Coronavirus (3 Viewers)

[octophone]

We get the flu jab through work but it's always limited - if you're off the day it's announced, you've had it.

 

[Mats]

my work's offering the flu jab now but I don't know. I haven't been ill for two years and will probably go down if I do

 

[Cloud]

To be fair with all the heightened hygiene and social distancing at the moment, I can't see it being a huge flu season this year. Could be wrong.

 

[Iguana]

We get the flu jab through work but it's always limited - if you're off the day it's announced, you've had it.

This really works on two levels

 

[AGinAg (37)]

I have not had a flu jab before either. Should I have?

Pretty sure you're not 50 yet and you've not mentioned any underlying conditions, so no. No one can stop you though if you want to pay.

I haven't worked in almost a year. Not a single full on cold in that time.

 

[SDF]

@SDF You should be able to to the gym on 31st August.

YAY although I’m off to London on the 1st

 

[octophone]

This really works on two levels

yes, not my best sentence ever, I'll grant you that.

 

[D5K]

I'm a little concerned by Matt Hancock saying that they are not considering making it mandatory to wear masks in the office because that basically guarantees that they will be considering it soon.

Someone on Twitter noted it's a bit rich him claiming there's little evidence of it spreading in an office, when he literally caught it at work.

 

[GNL]

Someone on Twitter noted it's a bit rich him claiming there's little evidence of it spreading in an office, when he literally caught it at work.

Also, the reason people aren't catching it in offices is surely because lots of people are still working from home.

Call centres and factories where people aren't able to do so have outbreaks...

 

[Lucille]

Yeah the pattern of outbreaks in the UK seems to be in working class areas where working from home isn’t an option. There’s been no second wave in places like Bristol/Oxford/London/Edinburgh. To be encouraging people back to the office just as winter is about to hit when it’s largely unnecessary is madness.

 

[Indie]

This really works on two levels

I spent a good five minutes trying to think of something witty to say based on that premise, then I gave up.

 

[Debbie Jellinsky]

Our offices are open again, but we are urged to keep working from home. We can only go in if we really have to and need to book a desk two days in advance. There's also limited seating. I have no reason to go to the office, although my back is not too happy about my WFH office set-up.

 

[Iguana]

Our offices are open again, but we are urged to keep working from home. We can only go in if we really have to and need to book a desk two days in advance. There's also limited seating. I have no reason to go to the office, although my back is not too happy about my WFH office set-up.

My back has DIED this week and I'm going into the office tomorrow just so I can go to my normal hot gay Irish osteopath as opposed to my local hot gay Colombian osteopath who isn't as good as the hot Irish one

 

[Lucille]

I know a lot of people going into the office now by choice as they’re sick of being at home every day, but it’s generally 1 or 2 days a week. I can’t see companies ever going back to having the whole team in 9-5 Monday to Friday ever again. Some of the office buildings in Canary Wharf have 8 lifts for 10,000 people, they’re just not viable until there’s a vaccine.

 

[Debbie Jellinsky]

I had to see a physio/chiropractor who fixed my back in two sessions, I almost cried from joy when I was no longer in pain! Mine is Irish as well but not hot at all. He's a miracle worker.

 

[Iguana]

I had to see a physio/chiropractor who fixed my back in two sessions, I almost cried from joy when I was no longer in pain! Mine is Irish as well but not hot at all. He's a miracle worker.

Sounds like a lifesaver!

Still prefer a hot one though

 

[Cloud]

Ours were keen to get us back in (the MD is one of those "it's health and safety GONE MAD" types) and don't like us working from home, but they've also seen the cost saving of 4 day weeks (they've been shut on Fridays during the pandemic and asking people to make up their hours via overtime or holidays or accept a pay cut) and word on the grapevine is they're keen on making it permanent. Some staff are happy to chip away at their holidays and worry about it later, some are happy to come in at like 6:45am (fuck that), some are happy to take the pay cut. This won't come out favourable for employees IMO.

At the moment they're tolerating me working from home on Fridays to make up hours, I can't see that lasting though.

Careful what you wish for! I don't know what I want less, a pretty sizeable pay cut or having to get up at a time I haven't even gone to bed yet on weekends.

 

[Indie]

Our offices are at about 10% capacity on a volunteer or physically cant work from home basis. I doubt I'll be back there this year (apart from going in for an hour to clear out my locker)

 

[Indie]

I've been gradually upgrading my home office anyway. Nice big monitor, lovely desk space, big gamer chair. Who needs anything else.

 

[Tetris-Rock]

Yeah the pattern of outbreaks in the UK seems to be in working class areas where working from home isn’t an option.

I noted that the way Hancock and the media are framing it is that office workers are letting the side down and need to “get back to work.”

They are very clearly trying to give the impression that those who normally work in offices are luxuriating at home on furlough to build resentment among those who don’t work in office jobs. The reality is that they’ve been working from home since March, many doing longer hours, without time off, without a proper working environment and sometimes with kids to look after as well. He is doing this to protect his buddies in the commercial rent sector. It is painfully transparent.

Anyone who has worked in an office will tell you that they are often RIFE with colds and bugs and all sorts.

 

[Tetris-Rock]

My personal preference for returning to work would be a blended model - some days at home and some in the office.

I found working at home fine in my old job but have been struggling with it since starting my new one. It's quite difficult to learn a new role in these circumstances and I have no opportunity to get to know my colleagues on a personal level. I'm quite an extroverted person so it's hard to spend the whole day basically alone in the one room.

I work for a mental health charity and my employer tend to value staff wellbeing and flexibility quite a lot - so hoping that works in my favour.

 

[Cloud]

Anyone who has worked in an office will tell you that they are often RIFE with colds and bugs and all sorts.

Indeed I will.
In the years BC (Before Corona) people quite proudly came into the office with a stack of Lemsips to do their hardworker-signalling while they spread their nasty cold/flu/thing to everyone else. The attitude that if you stayed at home you were basically a crybaby without enough work to do, was rife indeed. I hope this puts and end to it.

 

[Tetris-Rock]

Indeed I will.
In the years BC (Before Corona) people quite proudly came into the office with a stack of Lemsips to do their hardworker-signalling while they spread their nasty cold/flu/thing to everyone else. The attitude that if you stayed at home you were basically a crybaby without enough work to do, was rife indeed. I hope this puts and end to it.

God, yes. The absolute worst symptom of jobsworth presenteeism. I recall a former boss being off unwell for the best part of a week but then DRAGGING herself in for a directorate away day before she had recovered properly - one by one most of the team then fell ill with what was quite obviously the same bug over the subsequent week and a half.

I hope that the proof that people can now work from home will allow more of those inbetween kind of days? I think people drag themselves back in the office too early because they have recovered enough that they don’t feel ill enough to justify a sick day but are still not 100%. There have been a couple of times where I have taken the day off ill when I probably could do the work but having to get to the office in the first place feels like too much.

 

[Pingu]

We’ve just been told our policy of home working is continuing until at least October, although our office is now technically open for use if anybody wants to go in.

I can see a world in which we don’t ever return to full time office working.

 

[Iguana]

We're being asked to go back 2 days a week from mid-September, possibly on a revolving basis where they tell us which days we should go in. Sounds meh

They are putting screens up between every desk

For me the main issue is the travelling though. A screen around my desk isn't going to help me on the central line

 

[Pingu]

We're being asked to go back 2 days a week from mid-September, possibly on a revolving basis where they tell us which days we should go in. Sounds meh

They are putting screens up between every desk

For me the main issue is the travelling though. A screen around my desk isn't going to help me on the central line

Exactly this - the commute is the main thing really.

That and our office is actually a really old terraced house so there are annoying things like taking it in turns to use the small kitchen, who is responsible for cleaning it and all of that that just make it that little bit more of a faff.

 

[AlgoAlex]

God, yes. The absolute worst symptom of jobsworth presenteeism. I recall a former boss being off unwell for the best part of a week but then DRAGGING herself in for a directorate away day before she had recovered properly - one by one most of the team then fell ill with what was quite obviously the same bug over the subsequent week and a half.

I hope that the proof that people can now work from home will allow more of those inbetween kind of days? I think people drag themselves back in the office too early because they have recovered enough that they don’t feel ill enough to justify a sick day but are still not 100%. There have been a couple of times where I have taken the day off ill when I probably could do the work but having to get to the office in the first place feels like too much.

My company actually gives you bonus days holiday if you don’t have any sick days !
So people would go in if they feel rough (me included) so as not to lose them!
working from home really was seen as something only done in exceptional circumstances in fact i’d never done it once in 7 years. Would have no qualms telling my manager am not going in when full of a cold in the future and imagine that would be the same for a lot of people

 

[Iguana]

My company actually gives you bonus days holiday if you don’t have any sick days !
So people would go in if they feel rough (me included) so as not to lose them!
working from home really was seen as something only done in exceptional circumstances in fact i’d never done it once in 7 years. Would have no qualms telling my manager am not going in when full of a cold in the future and imagine that would be the same for a lot of people

Oh yes that's exactly the sort of thing that hopefully will go away with a shift in attitude about flexible working. What a horrid policy, with the best of intentions but without any foresight

 

[AlgoAlex]

Oh yes that's exactly the sort of thing that hopefully will go away with a shift in attitude about flexible working. What a horrid policy, with the best of intentions but without any foresight

It is just horrendous. I suppose it comes from a very old fashioned way of thinking that people are less likely to fake illness if they lose holidays. It’s just really unfair if you are unlucky enough to be so ill you cannot drag yourself in.

 

[Iguana]

It is just horrendous. I suppose it comes from a very old fashioned way of thinking that people are less likely to fake illness if they lose holidays. It’s just really unfair if you are unlucky enough to be so ill you cannot drag yourself in.

It reminds me of when I was at school and I was bit of a SICKLY CHILD and the Design Technology teacher used to make fun of me in front of the class for taking time off for having colds.

He then had a heart attack and had to take months off and then he stopped mocking me

 

[Iguana]

I think the moral of the story is don't mess with Ig

 

[Sheena]

Indeed I will.
In the years BC (Before Corona) people quite proudly came into the office with a stack of Lemsips to do their hardworker-signalling while they spread their nasty cold/flu/thing to everyone else. The attitude that if you stayed at home you were basically a crybaby without enough work to do, was rife indeed. I hope this puts and end to it.

In my last job, the company had a policy that if you fell sick in the first six months, you didn't get paid. As part of a group of companies, I didn't have the control to just remove it, but overruled it all the time because of the stupidity of having REALLY SICK PEOPLE in the office. I also literally had someone come in in floods of tears THE DAY AFTER HAVING A MISCARRIAGE because she was worried about her rent payment.

 

[Ellie]

We have a sickness/absence trigger policy that if you are sick for more that one incident within a 12 week period, you have to have a verbal warning that goes on your HR record. If it continues within a 26 week period it ups to a written warning and so on. It doesn’t matter if you fall ill for one day in January and one day in March as it counts the same as someone who was off for a whole week at a time.

A manager can take the decision to NFA it and justify reasons to HR and as a manager I am personally pragmatic about it, but some other managers read the policy as gospel and go down disciplinary routes for stupid stuff like a person being 2 minutes late a couple of times in the same month.

A lot of people including myself come in to the office with colds. Mostly because it’s not bad enough to affect your work output, but sometimes it’s for fear of breaching the policy. Working from home (now we can) on those days now just makes so much more sense.

We still haven’t heard anything for our directorate about returning. I’m mostly fearful because TfL having been bailed out by the government, definitely means we’ll be having more budget reviews next year. If office staff can work from home, I can imagine they’ll question why they have to be based in London at all and try to outsource us somewhere else for smaller salaries.

 

[win_the_game]

.

 

[Suomi]

I hope office people do stay at home because I HAVE to commute and it’s been really nice to have less busy trains

 

[Ellie]

Our HR department are fretting because absence levels have dropped while we’re all working from home. It’s been pointed out that was always going to happen - people aren’t going to call in sick if they can sit in the comfort of their own home and still undertake some work. No one needs to worry about being too sick to get on a bus or train and make it into work at the moment.

We've argued for working from home for YEARS for the same reason. Our sickness rate is ridiculously high and a lot of longer term sicknesses are due to physical injuries that prevent them from travelling to the office. A friend actually broke his leg a week before lockdown and was expected to be off work for at least 6 weeks, but since they rolled out the possibility to work from home he's be working every day.

 

[Iguana]

Our HR department are fretting because absence levels have dropped while we’re all working from home. It’s been pointed out that was always going to happen - people aren’t going to call in sick if they can sit in the comfort of their own home and still undertake some work. No one needs to worry about being too sick to get on a bus or train and make it into work at the moment.

We’re still working from home as a default position. However there is some pressure from some senior staff who want admin staff back in the office as they’re too grand and can’t possibly be expected to do anything for themselves e.g. lick their own stamp.

Our offices are reducing capacity to 50% however there is still no consideration being given to how people will safely navigate their way round the building or what facilities will be available. They are nowhere near ready for staff to return.

All very true and also we're literally living our lives in such a way as to try to avoid catching a virus, so we're catching less viruses

 

[RS]

Our office policy is still to work from home if it’s possible but the office has been busier than pre-vacations, and we’ve had several meetings where almost everyone was present irl. Most people are fed up of being at home.

I’ve worked 2-3 days from home per week, mostly because I have a better gym next to the office.

 

[Kate]

It shocks me that people get fed up of being at home until I remember that lots of people have housemates or WORSE, FAMILIES

 

[RS]

It shocks me that people get fed up of being at home until I remember that lots of people have housemates or WORSE, FAMILIES

Exactly!

Number of divorces has already increased here too. (And that despite us not having a real lockdown)