#89

Why do you have a Mike? Why is it so far away?

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#90

A quarter of the staff in my company volunteered to go back to the office so they will be doing so in two weeks time and then I think as the months progress they’ll set about setting up a rota so the whole company is never in at once. No one has to return if they don’t want to. It’s whatever they’re comfortable with. I would be keen to return if the rest of my team were there but without them it’s a little pointless and none of them want to go back. It would be a 45 minute walk there and back each day and I’m not yet comfortable travelling on public transport :grimacing: Hmmm.

I’ve basically said I’d be happy to return but not in the first instance. I wish I was comfortable cycling to work.

#91

My work are moving to a smaller office to save money and basically forcing people to wfh more. I hated it a few months ago but am basically fine with it now I’m more used to it, moving somewhere that extends my commute on the assumption that I’ll be able to keep doing it 3 days a week.

shite that they haven’t bought us chairs and stuff though

#92

We might be a bit atypical, but half our office is part time though atm and everyone’s got their own desk, so it’s not too much different to that. And a mix and match set-up potentially allows more recruitment without having to pay for/find more office space. Employers are also going to struggle to get everyone back full-time under the old justification it’s the only way people work effectively/it’s the way things are done etc given everyone’s been fine wfh for months. Can see it varying sector to sector, and a 3/2 split might be ambitious, but I think there’ll be a shift towards the middle.

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#93

My company doesn’t even have an office anymore.

#94

Office space is a capital cost. Think the average it works out on average per desk in the uk at about £15k a year. If it’s not being used 3 days out of 5 it’s £9k per year of capital costs lost per person.
As soon as someone looks the empty space and the costs the office will be downsized it possible or the space will be sublet.
It’s not feasible for companies to keep an unjustified overhead like that.

#96

what does £15k a year cover in that calculation?

sounds like a hell of a lot

#97

hassle how? I don’t really like flexi-desks but loads of employers seem to love it

#98

this too but Tuesdays to Thursdays. it’s amazing havng barely anyone there!!

#99

To anybody that is working on a small laptop/tablet and wants an additional screen, definitely ask your IT dept. if you can take your one from the office. From working in IT myself, I’ve given people their screens, keyboards, mice, etc as they’re just sitting in the office picking up dust.

What worries me about the long-term move to WFH, is the winter. Having to heat my studio all day is gonna work out really expensive and I’m pretty sure no company is going to give you any expenses on that, as they’re gonna say you’re saving money from not commuting.

#100

A company probably won’t, but you can claim £26 per month tax relief if you work from home. Granted it’s not much, particularly in winter but it’s something.

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#101

Think that’s what I read Once but can’t find it now. It’ll be every penny that the building costs Divided by the number of people there
Obviously London will raise the figures considerably.

#102

There’s an overhead of booking the desks and time spent arranging it all. It’s a half and half solution while companies get used to not having as much space.
It’s also completely unworkable in a covid environment.
Every company in the world needs to cut costs this year and every single one of them will be looking at their property portfolios as a way to cut them. We were all well on our way to office jobs being done remotely. This situation has just moved it forward a few years.

#103

shit loads of central london office space will no longer be office space, it’ll get turned into crappy cheap housing in an attempt to get people live in the middle of the city again

a while ago a friend of a friend moved in to a new property guardianship, she was first in so for a while she literally had an entire office floor overlooking the thames it was so awesome

well i say it was awesome, the windows didn’t open so it was incredibly hot and the toilets were on the other side of the floor - which was so far away you had to cycle to them :smile:

4 Likes
#104

Not necessarily cheap.

A postwar office building next to the Barbican has been converted to flats that can easily fetch over a million pounds.

See also: Centre Point on Tottenham Court Road

#105

Not necessarily cheap or crappy, but the relaxation of planning rules that was announced (was it announced or trailed, I’m sure you remember better than I do) a few days ago is the sort of thing that leads to low quality housing and profiteering (i.e. Tory policy writ large). So, I don’t think @iamwiggy is that off base, and London is not the only place this will be happening, although the scale of such use case changes is definitely going to be larger there. Provincial cities will likely see a lot of conversions done just adequately enough, and don’t have the density of capital or jobs markets to make it worth developers doing any better for prestige purposes.

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#106

The government intends to pass the necessary legislation before the summer recess (22 July).

The new planning rules are expected to allow a wider ranges of commercial properties to be converted into housing without planning permission, e.g. banks, building societies, clinics, training centres, etc. Certain buildings, such as pubs and libraries, are excluded and will remain subject to the current planning approval procedures.

#107

Thanks for the clarification - this highlighted passage is what I believe gives rise to the concern, given that no planning permission really removes the very thin barrier of oversight in terms of the state of these conversions, and whether they are in fact liveable dwellings. It is well known that the floor space of the average British dwelling has diminished from the mid 20th century onwards (in fact, I believe that modern British housing is among the smallest in the ‘developed’ world in terms of floor space), and while the planning system is at best imperfect it at least provides some form of regulation in this regard. Being able to convert spaces which are not designed for housing to that use without any form of oversight is a gateway to profiteering and poor living conditions, and while I agree that it opens up opportunities to provide housing in inner city areas, that opportunity will be exploited for fast money.

3 Likes
#108

don’t wfh as a part of your job unless you’re compensated for using your house as a place of business imo.

#109

if ownership of property is so fucking important to these people, rinse the fuckers.

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