Office Space Property Market changed for ever? - Anything Goes - Other topics not covered elsewhere - Tartan Army Message Board Jump to content

Office Space Property Market changed for ever?


Recommended Posts

Without a doubt. Our company, who are a large employer, are looking to keep as many people working from home till next year at the earliest and I imagine going forward they will continue with this. I dont think they will be alone.

The hotel industry is likely to suffer too as a lot of business meetings will now take place over zoom/ Microsoft teams.
Could the property/land be converted to help with housing in any way ? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be interested in relative productivity in office vs home settings. 
 

Id be very surprised if people were anywhere near as productive at home as they are in an office. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Homeworking was discussed on the freakonomics podcast a few weeks ago. They thought it was a good idea initially, but the report pointed towards it being a negative in reality, productivity was roughly the same, but employees mental health was an issue, with the majority wanting to get back to the office asap. It was however only researched over a two month period, 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Parklife said:

I'd be interested in relative productivity in office vs home settings. 
 

Id be very surprised if people were anywhere near as productive at home as they are in an office. 

I work for myself and I'm a lazy fuck if I come home after my deliveries instead of my office. Too many distractions and at the end of the day it's me that benefits if I'm more productive. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been in work all through the pandemic (with the exception of weekends and bank holidays, obvs) and to be honest, I'm glad of it. I could maybe hack working at home for a wee while but I wouldn't trust myself to work from home on an ongoing basis - too many potential distractions.

I'm a wee bit old-fashioned, in that I think your home should be your leisure space; your wee sanctuary. I suspect a lot of employers are seriously considering homeworking as a long-term option though, due to the cost-saving potential, but productivity and, above all, people's mental health have to be factored in. The social aspect of attending work shouldn't be undervalued.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, scotlad said:

I've been in work all through the pandemic (with the exception of weekends and bank holidays, obvs) and to be honest, I'm glad of it. I could maybe hack working at home for a wee while but I wouldn't trust myself to work from home on an ongoing basis - too many potential distractions.

I'm a wee bit old-fashioned, in that I think your home should be your leisure space; your wee sanctuary. I suspect a lot of employers are seriously considering homeworking as a long-term option though, due to the cost-saving potential, but productivity and, above all, people's mental health have to be factored in. The social aspect of attending work shouldn't be undervalued.

Agree totally. I was working from home for about 6 weeks but was really glad to get back in to the office. It's still really quiet in here but getting interaction with the few people that are in makes things feel a bit more normal. 
 

Working from home all day and only ever speaking to people on the phone was grim. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Parklife said:

I'd be interested in relative productivity in office vs home settings. 
 

Id be very surprised if people were anywhere near as productive at home as they are in an office. 

Our productivity is up, within the admin teams at least.

Sickness is almost non existent too.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not fussed either way, ideally I'd like some sort of hybrid.

I can work my own hours, some days I start at 6am so I can get on the golf course for 2pm. Might not be as much fun in the winter though but can't see us being back in the office until they figure out if there's going to be a second wave/lockdown.

Can see our can centre guys etc being back first anyway, so I'm way down the line, if at all.

If I go full time WFH, i'll be buying somewhere back down in Ayrshire though. Only thing that puts me off just now is the commute and £200+ a month train fares.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Parklife said:

Agree totally. I was working from home for about 6 weeks but was really glad to get back in to the office. It's still really quiet in here but getting interaction with the few people that are in makes things feel a bit more normal. 
 

Working from home all day and only ever speaking to people on the phone was grim. 

We’re all different. Personally I thrive working from home - will be more productive when schools are back though! Respect the opposite viewpoint. For me, though, home working works.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Parklife said:

I'd be interested in relative productivity in office vs home settings. 
 

Id be very surprised if people were anywhere near as productive at home as they are in an office. 

My company has been much more productive. Weve terminated leases on two officea and went for a very small alternative.

My own team wont be back in an office again

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing that I think is overlooked with home working is when somebody nee joins the company or team. Even if its possible to train the person remotely its likely that they wont have any bond with their co-workers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would be happy with a hybrid but it wont happen as the job I do really needs to be office based long term. 
I feel , as has already been mentioned, that permanent home working will have an adverse effect on mental health and social interaction.
I think folk already spend too much time isolated in technology and social media and home working will make it worse. God know what it will be like in 20-30 years. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think many businesses/industries will adopt a 50/50 approach where feasible which would meet many/most of everyone's needs in a good way (including mental health).

This could/should be flexible for all parties as much as possible depending on needs and personal preferences .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Parklife said:

I'd be interested in relative productivity in office vs home settings.

Id be very surprised if people were anywhere near as productive at home as they are in an office. 

I was involved in trying to set up & promote home working about a decade ago, partly as a response to austerity, partly a 'green' issue & also a bit of an attempt to support work-life balance issues.

FWIW, my conclusion was that the people who were conscientious in the office were conscientious when they were home-based, & the lazy b@stards who spent half the day on fag breaks, gossiping in the kitchen, never doing the visits, case notes, planning, etc. always behind whilst always finding time to complain that they were under stress were the ones who did f**k all at home.

Whilst that's probably predictable, the latter group also tended to be the ones though that were most hostile to home-working, whereas the more someone was a "good" worker the more they were inclined to try to find the best mix to work efficiently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A guy I know works for a worldwide company with 80k+ employees. They went and sent home 50% of the staff when all this started one week  and 50% the next week. When they realised that productivity was pretty much the same, they offered staff the option of working from home or in the office, with the outlook of how many millions they could save worldwide from renting office space. He sees it as a major advantage for him as it saves on bus fares, pointless spending after work in the city centre and not having to stand in the snow/hale/rain every winter and also the hour travel each way to and from work which is unpaid. 
 

Can see many people taking advantage of this, but as pointed out, the toll on mental health could be quite bad. 
 

I can’t work from home, but when I was here for 7 weeks, I was desperate to get out of the house and back to work, I can’t imagine what people are like that have been on furlough since March. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I detested working from home. I did my best and so did the kids( I teach P5), but there is no substitute for face to face in education in my opinion, for children. Possibly ok for Uni? I'm doing the CTC via Glasgow Uni, starting next week via Zoom, and I'm not loving the idea. My mrs is teaching her yoga classes via Zoom (since April) and attendance is starting to tail off as folk go back to work or take a wee local holiday. Her work looks like being 'blended' , and who knows what it looks like for her when her gym employers open. At school we are keeping an online link by ditching homework jotters and going on Google Classroom for homework. Never be the same again ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, killiefaetheferry said:

I detested working from home. I did my best and so did the kids( I teach P5), but there is no substitute for face to face in education in my opinion, for children. Possibly ok for Uni? I'm doing the CTC via Glasgow Uni, starting next week via Zoom, and I'm not loving the idea. My mrs is teaching her yoga classes via Zoom (since April) and attendance is starting to tail off as folk go back to work or take a wee local holiday. Her work looks like being 'blended' , and who knows what it looks like for her when her gym employers open. At school we are keeping an online link by ditching homework jotters and going on Google Classroom for homework. Never be the same again ...

Homework is really difficult. I was having a mare trying to work out the mass of a bowling ball on Jupiter with the different gravity aspects (or something like that)

PE was fun though, we spent a couple of hours chipping a football into a compost bin in the garden 😂

Zoom meetings can be good too, I recently done my SFA 1.2 youth/adult coaching course via this and it was easier to pick up things when it’s right in front of you, rather than all watching a large screen (it also helped that I didn’t have to run about a football pitch again) 🤪

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

One would almost be tempted to speculate that you may not be as svelte around the pitch as you once were...

Oh there’s no speculation about it. Last time I was on my 1.1 at Cormack Park, I came home with this. 
 

Edit: Cant upload the bruise on my leg 🙄
 

 


 

 

Edited by dandydunn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Working from home is cheaper. No travel costs, reduced food costs, reduction in work clothes etc. If you get flexi time like me then you can also commit less hours to the working day and build up more time. Ive never been able to build up flexi previously but im saving an hour a day travel so im adding half an hour onto my work day per day which has allowed me to take flexi days.

The flip side is that at times you are very isolated, I feel my physical health suffered as I dont move about as much and wellbeing is certainly affected as its abit like groundhog day / cabin fever.

A huge plus for me is getting to see my new son all day every day. Even if he is in the other room most of the day. Being at home has been a godsend and im grateful for not missing anything. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We been working from home since March  - Most people are ovewrorking, and not having a good break off from work time - rolls into the weekends as well - + losing a lot more time on "meetings"  - whole day can be filled with meetings, but e can sneak off and work on the side on PC - we already have planned a back to work angle of working from homes on a friday if no meetings 

Although - I worked from home in Cape Town for 3 years also when they closed the office 

But for us just now - it's a downturn in industry so we have lots to do 

Edited by euan2020
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...