" Working from Home "

I am puzzled how you have racked up £70 in mobile fees? My contract gives me 1000 minutes a month, which according to my trusty calculator is just over 16 hours? 

Surely the test of working at home is whether it can be carried out as efficiently as being in an office and in most cases I would have thought it could be. Both my sons work from home at times, the wasted journey time into work can be used more productively on real work. OK I fully accept that it needs to be monitored but if there is no difference it will be far easier to recruit people to work from home than asking them to commute. Obviously there are some jobs where it is just not an option but it is suitable for many roles. If anyone is getting bad service and they think that people not being in the office is the cause they need to take that up with the company/organisation as a separate concern.

David

I've had the phone answered on numerous occasions since Covid by people working from home and have to say that my experience differs entirely from your Triky.

I find call centres to be the worst for clarity of speech and background noise usually accompanied by the talker speaking or appearing to, could be technical, too quietly. A word of praise for CAMC here as their system doesn't seem to have these glitches, a rather unexpected bonus.

My most recent experience with an insurance discussion, not CAMC, was extremely helpful, with a clear and concise manner.

I'm on 'pay as you go' David.Waiting for ages for a contact to reply ,is how the amount happened !! I'm about to change that contract though !! 

Triky, you need to sort out your mobile phone contract/spend. I spent 5 hours sorting out my broken email a fortnight ago, and nothing like the issues you have had with spend. PAYG is always the most expensive way of running a mobile. Look at a simple rolling monthly contract, you can often find one for as little as £4 per month,and you can opt to stay inside your given minutes/texts, so you won’t ramp up huge costs. Or, opt for something like I have, 25gb and unlimited phone minutes and texts for just £7 per month. Also, be very aware that some agencies/banks etc….. operate premium rates often close to £1 a minute. My phone is blocked for these numbers, I can usually find a non premium number for the same company.

All my experiences of folks working from home have been very good. It’s the scattered across the World call centres that are a nightmare for background noise. And hard to understand accents. Good luck with it. Any decent rescue service would give you a call back as well. Name and shame I say😁

When 3 started charging her 30p per minute on PAYG, OH went onto a rolling monthly contract elsewhere, and now I too have moved from a fixed term to rolling monthly.  We have also done away with our landline as we never used it.  Lots of good monthly deals available for mobiles.

Both our children work in IT, son has worked from home for over 20 years now and daughter since Covid.   Son does have a designated office, should he wish to go there, it changes every so often.  He lives “out in the sticks” in a farmhouse in Ayrshire, so quite a bit from his office, and spends more time in California (on business) than in any UK office.

Daughter’s employer allows all staff to work from home if they wish, though she does sometimes have a few meetings in the office.   They have downsized their office premises, so she no longer has a designated desk space.  

With 2 little ones, she likes the flexibility to be able to work earlier and/or later to complete her work if she needs time off for taking the children to, for example, school/nursery, dentist/doctor etc.  The time previously spent commuting is also able to be utilised more usefully, and the money saved pays the larger heating bills.

There are of course many jobs that cannot be done from home,  but IT work is ideal

Nothing wrong with working from home....if you have the right attitude. Company managers etc. who know their staff will be aware of those who are suited to working this way and be grateful that they have trustworthy and diligent employees. They will be rewarded by the efficiency of their employees. Sadly, there will always be some that do not work well this way and might 'take advantage' of the situation. Ultimately they will not advance well in their career. All over the country there are thousands of people who have 'worked from home' for years - they are the self-employed. 

I had no choice. There was no office for me at company HQ.

After 13 years working from home with either zero / minimal support, and having to provide the necessary IT at my own expense, I was glad when the day finally arrived for me to retire. That was before Covid.

I was forced to go freelance and treated as part of the gig economy with no guaranteed work so my income was extremely variable and precarious. I remember one month I had no work at all. Taking holidays was tricky. I had to be "on demand" available 7 days a week for urgent work. It was a case of taking advantage of the fact that the permanent job market was effectively closed to me because of age discrimination. In my line of work the agencies and employers all want youngsters.

My brother has just retired after finding himself in a similar situation of having to WFH for several years (different company). In his case the company closed the office and converted it into an additional production area. All management meetings taking place remotely. He is glad to jack it in.

Obviously these examples are not the same as WFH 3 or 4 days a week. I understand the pros and cons, and benefits including cost savings for both parties. WFH will continue for the foreseeable future.