Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[The Moonster]

8 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Older people are less likely to be used to the concept of working from home and thus are more likely to think that people should be getting back to the office.  I don't think it's because older people are inherently evil.

I've no time for your reasoning and rationale, Chris. Burn the fucking lot of them.

[welshbairn]

8 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I've no time for your reasoning and rationale, Chris. Burn the fucking lot of them.

Only if the useless 16-30s who won't get off their arses to vote get chucked on the bonfire too.

Edited August 28, 2020 by welshbairn

[Billy Jean King]

It turns out that extra energy costs from working at home are tax deductible for up to £6 per week so long as you haven't volunteered for that working practice; I've no idea how they can possibly police this utterly pointless distinction though.

They dont hence it's fixed at £6pw which is the maximum tax allowance you can claim without submitting evidence. It pennies in reality and you don't actually get it back as a rebate they just adjust your tax code accordingly.

[ICTChris]

Working from home has had good and bad aspects for me - my current house isn't brilliantly set up for it but it's been OK.  I've got to spend more time with my family and save a fortune on fuel.

I do think that there are advantages to working together with colleagues that are often forgotten.  For people who are starting their careers it can be useful to have role models to look at and see how they do the job.  It's also useful for improving team work, our team always sit closesly together and we work better together as a team than just about any other in our organisation.  Some of that is specific to us due to the nature of our work but it is an advantage.

[effeffsee_the2nd]

30 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Older people are less likely to be used to the concept of working from home and thus are more likely to think that people should be getting back to the office.  I don't think it's because older people are inherently evil.

I've met an awfy lot of older people who have this strongly ingrained sort of second tier way of categorising  of right and wrong for all in the world if that makes sense? 

things are either - the right and proper way  OR a load of  nonsense , I think too many of them thought the idea of Scottish independence was silly nonsense because for most of their lifetimes it was just a fringe minority view, so by the time the conversation became serious enough to vote no amount of arguments would see past the bias they had spent a lifetime learning,

The tories do a whole lot of dog whistling to appeal to this part of their phsyche

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by effeffsee_the2nd

[Bairnardo]

Working from home has had good and bad aspects for me - my current house isn't brilliantly set up for it but it's been OK.  I've got to spend more time with my family and save a fortune on fuel.
I do think that there are advantages to working together with colleagues that are often forgotten.  For people who are starting their careers it can be useful to have role models to look at and see how they do the job.  It's also useful for improving team work, our team always sit closesly together and we work better together as a team than just about any other in our organisation.  Some of that is specific to us due to the nature of our work but it is an advantage.

This would segue nicely into "young folk are lazy b*****ds and this will make them lazier" if you so choose....

Perhaps oaksoft will be along to do it for you.

[Gaz]

1 minute ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

I've met an awfy lot of older people who have this strongly ingrained sort of second tier way of categorising  of right and wrong for all in the world if that makes sense? 

things are either - the right and proper way  OR a load of  nonsense , I think too many of them thought the idea of Scottish independence was silly nonsense because for most of their lifetimes it was just a fringe minority view, so by the time the conversation became serious enough to vote no amount of arguments would see past the bias they had spent a lifetime learning

https://www.fearof.net/fear-of-change-phobia-metathesiophobia/

Change Is Bad

[ICTChris]

1 minute ago, Bairnardo said:

This would segue nicely into "young folk are lazy b*****ds and this will make them lazier" if you so choose....

Perhaps oaksoft will be along to do it for you.

I think it could disadvantage young people, who are less likely to live places that are good for home working.  I did some work a few years back with some new graduate recruits in my organisation and most of them lived in single or shared rooms in flats in London, which would be very bad for home working.  On the other hand young people will be more used to conditions like working from home and will have a better handle on the communcations so perhaps it balances out.

I just think that there are pluses and minuses to everything.  I've benefited a great deal from working in offices during my career and have learned a lot from it.  However, things change and develop and I think there will be a blended approach from now on.

[welshbairn]

5 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

I've met an awfy lot of older people who have this strongly ingrained sort of second tier way of categorising  of right and wrong for all in the world if that makes sense? 

things are either - the right and proper way  OR a load of  nonsense , I think too many of them thought the idea of Scottish independence was silly nonsense because for most of their lifetimes it was just a fringe minority view, so by the time the conversation became serious enough to vote no amount of arguments would see past the bias they had spent a lifetime learning,

The tories do a whole lot of dog whistling to appeal to this part of their phsyche

 

What I don't get is why they didn't have the same attitude to Brexit. My parents were of the generation who lived through WW2, so they had a bit of the Vera Lynn about them regarding independence, but they were huge fans of the EU, thinking of it as a force for peace rather than just the economic benefits. It's their b*****d offspring who had it easy who get all jingoistic about winning the war and not wanting johnny foreigner telling us what to do. Myself excluded naturally.

[ICTChris]

Cases continue to rise 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/27/uk-sees-highest-number-of-new-covid-19-cases-since-mid-june

But

Quote

However, hospitalisations as a result of the virus remain low: just 767 people were in hospital due to Covid on 25 August, the lowest number of coronavirus patients since 27 March, the first day for which the government’s dashboard has data.

 

[vikingTON]

44 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Older people are less likely to be used to the concept of working from home and thus are more likely to think that people should be getting back to the office.  I don't think it's because older people are inherently evil.

They've been more used to the concept of having Tory c***s run the country into the ground and the failure of the British union but that doesn't stop them from holding the wrong views about those two things as well. They're just thick, selfish arsehole gammons. 

[vikingTON]

5 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

What I don't get is why they didn't have the same attitude to Brexit. My parents were of the generation who lived through WW2, so they had a bit of the Vera Lynn about them regarding independence, but they were huge fans of the EU, thinking of it as a force for peace rather than just the economic benefits. It's their b*****d offspring who had it easy who get all jingoistic about winning the war and not wanting johnny foreigner telling us what to do. Myself excluded naturally.

I read one of the gammonfolk cite their uncle's Second World War record as justification for their own completely separate nonsense views in a newspaper article last week: I was wondering what they would do when they could no longer even pretend that they were single-handedly fending off Hitler from their pram and it seems that we have an answer. It'll always somehow go back to the war for them. 

[Hillonearth]

37 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Older people are less likely to be used to the concept of working from home and thus are more likely to think that people should be getting back to the office.  I don't think it's because older people are inherently evil.

That's basically it - they're conflating working from home with being on furlough because in their day working from home successfully would have been impossible. They're not agile enough to conceive that the situation has changed, probably irrevocably.

And it's the same for businesses. The more agile ones will have already have plans in train to move operations to suburbs and satellite town main streets - the kind now filled with charity shops and so on. The businesses that are the equivalent of that Daily Mail reading OAP will resolutely stick to their current business model hoping against hope that the office workers who aren't coming back anytime soon will come back.

In any evolutionary process there will always be winners and losers - the only difference is that in some cases the point of divergence between the two comes more quickly than in others. COVID-19 will undoubtedly be one of those dinosaur/asteroid points of divergence where some companies will thrive and others disappear almost entirely predicated on their adaptability.

[doulikefish]

People getting told to get back to the office by people working from home.Those that dont know the words to the last night of the prom songs will be agreeing on social media shortly with pictures of the d day landings with the words "our brave boys didnt storm the beches so you can work from home"

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, Hillonearth said:

The more agile ones will have already have plans in train to move operations to suburbs and satellite town main streets - the kind now filled with charity shops and so on.

Makes sense, small local hubs at cheap rents where their staff live instead of massively expensive office blocks in the City centres. Could revitalise local High Streets too. 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

8 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

That's basically it - they're conflating working from home with being on furlough because in their day working from home successfully would have been impossible. They're not agile enough to conceive that the situation has changed, probably irrevocably.

And it's the same for businesses. The more agile ones will have already have plans in train to move operations to suburbs and satellite town main streets - the kind now filled with charity shops and so on. The businesses that are the equivalent of that Daily Mail reading OAP will resolutely stick to their current business model hoping against hope that the office workers who aren't coming back anytime soon will come back.

In any evolutionary process there will always be winners and losers - the only difference is that in some cases the point of divergence between the two comes more quickly than in others. COVID-19 will undoubtedly be one of those dinosaur/asteroid points of divergence where some companies will thrive and others disappear almost entirely predicated on their adaptability.

until recently and apart from those who always worked from home, wasn't the occasional WFH day due to say bad weather or childcare emergency not seen as a " a bit of a skive" where you wouldn't be expected to get as much done, even jobs that are 100% computer based so can in theory be done anywhere there is internet?

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, invergowrie arab said:

Not for me seeing as I walk to work.

You'll be saving on buying new shoes. Some folk are so negative...

[ICTChris]

7 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

That's basically it - they're conflating working from home with being on furlough because in their day working from home successfully would have been impossible. They're not agile enough to conceive that the situation has changed, probably irrevocably.

And it's the same for businesses. The more agile ones will have already have plans in train to move operations to suburbs and satellite town main streets - the kind now filled with charity shops and so on. The businesses that are the equivalent of that Daily Mail reading OAP will resolutely stick to their current business model hoping against hope that the office workers who aren't coming back anytime soon will come back.

In any evolutionary process there will always be winners and losers - the only difference is that in some cases the point of divergence between the two comes more quickly than in others. COVID-19 will undoubtedly be one of those dinosaur/asteroid points of divergence where some companies will thrive and others disappear almost entirely predicated on their adaptability.

I've worked for a few different companies and my current employers have done exceptionally well in setting up working from home.  It's a much younger and more technology focused company and from what I've heard we are doing a much better job than my previous workplaces.  I don't think my old employers will be going out of business soon though.

I think smaller companies will be able to respond better to things like this.  Quite a lot of large organisations make the Soviet Union look like an innovative start up.

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

My arse is going on strike if I keep using up the sandpaper toilet paper that came with the food boxes we shielded elite got given.

Ha. We got proper toilet roll. No doubt subsidised by hard working mainland taxpayers.

[Hillonearth]

5 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

until recently and apart from those who always worked from home, wasn't the occasional WFH day due to say bad weather or childcare emergency not seen as a " a bit of a skive" where you wouldn't be expected to get as much done, even jobs that are 100% computer based so can in theory be done anywhere there is internet?

Different strokes for different jobs - in those sort of instances in the past where I work it would have effectively have been a day off as almost everything we do is based on the likes of bespoke local systems, intranet and sharepoint sites which wouldn't be accessible from a home device. Once we got issued with work-capable laptops a couple of weeks in though, there's virtually nothing that couldn't be done remotely.

There's the odd thing that can't be and absolutely demands attendance at the office, but for me that's been like twice since the end of March.