Tim Pyne, director of the UK’s property show for a zero carbon future, FOOTPRINT+ shares his view on remote working
The above advert for The Economist is one I often refer to when talking about the pros and cons of what will become a Statutory Entitlement on 6 April.
You as an employee have a tribunal to refer to if your request to,
- work from home
- hybrid work
- work part-time
- job share
- have compressed hours
- work flexitime
- work to annualised hours
- work for staggered hours
- and ultimately enjoy a phased retirement
isn’t carefully examined by your employer and responded to in a ‘reasonable manner’.
Presumably, your interview with your tribunal will be on a Teams call and you’ll be able to present your case while wearing your trackies.
So, what are people going to do with the 90,000 odd hours they used to spend in the office?
One thing they won’t be doing as much is collaborating, and without so much collaborating they won’t be learning as much. The new intake will probably spend a lot of time in online training sessions put together by the HR department.
But will the HR department be able to tell you how to make your client laugh, or even like you? Staring at a screen on your own all day won’t exactly turn you into the life and soul of the party.
But that’s OK because your employer will have an online system in place to manage your mental health issues, loneliness, isolation, feelings of self-worth and fear of exclusion. In extreme circumstances, if you decide to end it all, there is an app written just for you.
The Office was the UK’s most popular ever television sitcom. This in itself was quite a shock; Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais never expected it to take off in the way it did. But unlike Mad Men which was equally influential, it didn’t glamorise the workspace. Instead, it focussed on the superficially rubbish stuff; the place was a mess and full of losers. What it was really about was interaction. Hating your boss was important; it gave the day a purpose. It was fun to fall in love at the water cooler. Bitching about your parking space was expected. That’s what you ranted about in the pub after work.
At FOOTPRINT+ in London this year we have a remote-working traditional office set-up, and on each desk will be a name-plate with a quote from Canary Wharf chairman George Iacobescu: ‘Working From Home’, he says ‘is not Utopia it’s Dystopia’.
Remote workers will be invited to choose a coloured Post-It note and stick it on the desk as they leave; Red for ‘I Hate It,’ and green for ‘I Love It.’
It’ll be interesting to see what colour the desks are when we close. We might put in an orange one for ‘Undecided’; we haven’t made our minds up.
FOOTPRINT+ takes place at Old Billingsgate from 8-9 May 2024.
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