useapen
2023-11-09 09:22:04 UTC
Three years have passed since Boris Johnson solemnly ordered the first
lockdown, and offices across the country shut down.
Britons were told to work from home where possible, while companies
scrambled to reorganise themselves around a workforce primarily operating
from home offices, spare bedrooms and kitchen tables.
In London, panicked white-collar workers scurried to trains far from the
capital, their arms laden with laptops, monitors and keyboards. Its hard
to imagine that what followed was only supposed to last a few weeks before
everything returned to normal.
But two years on from the last Covid restrictions, remote working still
remains. Economists now fear the WFH revolution is helping to fuel
Britain's productivity crisis.
Since January 2022, as much as a fifth of all jobs posted on job site Reed
were either remote or hybrid roles (where workers can split their time
between the office and home at their discretion).
For Generation Z, those born from 1997 onward, hybrid models of home and
office work are all they have ever known.
Todays 23-year-olds finished university degrees from home; took final
exams in their bedrooms; and attended graduations over Zoom.
Now starting their first jobs, those same young people accept remote
working as the default model. Most, figures suggest, seem to prefer it. A
survey by Reed found just one in five preferred to be in the office full-
time.
'I want to leave work at 4pm and go open water swimming'
But a glance at social media site TikTok shows all is not well in the home
offices of twenty-somethings. Home working, or to be more accurate, home
shirking, is a common pastime.
In one video, a corporate lawyer tracks his dwindling enthusiasm for
keeping up appearances while working from home.
He begins in 2020, wearing a smart shirt and frantically typing. A year
later hes ditched the shirt, starting work late, and in the following
year hes working directly from his bed. By 2023, hes simply on a stroll,
headphones on and coffee in hand his laptop nowhere in sight.
@thatcorporatelawyer Me ???? flexible working #corporate #9to5 #worklife
#workfromhome #workcomedy #millennial #wfh #lawyer #corporatemillennial
#office #officelife ? Looney Tunes (Main Theme) - TV Sounds Unlimited
Another clip, by Canadian influencer Leo Haley, takes the form of a
roleplay in which she discusses staying late to work on a project, under
the proviso she will take the time back the following day.
Over a mock-up video call in which she plays both parts, Haley says to her
manager: Yes, Ive arranged to stay late so I can assist with the launch.
I will be ending work at 2 oclock on Friday because I work a 40-hour week
and, since overtime isnt available, Ill just take the extra hours that
Im working on Thursday and take the time off my day on Friday so it all
evens out.
When her manager protests, she continues: I do care about this project,
but I will not be donating my personal time to this company for free.
Toodaloo!
@loewhaley Toodalooo #wfh #relatable #corporate #career #boundaries
#coworkers #work ? original sound - Laura
Videos tagged #wfh have been viewed close to 10 billion times, according
to the app. Clearly, many of the clips are tongue-in-cheek and not
intended to be taken seriously.
But a common thread begins to emerge watching them back-to-back that of
young people showing a reluctance to work beyond what is expected of them,
particularly if they work from home. Much of the language is couched in
terms of asserting boundaries, knowing your worth, and other ideas of
self-care popular among Gen Z.
One 23-year-old, who spoke to The Telegraph anonymously, fearful of a
reaction from his employer, denies a refusal to work overtime is evidence
Gen Z is lazy.
He says: I do whats required at the moment because Im of the view that,
if Im on minimum wage, Im not gonna work myself to the bone if Im not
compensated for it.
Frankly, if I don't get paid for overtime why should I be expected to
provide more of a service? It makes no sense to do that. Ultimately I have
the view that if I dropped dead my job vacancy would be up the next day.
Lockdown, he argues, changed his perspective on working beyond the
boundaries of a job description. I realised I didnt want to be working
my life away achieving nothing, he says.
I dont want to get to my death bed asking why at 22 I was working a
little more for a company and making a little extra money. I wont
remember that Ill remember leaving at 4pm and going rock climbing and
open water swimming.
@pasha m?ntal health day slayed ?? tr?uma is no ?? #comedy #genz ? Trauma
Slayed - Pasha Grozdov
But experts worry that economic disaster looms unless young people are
hauled back into the office whether they like it or not. Liz Emerson, of
the Intergenerational Foundation, a think tank that champions young
people, argues young workers are missing out on crucial development by not
being in an office.
She says: Reduced participation in company culture and not being seen in
the office may both hinder promotion for those staff members who choose to
work from home.
Younger workers also risk losing out on training, mentoring, and career
progression if they are less visible in the office than their older
colleagues. Do not underestimate water-cooler moments and the unconscious
bias that comes from knowing one face over another.
@chlo.stevens Which one are you? ?? Up your WFH game with the @flexispotuk
Black Friday sale! Use the link in my bio to make amazing savings between
25th-28th November (gifted) #FlexiSpot #FlexiSpotUK ? original sound -
Chlo
Andrew Monk, chief executive of investment firm VSA Capital, has long been
a critic of home-working and mandates employees to be in the office. He
says: There are an awful lot of jobs where you need to be in the office
swapping ideas. Younger people need to be learning from their elders.
Once bustling city economies, Mr Monk adds, will be choked by fewer
workers using trains and buying lunches locally. Youre just at home
vegetating and losing your social life, he says.
It is against this backdrop that productivity in Britain has slumped.
Historically, productivity, measured by how much output is produced for an
hour of work, has grown by about 2pc every year. But in the first three
months of 2023 output declined by 0.6pc compared to a year ago, and 1.4pc
when compared to the end of 2022, according to the Office for National
Statistics.
Britain lags behind on the global stage. Of all the G7 countries, the UK
ranks fourth in terms of productivity 12pc behind France and 19pc behind
the US, which ranked first. Meanwhile, Britain outperforms Canada and
Italy by just 3pc and 6pc respectively, according to ONS data from 2021.
Grant Fritzner, the ONSs chief economist, told the House of Lords
Committee last month that countries with higher productivity rates can
afford higher rates of tax, they can afford to pay for better public
services, and they can probably afford to have a better standard of
living.
Facing falling productivity, and an already tenuous position on the global
stage, experts fear a generation reared on remote working will not be able
to turn the tide.
Im saving less money now, but its an investment in my career
Niamh Cashell, 26, started her first job as a housing officer from home at
the height of lockdown restrictions. The organisation had shuttered its
offices to cut costs, opting instead for cheaper-to-run hubs its
employees could use on an ad-hoc basis. It was basically all home-based,
she says.
Ms Cashell recalls doing her job from her rented flat in Glasgow, sitting
on a plastic kitchen chair in her bedroom, and taking distressing phone
calls from vulnerable and sometimes suicidal tenants.
I struggled to separate work from home, she says. When I was supposed
to be working I was distracted by washing and doing stuff around the
house, then working late to compensate. It affected my sleep and I wasnt
able to switch off.
The experience proved isolating Ms Cashell says she spoke to her
managers once every two weeks. I went whole weeks without speaking to
another colleague. There was no one to ask questions to.
When Ms Cashell voiced her distress, the company offered her free
mindfulness sessions but even these were done via video link. She has
since started a PhD and chooses to go into the office every day, which she
says has improved her mental health.
Jack Spriggs, 28, has also made a conscious decision to return to the
office five days a week, even though his job only requires him there for
two. The public affairs consultant recalls being inducted virtually, but
growing tired of remote working.
I got bored of opening my laptop in the same room I ate and slept, not
going to the pub, then going to bed.
Mr Spriggs, like many his age, lives in cramped rented accommodation with
no living room, and finds the prospect of working from his bedroom
miserable. Commuting has come at a cost, but he argues, I am saving
less money now than when I was working from home but its an investment in
my career.
As a young millennial, Mr Spriggs sees the generational divide between
attitudes to office work.
Its such a boomer argument but if you are in the office you do pick up
more about interpersonal relationships, he admits.
A lot of my younger colleagues have only known the era of remote working
but its hard to see the value of the office if your first experience is a
hybrid model.
This is a huge problem for the individual and the economy
Ms Cashell and Mr Spriggs illustrate what many #wfh TikToks also seem to
suggest: that working from home leads to a sense of disenfranchisement
with work itself. So why then, do so many young people seem to want it?
One reason may be the so-called talent war, which has seen companies offer
unprecedented flexibility to lure in hires companies that increasingly
see hybrid working as an essential bargaining chip rather than a perk,
lest they lose out on top talent.
Last year, Adzuna said over 120,000 listed vacancies advertised flexible
working, making it by far the most frequently cited perk.
But Nina Jörden, of the Productivity Institute, says the enduring
commitment to flexible working principally benefits older workers who want
to balance family life and is not important for the Gen Z age group.
Young people are the most enthusiastic for hybrid working but at the same
time they would benefit the most from being in the office, she says.
Its a confusing picture.
Like Ms Emerson, Ms Jörden worries that young workers will miss out on
developing their careers if they are not in office environments where they
can mix with their older colleagues.
There needs to be a value from coming into the office, she adds.
Figures show that young people are in fact leading the charge back into
offices. Jon Boys, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development, says this is likely out of frustration over online induction
and training.
Young people also move about jobs more frequently as this is often the
fastest route to salary growth. Mr Boys says these two trends are linked:
Onboarding and training is a higher proportion of your time when youre
young versus when youre old.
To me, onboarding is a challenge for companies to do remotely one that
young people experience more than older people.
But what value awaits young people who do make the return to the office?
I observed one organisation where all the grads came into the office for
a week, but the whole middle management team didnt show up because they
were working fully remotely, says Ms Jörden. After a few weeks, none of
the grads wanted to come back, since there was no value in it for them.
Mr Boys says hybrid working is likely to remain popular with older workers
who have to balance care responsibilities, and who are more likely to have
the space to set up a home office. Middle-aged people are really gunning
for home-working, he says. Its a case of two groups' interests working
against each other.
Laziness while working from home, while satirised by TikToks
overwhelmingly young user base, is cross-generational, argues Mr Monk.
I do not believe anyone working from home works as well or as
efficiently, he says. Abuse is rife people nip out to the shop, or go
for a coffee with their wife.
The hybrid system, he adds, is unfair to younger workers who dont know
what theyre missing. I know a few very senior well-respected fund
managers who work from home all the time, he says. But theyve learned
their trade and they have big houses where its easier to do so. How do
younger generations learn if their seniors are sitting at home in their
garden offices?
The negative effects of remote working both on socialisation and on
well-being could prove disastrous for productivity unless a balance is
struck, Ms Jörden warns.
Mental ill health costs the British economy around 5pc of GDP a year.
While productivity remains the same when working from home, the effects
could be damaging for Gen Z long term, who could be working in this way
for their whole career, she says.
There are skills young people need to acquire, and it wont benefit
organisations to hamper their development.
https://news.yahoo.com/gen-z-proudly-shirking-home-050000030.html
lockdown, and offices across the country shut down.
Britons were told to work from home where possible, while companies
scrambled to reorganise themselves around a workforce primarily operating
from home offices, spare bedrooms and kitchen tables.
In London, panicked white-collar workers scurried to trains far from the
capital, their arms laden with laptops, monitors and keyboards. Its hard
to imagine that what followed was only supposed to last a few weeks before
everything returned to normal.
But two years on from the last Covid restrictions, remote working still
remains. Economists now fear the WFH revolution is helping to fuel
Britain's productivity crisis.
Since January 2022, as much as a fifth of all jobs posted on job site Reed
were either remote or hybrid roles (where workers can split their time
between the office and home at their discretion).
For Generation Z, those born from 1997 onward, hybrid models of home and
office work are all they have ever known.
Todays 23-year-olds finished university degrees from home; took final
exams in their bedrooms; and attended graduations over Zoom.
Now starting their first jobs, those same young people accept remote
working as the default model. Most, figures suggest, seem to prefer it. A
survey by Reed found just one in five preferred to be in the office full-
time.
'I want to leave work at 4pm and go open water swimming'
But a glance at social media site TikTok shows all is not well in the home
offices of twenty-somethings. Home working, or to be more accurate, home
shirking, is a common pastime.
In one video, a corporate lawyer tracks his dwindling enthusiasm for
keeping up appearances while working from home.
He begins in 2020, wearing a smart shirt and frantically typing. A year
later hes ditched the shirt, starting work late, and in the following
year hes working directly from his bed. By 2023, hes simply on a stroll,
headphones on and coffee in hand his laptop nowhere in sight.
@thatcorporatelawyer Me ???? flexible working #corporate #9to5 #worklife
#workfromhome #workcomedy #millennial #wfh #lawyer #corporatemillennial
#office #officelife ? Looney Tunes (Main Theme) - TV Sounds Unlimited
Another clip, by Canadian influencer Leo Haley, takes the form of a
roleplay in which she discusses staying late to work on a project, under
the proviso she will take the time back the following day.
Over a mock-up video call in which she plays both parts, Haley says to her
manager: Yes, Ive arranged to stay late so I can assist with the launch.
I will be ending work at 2 oclock on Friday because I work a 40-hour week
and, since overtime isnt available, Ill just take the extra hours that
Im working on Thursday and take the time off my day on Friday so it all
evens out.
When her manager protests, she continues: I do care about this project,
but I will not be donating my personal time to this company for free.
Toodaloo!
@loewhaley Toodalooo #wfh #relatable #corporate #career #boundaries
#coworkers #work ? original sound - Laura
Videos tagged #wfh have been viewed close to 10 billion times, according
to the app. Clearly, many of the clips are tongue-in-cheek and not
intended to be taken seriously.
But a common thread begins to emerge watching them back-to-back that of
young people showing a reluctance to work beyond what is expected of them,
particularly if they work from home. Much of the language is couched in
terms of asserting boundaries, knowing your worth, and other ideas of
self-care popular among Gen Z.
One 23-year-old, who spoke to The Telegraph anonymously, fearful of a
reaction from his employer, denies a refusal to work overtime is evidence
Gen Z is lazy.
He says: I do whats required at the moment because Im of the view that,
if Im on minimum wage, Im not gonna work myself to the bone if Im not
compensated for it.
Frankly, if I don't get paid for overtime why should I be expected to
provide more of a service? It makes no sense to do that. Ultimately I have
the view that if I dropped dead my job vacancy would be up the next day.
Lockdown, he argues, changed his perspective on working beyond the
boundaries of a job description. I realised I didnt want to be working
my life away achieving nothing, he says.
I dont want to get to my death bed asking why at 22 I was working a
little more for a company and making a little extra money. I wont
remember that Ill remember leaving at 4pm and going rock climbing and
open water swimming.
@pasha m?ntal health day slayed ?? tr?uma is no ?? #comedy #genz ? Trauma
Slayed - Pasha Grozdov
But experts worry that economic disaster looms unless young people are
hauled back into the office whether they like it or not. Liz Emerson, of
the Intergenerational Foundation, a think tank that champions young
people, argues young workers are missing out on crucial development by not
being in an office.
She says: Reduced participation in company culture and not being seen in
the office may both hinder promotion for those staff members who choose to
work from home.
Younger workers also risk losing out on training, mentoring, and career
progression if they are less visible in the office than their older
colleagues. Do not underestimate water-cooler moments and the unconscious
bias that comes from knowing one face over another.
@chlo.stevens Which one are you? ?? Up your WFH game with the @flexispotuk
Black Friday sale! Use the link in my bio to make amazing savings between
25th-28th November (gifted) #FlexiSpot #FlexiSpotUK ? original sound -
Chlo
Andrew Monk, chief executive of investment firm VSA Capital, has long been
a critic of home-working and mandates employees to be in the office. He
says: There are an awful lot of jobs where you need to be in the office
swapping ideas. Younger people need to be learning from their elders.
Once bustling city economies, Mr Monk adds, will be choked by fewer
workers using trains and buying lunches locally. Youre just at home
vegetating and losing your social life, he says.
It is against this backdrop that productivity in Britain has slumped.
Historically, productivity, measured by how much output is produced for an
hour of work, has grown by about 2pc every year. But in the first three
months of 2023 output declined by 0.6pc compared to a year ago, and 1.4pc
when compared to the end of 2022, according to the Office for National
Statistics.
Britain lags behind on the global stage. Of all the G7 countries, the UK
ranks fourth in terms of productivity 12pc behind France and 19pc behind
the US, which ranked first. Meanwhile, Britain outperforms Canada and
Italy by just 3pc and 6pc respectively, according to ONS data from 2021.
Grant Fritzner, the ONSs chief economist, told the House of Lords
Committee last month that countries with higher productivity rates can
afford higher rates of tax, they can afford to pay for better public
services, and they can probably afford to have a better standard of
living.
Facing falling productivity, and an already tenuous position on the global
stage, experts fear a generation reared on remote working will not be able
to turn the tide.
Im saving less money now, but its an investment in my career
Niamh Cashell, 26, started her first job as a housing officer from home at
the height of lockdown restrictions. The organisation had shuttered its
offices to cut costs, opting instead for cheaper-to-run hubs its
employees could use on an ad-hoc basis. It was basically all home-based,
she says.
Ms Cashell recalls doing her job from her rented flat in Glasgow, sitting
on a plastic kitchen chair in her bedroom, and taking distressing phone
calls from vulnerable and sometimes suicidal tenants.
I struggled to separate work from home, she says. When I was supposed
to be working I was distracted by washing and doing stuff around the
house, then working late to compensate. It affected my sleep and I wasnt
able to switch off.
The experience proved isolating Ms Cashell says she spoke to her
managers once every two weeks. I went whole weeks without speaking to
another colleague. There was no one to ask questions to.
When Ms Cashell voiced her distress, the company offered her free
mindfulness sessions but even these were done via video link. She has
since started a PhD and chooses to go into the office every day, which she
says has improved her mental health.
Jack Spriggs, 28, has also made a conscious decision to return to the
office five days a week, even though his job only requires him there for
two. The public affairs consultant recalls being inducted virtually, but
growing tired of remote working.
I got bored of opening my laptop in the same room I ate and slept, not
going to the pub, then going to bed.
Mr Spriggs, like many his age, lives in cramped rented accommodation with
no living room, and finds the prospect of working from his bedroom
miserable. Commuting has come at a cost, but he argues, I am saving
less money now than when I was working from home but its an investment in
my career.
As a young millennial, Mr Spriggs sees the generational divide between
attitudes to office work.
Its such a boomer argument but if you are in the office you do pick up
more about interpersonal relationships, he admits.
A lot of my younger colleagues have only known the era of remote working
but its hard to see the value of the office if your first experience is a
hybrid model.
This is a huge problem for the individual and the economy
Ms Cashell and Mr Spriggs illustrate what many #wfh TikToks also seem to
suggest: that working from home leads to a sense of disenfranchisement
with work itself. So why then, do so many young people seem to want it?
One reason may be the so-called talent war, which has seen companies offer
unprecedented flexibility to lure in hires companies that increasingly
see hybrid working as an essential bargaining chip rather than a perk,
lest they lose out on top talent.
Last year, Adzuna said over 120,000 listed vacancies advertised flexible
working, making it by far the most frequently cited perk.
But Nina Jörden, of the Productivity Institute, says the enduring
commitment to flexible working principally benefits older workers who want
to balance family life and is not important for the Gen Z age group.
Young people are the most enthusiastic for hybrid working but at the same
time they would benefit the most from being in the office, she says.
Its a confusing picture.
Like Ms Emerson, Ms Jörden worries that young workers will miss out on
developing their careers if they are not in office environments where they
can mix with their older colleagues.
There needs to be a value from coming into the office, she adds.
Figures show that young people are in fact leading the charge back into
offices. Jon Boys, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development, says this is likely out of frustration over online induction
and training.
Young people also move about jobs more frequently as this is often the
fastest route to salary growth. Mr Boys says these two trends are linked:
Onboarding and training is a higher proportion of your time when youre
young versus when youre old.
To me, onboarding is a challenge for companies to do remotely one that
young people experience more than older people.
But what value awaits young people who do make the return to the office?
I observed one organisation where all the grads came into the office for
a week, but the whole middle management team didnt show up because they
were working fully remotely, says Ms Jörden. After a few weeks, none of
the grads wanted to come back, since there was no value in it for them.
Mr Boys says hybrid working is likely to remain popular with older workers
who have to balance care responsibilities, and who are more likely to have
the space to set up a home office. Middle-aged people are really gunning
for home-working, he says. Its a case of two groups' interests working
against each other.
Laziness while working from home, while satirised by TikToks
overwhelmingly young user base, is cross-generational, argues Mr Monk.
I do not believe anyone working from home works as well or as
efficiently, he says. Abuse is rife people nip out to the shop, or go
for a coffee with their wife.
The hybrid system, he adds, is unfair to younger workers who dont know
what theyre missing. I know a few very senior well-respected fund
managers who work from home all the time, he says. But theyve learned
their trade and they have big houses where its easier to do so. How do
younger generations learn if their seniors are sitting at home in their
garden offices?
The negative effects of remote working both on socialisation and on
well-being could prove disastrous for productivity unless a balance is
struck, Ms Jörden warns.
Mental ill health costs the British economy around 5pc of GDP a year.
While productivity remains the same when working from home, the effects
could be damaging for Gen Z long term, who could be working in this way
for their whole career, she says.
There are skills young people need to acquire, and it wont benefit
organisations to hamper their development.
https://news.yahoo.com/gen-z-proudly-shirking-home-050000030.html