people were still on dial-up and paying 3p per minute in phone charges to access the internet.

Conditions in the UK two decades ago might not be an accurate model of those everywhere else.

I started working exclusively (aside from short visits three or four times a year) from home, as a software developer, in the US, in 1992. I was back in the office briefly, from mid-1996 through early 1998. Since then I've worked exclusively from home.

Initially I had an OS/2 machine, an RS/6000, and a SPARCstation, and a V.32bis modem, which I used primarily for UUCP file transfers and a SLIP link, directly to the office (Ohio to Massachusetts). Pretty soon I switched to a Telebit Trailblazer at each end of the dialup connection. About a year after that, we put in a 56Kbps dedicated digital line from the local telco.

When I left the office again in 1998, we went with Basic Rate ISDN. I was in Nebraska; I don't remember what corporate location I was connecting to at that point.

In 2002 I moved to Michigan, and there cable (DOCSIS) broadband was available. Bandwidth, latency, and reliability were pretty terrible, relative to what people were typically getting in major US cities, due to poor investment by the small cable company that served the area; but that didn't significantly impede my work, because CVS and ssh don't need a whole lot of bandwidth and I grew up with high-latency connections.

Eventually the cable company was bought out by a bigger firm which did a lot of capital investment in the network (shocking, I know).

At my other house, we started off with crap ADSL from CenturyLink, but the local electric cooperative has been running fibre alongside their power delivery infrastructure and selling residential and commercial Internet access on that, so about four years ago we were able to upgrade to FttP and now things are pretty sweet.

My point, though, is that for developers with a workload similar to mine, in the US, working from home has been quite feasible for nearly three decades.

[JetSetJim]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

I have two issues with it, both probably surmountable, but I don't think much thought has been given to them yet:

a) blurring the lines between work and home - for sure, some folks will goof off (I sit @home writing this during work hours, natch), but equally some will end up working longer hours due to it being harder to switch off (e.g. I turn on my work phone and scan emails from APAC region when I get up, and some come in from the US in the evening). It needs to be addressed that in the complete wfh scenario, your work/life balance is managed

b) starting a new job is a bitch, remotely. I've had to redeploy during this time and it is hard to get into a new job when you can't meet people, and there are less of the chance meetings that help you figure out just who does what, or who is a good contact, or even just the brief bits of help that get you "into the groove" with a new role. It will take longer to make an effective employee.

Sure, the IoD will see lots of benefits of wfh - much reduced office/utility bills, no need for an office manager in some cases, and that's all good. I can stand it if Pret goes out of business because fewer people are having their commuter coffee and buying their sandwich lunches on the way to work. Things will change - perhaps small suburban shops will make a comeback as in many places the village/suburban high street has gone. Also, pollution will drop - another plus. But don't expect it to be plain sailing...

[Cliffwilliams44]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

I can see your point on B. Working for a far flung construction company I have been the only IT person in an office for most of my career here. Only twice did I have IT co-workers in the same building and they were is such different disciplines that we rarely interacted professionally. For the last 6 years my manager has always been 1000 miles away from me so it matters not if I am in the office. The upside of working from home for me is that the employees in my home office are not entering my office to ask for "Helpdesk" support and interrupting me all the time. Only for me to tell the, "I can't help you, call the Helpdesk!"

[Peter2]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

Now see, nobody has yet addressed by personal biggest concern.

c) As Manglement figures out that if they don't need people in the office in London and staff are working from home in different counties then they might realise that people could use the existing remote access systems to work from different countries.

Offshoring has the technical ability to decimate service jobs just as much as it did industrial ones and people appear blissfully unconcerned about this.

[Down not across]

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

They didn't need current pandemic for that. They've been doing that already anyway.

[Natalie Gritpants Jr]

Not suprising

Given that most jobs are bullshit jobs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs) it's much better to work from home so no-one can see you goofing off.

[Nifty]

Re: Not suprising

I could eat at my desk in the work office. But not allowed to at the home office as the 'elf and safety officer at home (the Mrs) is stricter.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Not suprising

I could eat at my desk in the work office

That was banned in the last office I worked in. As were waste baskets.. apparently to 'encourage recycling', although it probably encouraged time-wasting wandering off to find the right recycling bin(s). Then queue for the tea/coffee machines.

There's probably some useful time & motion studies to be based around that, ie people who stand infront of the kettle while adding coffee/tea bag, then waiting for kettle to boil, then adding milk, fishing out tea bag and finally wandering back to their desks with yet another teaspoon for their collection. But whilst waiting in the queue, it allowed me time to come up with time-saving devices like the revolving floor. Works with doors, but this would automatically rotate drink makers between workstations to an HR approved timetable. And I'd have a remote control, and the motor might be borrowed from a large centrifuge, or one of those pilot G-force testing things.. Which just got me thinking of another feature.. a camera to snap action shots.

But I digress. Also people who tell you the copier's out of paper, whilst standing next to boxes of paper for said copier. I was quite pleased with a script I made to automagically kill random print jobs for those people.

But it's a somewhat tragic wakeup to a lot of executives that their businesses can actually run just fine with remote working. And that also means employees can be more productive, even in the face of instant messaging. And even if they're.. dressed even more casually than a typical Friday, eating, smoking* and generally getting stuff done instead of being distracted by the usual office life.

*Part of me thinks that may be in breach of some nanny-state Act, but if any inspector makes it past the oubliette, I can just say I wasn't smoking in my office.

[JohnMurray]

Re: Not suprising

Put in a coffee-machine.

Saves loads of time since fewer use it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not suprising

Especially if it's one of those Starbucks coffee machines.. Yuk. Now Costa Coffee that's a different matter, that's where you would find me, getting yet another Regular Latte.

And while I'm on about coffee machines. Membury services, bad on you for switching every Costa machine to blasted Starbucks (Yuk). And then leaving all the Costa signs up inviting ususpecting motorists to pull off the motorway for a nice cup of Costa only to find the place infested with Starbucks (Yuk) (TM)

[Cliffwilliams44]

Re: Not suprising

I have noticed in my travels to out UK HQ they you Brits have an aversion to plastic spoons and stir sticks. Does it ruin the taste of the tea of one of these is used?

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Not suprising

I have noticed in my travels to out UK HQ they you Brits have an aversion to plastic spoons and stir sticks. Does it ruin the taste of the tea of one of these is used?

People are strange. Plastic spoons are rather wasteful, but from my experience, many office workers don't seem capable of using a plain'ol metal spoon. So in the past I've been told off for taking a spoon out of my mug, giving a quick rinse under a hot tap, and sticking it on the drainer. This was apparently 'unhygenic', and a spoon that had just been dunked in near boiling water needed to be thoroughly soaked in detergent. The residue of which will make tea taste funny. Or make an authentic Starbucks frothy coffee.

But this is one of the plus sides to home working. They'll have to manage such problems themselves.

[MarkTriumphant]

Re: Not suprising

"a spoon that had just been dunked in near boiling water needed to be thoroughly soaked in detergent. The residue of which will make tea taste funny."

You're not wrong, although the obvious solution to the taste is to rinse it after washing. Why do so many people not do that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not suprising

I have noticed in my travels to out UK HQ they you Brits have an aversion to plastic spoons and stir sticks. Does it ruin the taste of the tea of one of these is used?

Nope, doesn't matter in the slightest. The tea suffers far more from being served in a waxed paper cup that leaks the taste of the wax into the tea. The cutlery thing is just local politics.

In the latter part of the last century we had electric vehicles delivering milk daily in glass reusable bottles, and collecting the old milk bottles for washing and reuse, and metal reusable cutlery. In the 21st century this was considered very uncool and eliminated in favour of single use disposable plastic bottles, plastic cutlery etc.

This was then in turn considered very uncool by the green types who pointed out the massive plastic waste and screamed "something must be done" at which point plastic bags, plastic spoons and plastic stir sticks ended up being taxed to death to discourage them being used.

Those of us not living in London just continue with the same non disposable mug and metal spoon as before and won't worry about it in the slightest.

[Pascal Monett]

"directors must make sure they are going out of their way to support employees' mental wellbeing"

Tell that to IBM.

[a_yank_lurker]

Caption Oblivious

I am not surprised that remote working will stay once the pandemic wanes. It has numerous benefits to the company and the employee such reduced real estate costs, no commuting to the office. Team building activities can be done and they can be surprisingly cheap as it is time together.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Caption Oblivious

Team building. Hah. Leadership. Hah. 'Pernicious nonsense', to quote J. Frank Parnell

[Paul Shirley]

Re: Caption Oblivious

Team building happens at the pub, preferably on the company credit card, during company hours.

[deevee]

People will never be as productive at home as they will be at the office, where the boss is watching.

[doublelayer]

Depends on the state of the office. Put me in an open plan office without restrictions about noise levels, even requiring me to stay there and looking at least a bit productive for all my allotted hours, and I assure you I'll be less productive than at home, where things are quiet, even if I take breaks more than they'd like. The same can be true for lots of environmental differences, from noise to equipment to socialization.

As it happens, your comment is correct for my current home and office setup, because my office had full walls and also gave me an easier way to quickly check things with others. When my team members all return to the office, I'll be there too and I'll be cheerful about it. It could definitely go the other way for lots of people.

[You aint sin me, roit]

So that's what bosses are for?

I'd say the boss is already failing if they need continuous oversight to ensure that their minions are being productive.

What has become apparent during this period of lockdown/WFH is that there's a level of middle management who are essentially redundant, lost without having to rush between "important" meetings, being busy looking busy.

Those minions are starting to ask... "So what do you do? How do you contribute?".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So that's what bosses are for?

> Those minions are starting to ask... "So what do you do? How do you contribute?".

The minions usually are quite aware of what a useless lot middle management are. Often painfully so.

The problem is upper management are unaware (ignorant) of it. And they're typically the only ones who could do something about it. Yet when the time comes for redundancies, who gets the chop....

[Down not across]

Re: So that's what bosses are for?

What has become apparent during this period of lockdown/WFH is that there's a level of middle management who are essentially redundant, lost without having to rush between "important" meetings, being busy looking busy.

They seem to have routed around that issue by ensuring ridiculous amount of conference calls. What seems to have been forgotten in all that, is to allow some time to actually do the real work that so much time is spent talking about.

[David Harper 1]

Speak for yourself

For me, getting away from a large, noisy and crowded open-plan office has been one of the few benefits of the coronavirus pandemic. I can finally work in peace and quiet, without the distraction of half a dozen conversations going on around me. My productivity has increased through working from home. And I hope to continue working from home if the crisis ends.

[LybsterRoy]

WFH but which home?

Something people seem to be forgetting is that WFH makes it much easier to outsource roles, especially if they are as suggested by another poster BS jobs.

The PHBs must be seeing a major opportunity for cost reduction.

[Cliffwilliams44]

"directors must make sure they are going out of their way to support employees' mental wellbeing."

Have we really become such an emotionally weak society that out up-line managers must spend time worrying about out "mental well being" that worrying about getting the job done and making the company more profitable? I have seen all this touchy-feely, emotionally sensitive employee BS just get in the way of making sure your staff just "does their F'ing job right!" No more chewing a junior technician when he screws up, thius making sure he doesn't do it again and understands the importance of attention to detail. No, we have to hold his hand, pat him on the head and softly explain to him the errors of his ways.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing that

You work in bomb disposal?

[doublelayer]

"Have we really become such an emotionally weak society that out up-line managers must spend time worrying about out "mental well being" that worrying about getting the job done and making the company more profitable?"

Not quite. It's always been the job of a manager to worry about such things because the workers' mental wellbeing directly affects their productivity. If workers hate you, they'll try to leave and you'll have to hire new ones. Reduced profit. If workers are constantly distracted by a poor working environment, they'll get less done. Reduced profit. If workers are in a combative environment where they have to essentially fight against one another, then they'll spend time defending themselves or planning their own attacks instead of getting stuff done. Reduced profit. If workers are subject to too much work and burn out, expect them to have other health problems, therefore taking more time off and reducing productivity. Reduced profit. It's been known for as long as there have been workers who had a choice about whether to stay working for the company; it is the managers' responsibility to ensure that workers are in a good enough condition to continue doing work, and those who fail to do it usually see productivity slump.

[Cliffwilliams44]

I can see the coming crash of the commercial real estate market.

[Down not across]

Convert to flats and solve the housing crisis.

[John Smith 19]

" Convert to flats and solve the housing crisis."

You might like to look at HMG's recent changes to their planning regulations.

I smell the fingers of the "Teflon Dom" in this pie.

[Down not across]

Re: " Convert to flats and solve the housing crisis."

Ah. My comment was tongue in cheek. Mostly. The number of office buildings sitting empty for long time (pre-covid) seems wasteful. Yeah, I know... don't give them ideas.