Latest news with #workingfromhome
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Whitehall attendance slumps in spite of Labour's pledge to crack down on civil servants working from home
Working from home in the Whitehall Blob is making a comeback under Labour, despite its promises of a crackdown. As a number of civil servants continue to shun returning to the office, attendances fell or remained static in more than half of government departments over the first three-month quarter of this year. The Treasury and Home Office were among 11 of 20 departments where attendance failed to improve despite the faltering economy and record numbers of migrants arriving this year. Chancellor Rachel Reeves 's office had the worst attendance rate among major departments (63 per cent), despite having to compile next week's spending review – when brutal cuts to some departments will be announced. Attendance also dropped at Bridget Phillipson's education Department (71 per cent to 67 per cent), which helped oversee a hike in VAT on private school fees, as well as at Home Secretary Yvette Cooper 's department (78 per cent to 76 per cent). The departments where attendance rates lowered were the Northern Ireland Office, which fell from 65 per cent to 57 per cent, and the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales, which plummeted from 81 per cent to 60 per cent. While attendance improved in some, the average rate across all departments fell from above to below 75 per cent from January to March. Meanwhile, between January 2024 and May 2024 – the months before the snap general election called by former Tory PM Rishi Sunak – attendance across Whitehall had an average of 77 per cent. The appalling figures come despite Sir Keir Starmer hitting out at civil servants in December. He said: 'Too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline.' He also pledged to increase public sector productivity after it dropped to 8.5 per cent lower than just before Covid-19. But critics said the latest analysis of official figures, carried out by the Mail, showed Labour was going soft on productivity. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood said: 'This Labour Government is not serious about delivering the reform the civil service so desperately needs. 'The last Conservative government had a plan to not only get civil servants back to the office, and increase productivity, but also to cut the bloated size overall – but Labour has totally failed to grip this issue or follow through. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood said: 'This Labour Government is not serious about delivering the reform the civil service so desperately needs. 'It is not surprising attendance rates are down when Labour supports lazy initiatives such as part-time work for full-time pay' 'It is not surprising attendance rates are down when Labour supports lazy initiatives such as part-time work for full-time pay. 'Taxpayers are being taken for a ride. Only Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives are serious about clamping down on this sort of nonsense.' William Yarwood, of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, said: 'The last government had some success in its war of attrition to get bureaucrats back behind their desks. 'But instead of building on those efforts, Labour has taken its foot off the gas. 'Labour ministers need to realise that if they want civil servants delivering on their priorities they need them in their office.' A Government spokesman said: 'Like at any organisation, small fluctuations in office occupancy can occur from month to month due to holiday, sickness or other events.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
A woman's work is never done in a nice, quiet home office
Re Emma Beddington's article (Working from home? It's so much nicer if you're a man, 1 June), from day one of the Covid lockdown, my husband got the spare bedroom with the spare desk and two huge computer screens, whether he was doing technical work, meetings or just email. He would make a huge scene if he had to work on his laptop for just one hour. Meanwhile, I was stuck at the kitchen table with my mini laptop, including on days that I had to do technical work, big presentations or long meetings. Now he is retired and I work mostly at the office. On the rare days I work from home, I still work at the kitchen table, but he may let me work in his office for a couple of hours if I have to do some focused work. How nice of him! And I am an alleged feminist married to an alleged feminist and address supplied I have the lovely office one and a half days a week and my hubby, soon to be at home five days a week, gets a bedroom downstairs with a garden view. They don't get their way all the time!Joanna LaidlerSleaford, Lincolnshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Andrew Bragg says Coalition will support WFH, backing ‘agency' for workers
A Liberal frontbencher has backflipped on working from home arrangements, saying they 'could be productive' and vowing the Coalition's support for 'individual liberty' and the 'agency' of workers. The opposition was forced mid-election campaign to dump its plagued policy to force public servants back to the office after a savage backlash. Speaking to 3AW on Tuesday, Coalition productivity and deregulation spokesman Andrew Bragg spruiked the benefits of hybrid working, saying it was a position he also held 'during the campaign'. He also referenced a recent Productivity Commission report which said a mix of working from home and office arrangements helped increase productivity and job satisfaction. 'In fact, most of the evidence comes down to support the proposition that working from home on a hybrid basis actually is good for people, good for the economy,' he said. 'As I say, we're into individual agency, we want to help families, we want to help individuals, and this is, in many cases, the best outcome for people.' Senator Bragg said there were benefits to the hybrid mode. 'There's a big benefit in getting around the water-cooler and having a debate or a discussion about some challenges the business is trying to solve, but when people want to do some deep work, deep thinking, deep reading, often that is better done at home, not in an open plan office,' he said. Speaking about his other portfolio overseeing housing and homelessness, Senator Bragg also said the government should prioritise repurposing office building into housing. 'We have a massive housing problem under this government. And, I would say that where a building can be repurposed into housing, that should be a top priority,' he said. According to the Property Council of Australia, vacancy rates across the CBD have remained steady between 13.6 to 13.7 per cent over the six months to January 2025. Non-CBD office vacancy rate stayed at 17.2 per cent.
Daily Mail
30-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Roxy Jacenko slams WFH and reveals why she thinks it is going to severely harm businesses: 'Lazy'
Roxy Jacenko has slammed working from home arrangements, describing it as a 'lazy' work mentality. Speaking at her 'In Conversation with Roxy Jacenko' exclusive event in Sydney on Friday, the PR dynamo said the key to a good business operation is interacting and networking - in person. 'We stopped picking up the phone, stopped going to things, stopped networking altogether. Zoom became an easy way of doing business,' Roxy told the crowd. 'It's a lazy way of doing business. The fact is, people want an experience, they want a memory. We need to start doing that networking again.' Roxy runs a PR firm and Ministry of Talent, a talent agency that represent influencers like Costeen Hatzi and reality TV star Ash Pollard. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the She believes that as working from home arrangement continue, workers are increasingly forgetting the importance of being around people. 'Everything has become digital, but people want the touch-and-feel experience. This is why I am doing this (seminar), there is an importance in being around people,' she explained. 'We lost that connection during Covid. We became lazy. Instead of going to a face-to-face meeting you would have a meeting over Zoom or Teams.' 'I get to an end result because I do it face-to-face. People want to be treated like real people, they want to belong. It's about community,' she added. 'We want to see a familiar face, to see a connection. So much more comes from face-to-face than staring at a screen. It's s**t on Zoom, it doesn't have the same connection.' She went on to describe a recent business meeting with an investment banker in Singapore. When she walked into the company's office there were no employees at their desks because everyone was working from home. She said it made her think twice about working with the company, and in turn, they lost her business. 'When you walk into our office, it's light and bright, there's orchards and music, There's a vibe!' she said. WFH became the norm for white-collar workers during the Covid lockdowns from 2020 - 2022, and has since become entrenched in many industries, with more than a third of Australians now doing their job at home. Some companies are pushing to get staff back into the office more often in the belief it is a more efficient way of working, but the Productivity Commission recently concluded the opposite. This is not the first time Roxy has slammed working from home. Back in November 2024, she scolded fellow business owner Jane Lu over her working from home policies at Showpo. She expressed her disapproval of the CEO's decision to have employees work in the office only two out of five days per week. Speaking on The Lazy CEO Podcast with Jane Lu, Roxy emphasised her belief that having staff present in the office five days a week would foster greater collaboration among the team. 'You've got a whole team out there. Get them here five days a week, not f**king two days a week,' she said. 'The only way to work the team is with the team. And I'm sorry, I don't believe in this work from home.' Jane acknowledged that when she had her team in the Showpo office full-time, she noticed that more ideas were 'bounced off' and exchanged among colleagues. 'Before Covid, I was more the same age as everyone. We were together five days. [There was] so much more collaboration,' she said. 'Everyone just presents ideas to me. There's no brainstorm.' 'Yeah, but that's your fault. You're the boss,' Roxy quipped. 'You're not together, you're not on the floor with them... only two days a week.' Roxy, who relocated her family to Singapore in 2023, confirmed in September she had made a return to publicity and Sydney two years after stepping down as director of Sweaty Betty.
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
It's OK to work from home to supervise gardeners, employment tribunal rules
The question of when working from home is acceptable – and when you really should be at an office desk – is becoming one of modern life's conundrums. An employment tribunal has suggested it may be OK to remain at home if you need to supervise workers, even if it means attending an important meeting remotely. The thorny issue surfaced during a hearing into the case of an IT director who requested to attend a meeting by video call because gardeners were doing work at his home. His boss was upset and questioned whether he was treating the meeting seriously, but the tribunal said his decision to stay at home did not constitute 'blameworthy' behaviour. The tribunal in Croydon, south London, heard that Ben Wicken had been scheduled to meet the managing director of the IT services company Akita Systems, Christophe Boudet, in person to attempt to resolve a disagreement. Wicken asked if he could attend a mediation meeting on Teams. The tribunal ruling said: 'The claimant [Wicken] called Mr Boudet and asked if they could move the meeting to a Teams meeting and change the time … as he needed to work from home for the rest of the week because he had work being done in the garden and so he would need to be there.' Boudet was said to be 'very disappointed' and told Wicken that it appeared he was not taking the process seriously, the tribunal was told. At a follow-up mediation meeting, an external human resources professional questioned Wicken's desire to prioritise working from home to 'sort out' his gardeners rather than going into the office for the one-to-one meeting. Initially, the tribunal heard, Wicken could not understand what he had done wrong but then conceded 'in hindsight' he should have communicated better with Boudet. Wicken felt 'attacked' at the meeting and told Boudet he thought he was 'undervalued' before breaking down in tears. The human resources professional later told him the directors of the company had lost trust and confidence in him, and he resigned the following month. The tribunal found fault in elements of the way Wicken's case had been handled and said it amounted to unfair dismissal. The employment judge Lisa Burge added that Wicken had not contributed to his dismissal. She said: 'The respondent [Akita] submits that the claimant admitted that his decision to prioritise arrangements with his gardener over attendance at a one-to-one mediation follow-up meeting was a mistake and that he refused to cooperate with the grievance investigation. 'However, these actions, in the context of the facts found and detailed, do not constitute 'culpable or blameworthy' conduct.'
