Exactly this!
Looks like I’m back in the office soon:
ETA: The comments are HILARIOUS!
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I read that, and my first thought was “someone in government has leant on him pretty hard” given that he made diametrically opposite statements just a few weeks ago.
It seems to me that a few big chains in central London will suffer, but the money will be spent elsewhere, with a shift to localism… but those small local businesses aren’t able to make their voices heard/don’t have rich backers who stand to lose out/don’t have their previous CEO sitting in the Lords/don’t donate to the Tory party*
*delete as appropriate
The comment that made me laugh was one along the lines of “he might say that, but ask the staff and the majority will say London is a shithole and we like not spending £4k a year on train tickets”
The second one that made me laugh was “really its because they’re control freaks, and the culture is toxic and absent of any trust”
Both pretty damning!!!
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I liked doing it for a change of scenery 
…but also so that the rest of the gym members could see what working out actually looks like.
Yeah, I know I was being an ass but its true.
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People don’t need to work in London, if they think it is a shit-hole.
They also do not need to spend £4k per annum on a season ticket.
Taking that job was their choice, nobody forced them into it.
Just because they now live like a lord-of-the-manor in some cheap suburban town, they now cannot afford to stop working in a major city.
How is that an employers fault?
People need to look at themselves and the choices they’ve made to be where they are in their lives before they start moaning at businesses who may want them to return to the office.
The second one, I’m not commenting on 
I don’t work for them directly, but when I worked there before, I really enjoyed it - found the site really nice, the people good to work with - like most jobs, there’s going to be good bits and not-so-good bits.
I feel you.
But on the other hand I much prefer the yummies to look pristine in the their matching Lulu Lemon.
Someone talking about me again. I’d love to quit my job, have more time… but i dont want to move to a smaller house.
This could also have been me… but i dont think Whisk and I ever met…
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And that’s the crux of it, isn’t it?
You (and me!) choose to live in a house which their job allows them to.
Anything smaller is a retrograde step…but then you lose the right to moan about a £4K season ticket (PFFT! My Derby to Manchester one was £6.4k and that was 5 years ago now) or having to go to work in a shithole
While I think this is borderline RANT thread, it has been said elsewhere - if you are going to work from home your company are going to question that London waiting they’ve been paying you. In fact they are likely to question the Western EU waiting they are paying you and skip off to India or Bulgaria.
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Yeah, until gyms are close to how they used to be, and I’m not WFH, I can’t see it being worth the money for me.
MUST RING THE NUFFIELD!
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Additionally, a policy letter came out today at work; continue to WFH if you can. So there you go.
Earlier, after my run, the Postie caught me doing some bare-chested exercises with an old Pennant stone. There was me thinking I was safely hidden behind the bushes on the driveway 
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I have a cheap pack’em in gym near my office I use. They opened but kindly gave me another month deferal but they must have forgotten that they dont charge a joining fee so I will just quit hardly going to go back anytime soon.
Wow. Just wow.
^^^^^ This!!!
Be careful what you wish for! The current situation isn’t going to mean that people in Hull are going to be able to work for London firms and earn London salaries by working remotely.
If everyone is working remotely then the firms will start to question why they are paying them London weighting if they’re not incurring London living costs.
Or, equally, it could go the other way, and for ‘in-demand’ resources the balance of power will continue to shift, and they might have to pay London weighting salary levels in order to get anyone to start with. Who knows!
The swingers are certainly one of the forgotten groups in all this.
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Especially swingers called Mike.
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I suspect it might end up like the Polish builders, where people pile in and undercut the locals while still feeling like they are doing well. I’m sure it will even out over time, but in the short term I think there’ll be downward pressure on salaries in some areas that are more suited to remote working for an extended period.
Interesting about the London vs Remote. Am I paid more because I work in the city? Undoubtedly, but it’s the higher salaries that attract the better talent. That’s not me being big headed, but I’ve met plenty at my level who dont have the same experience or offer as much value.
Start stripping the salaries down because you offer WFH, does that dilute the skills pool? Similar to public sector, pay is lower, used to get good pensions, less so now. It’s hard to compete with top paying jobs. Yes there is more to life and work than money. But I literally only work for money.
On the other hand if my company turned round and said you can WFH forever but you have to take a 10k pay cut. Would I take it? Almost certainly. 10k gross is my season ticket, and 3.5 hours a day back is golden.
We’ve had a couple of people leave recently. Trying to find people like that in London is really hard. We already have an outsource partner in India. We email them what we need 2 days later someone is on our account. Cost is way less and no recruiters fees either.
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Gyms and pools not likely to open in Scotland until at least the 14th September. Gutted.
But the schools are opening in a couple of weeks time, all of those kids, licking the door handles, each other, then coming home and licking the remote, which the adult then touches.
Brilliant.
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