Off Topic Mental Health Discussion Thread

I do feel people returning to offices after eighteen months of working from home is going to be a huge challenge for many. I hope this isn't underestimated by employers.

 

Also hope that employers realise that some managers only want people in the office because they’re not very good managers, and they just find it easier to ‘manage’ how many hours people are at their desks rather than the outcomes they achieve from wherever they work.
Employers need to assess everyone as individuals regarding a return to see whether they need to fully, whether they can work from home partly, what changes have inevitably happened in their home life that will be impacted by a return, what health conditions (such as long covid) they have, what are they worried about, what they need to help them.

Anything less is **** and they’ll lose good people to better employers

 

Or maybe asses what some people actually do at work
I’m talking HR people particularly
And find they don’t actually need them

 

as long as they dont start monitoring time on forum websites , or im shafted this week

 

on a serious note about working from home though, i see both sides.
i understand people have proved they can do it , and can be just as productive if not more, less commuting , and all that.

but at the end of the day its only come about due to the pandemic , and now with the vaccines and world opening up , i dont think you can blame companies if they want things too return to how they where before and try to return too normal.
peoples circumstances should certainly be taken into condsideration and managed, and if an agreement can be worked out between both parties then great , but i hope we dont see a load of issues with people insisting they should be able to stay at home just cos they fancy it.

ive worked all the way through it on sites ,even when it was at its worst, apart from the odd day at home recently ( even got a 100 quid argos voucher for my heroic efforts) but most the management and higher level people have been sat in their kitchens having 10 teams meetings a day for the past 18 months.
today the CEO sent out an email that he wants everyone back to normal asap , and that he feels its detremental to the employees mental health to remain isolated at home and wants people to get back out there and stop hiding in their kitchens ( i may be paraphrasing that last bit ) and im all for it.
think a few of them have forgot about the actual challenges on site while sat at home and im pleased they are been told to get back to reality personally.

 

We do that regularly and specifically every time there’s a vacancy.
HR is important done well though

 

I think that there are opportunities for flexible working - something the old DTI brought in in the early naughties mainly to help part time staff. I go into my office 3 days a week, the same time as my boss as this means I dont get team calls every 2 or 3 minutes. I think at the end of the day, it is down to your job and want you are expected to do. I did read something that employers were looking at cutting the salary of staff that choose to work at home. Think that will bring a few discrimination cases. The last 18 months has been challenging in lots of different ways for lots of different people.

 

Th

There was a suggestion from some knobhead of a Govt politician that they should cut the wages of people who work from home because they don’t need to travel…but even this Govt realised he was a knobhead and ignored him (he’d not even considered the sliding scale of people who happen to live next to the office and those that don’t)
Having said that companies will try it on…supply and demand and all that ****

 

I've gone to work all the way through the pandemic and thats fine, but I was promised that because I earned only 3% more than those on furlough, I would get some reward for my efforts holding the fort, whilst the furloughed did whatever they liked for five months.

I'd get an extra five days holiday.

I got **** all of course.

 

Were the 5 days holidays promised in writing?

 

No it was just the managers word.

 

Ah…
Just take 5 days off and see what they say!

Anyway back on track it sounds crap but strangely your mental health might have been less affected due to being able to continue working. I did and I think it helped me tbh

 

To be honest, Den, I knew they wouldn't honour their word. They never do.

Oh and my mental health? Nothing can be done to save that

 

As I said to casual earlier
Record the ****s
Go into any meeting or any “informal chat”
With a manager and put your phone on record
They pick it all up mate
Saved my ****ing bacon I can tell you

 

There is an issue to be dealt with though. Picture the 2 blokes on similar salaries, one is required to be in the office and needs a £6k season ticket, the other can work from home, that's effectively a £10k pa pay rise. It will breed resentment, guaranted.

 

Why is it any different from 2 years ago when some people lived closer to their work than others?
You get paid for what you do when you get to work not how you get there, and what people pay to get to to work has always been massively different, from those who walk there to those who travel
Invented problem by people who want you to look at something else other than actual corruption
Don’t fall for it

 

I agree it wasn't an issue 2 years ago, people would try to negotiate their terms if they felt travelling would hit their pay too much, or they'd look for a different job or just accept the situation, it would have been their own decision. However the pandemic has forced these new conditions on people, it is likely to cause resentment unless it's addressed. I'm not sure where corruption fits into this debate?

 

Not sure who you work for where you get to negotiate your wages, but most people just get what they get.
My point was if it wasn’t an issue 2 years ago I don’t see why it’s an issue now?
I mentioned corruption because the first suggestion of what you say being an issue, that I’m aware of anyway, was by a Govt Minister. My assumption was it was to get that story in the news to take people’s attention away from things that are actually important

 

I've always believed workers should get paid right from when their alarm goes off at half four in the morning.

We're not doing it for fun you know

 

What about the ones who work afternoon/evening shifts
**** time for their alarm, poor sods