A government minister has floated the idea that civil servants who work from home should be paid less than those that work from the office.
So, should work from home staff take a pay cut?
Category: <span>Work from home</span>
Working from home got many people and business through the worst of the pandemic, but it seems the honeymoon is over as ‘unnamed’ government ministers are calling for home workers to be hit with pay cuts.
It’s quite obviously a cynical and blatant ploy to get people back into offices before the value of their property portfolios plummet. But it seems to be gaining some traction as Google has floated the idea of cutting the pay of any US employees who choose to work from home indefinitely.
Some commentators are even suggesting that travel costs are covered in salaries, and so a cut is fair (or fare) enough if employees aren’t commuting. Which is, of course, absolute nonsense – how many people really negotiate salary based upon the cost of their commute.
So, to try and cut through the bluster, we’ve put together a case in defence of working from home.
The school summer holidays are almost here, and if you thought working from home was tough while the kids were at school, wait until they’re off and need entertaining for weeks on end – the constant need for attention, coupled with the hot, sunny weather could make getting any work done all but impossible.
It always pays to plan in advance though, so here are six top tips to make sure the summer holidays aren’t a complete wash-out, at least as far as your work is concerned…
More of us are working from home than ever before. But as we slowly start getting back to normal after the pandemic, many of us will be returning to offices up and down the country, even if only on a part-time basis.
The pandemic has also seen a lot of job losses. This has, in turn, seen a growing number of people starting their own business.If you’ve started up on your own, you’ll be conscious of the need to keep overheads low – and working from home can work out a lot cheaper than renting out office space.
And having employees is no reason to rent out separate office space, you can simply kit them out with a laptop and a smartphone and some other essential tools for remote working and they’ll be able to do their job just as well wherever they are.
If you need to collaborate on anything you could arrange to meet up at your home office, a coffee shop or conduct a meeting via conference call.
There comes a point, however, when you outgrow your home office – the trouble is though, you may not be aware or willing to accept you have.
So here are five telltale signs you’ve outgrown your home office…
Working from home is great for productivity, it promotes a better work/life balance, and can it can even be a deal-breaker when it comes to hiring the best talent, but it’s also a great opportunity to get a load of other things done on company time – if we’re all completely honest about it, when we work from home we don’t spend every minute of our working day doing things for the business.
But does that necessarily mean we’re less productive when working from home? One in four bosses seem to think so, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Although many of us have had to work from home over the last 12 months or so, telecommuting isn’t for everyone though.
But telecommuting can be beneficial for both employees and employers. While employees get the benefit of flexible working and the improved work/life balance that brings, employers get a more motivated and productive workforce, with staff who are happier to work longer hours when the daily commute is taken out of the equation.
Many businesses are moving to a remote-first policy, which means more of us than ever will be working from home for the foreseeable future. Here are five top tips to make sure that, as an employer, you get the most of telecommuting.
Today is Earth Day – a global awareness day designed to make us all think about what we can do to be more energy efficient and eco-friendly. Here’s how to exactly that at your business premises…
For as long as any of us can remember, working from home was seen as a perk – a way to miss the grind of the daily commute and get a better work/life balance.
But since many of us have been forced to work from home exclusively during the pandemic, there seems to have been a growing number of people complaining that they’re fed up of working for home and long for a return to the office.
Even the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has weighed in and suggested workers might actually quit their jobs if they’re not allowed back to work. So, would you consider walking away from work if you were told that telecommuting was to become permanent?
If everything goes as planned, we’re currently in the final months of lockdown and we’ll be back to normal sometime in June. But even if our everyday lives get back to normal, there’s a good chance that the pandemic will have permanently changed the way many of us work.
Working from home was booming across the UK even before lockdown – around 40% of new companies registered are believed to be run from home.
Anyone who’s had to suddenly work from home for long periods will confirm that it can be tricky staying motivated. And that’s before you consider the amount of distractions there are around the home.
If you’re a home worker suffering from a severe lack of self-discipline, here are some top tips to keep motivated.
If you work from home, you’ll appreciate the need for a fast and reliable broadband connection – especially as the days of enjoying buffer-free internet access via the business broadband connection at your office seem like a lifetime ago.
But even if your broadband is up to speed, are you overpaying for it? A new study from Compare Fibre, the broadband comparison site, suggests millions of households could be overpaying by as much as £30 a month. Is your household one of them?