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| IS COMMUTING PRODUCTIVE OR EXHAUSTING? |
"GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY COMMUTE." Silly, deluded economists and a few
crazed employers want to ban Telework. The majority of new teleworkers want to
continue working from home.
1st Sept 2020: The inept UK Government is now reversing Covid-19 protection advice and is urging 27 million workers to quit Working From Home (WFH) - and to crowd into city centres. The crazy HMG rationale is that petrol-stations, buses, trains, taxis, coffee-shops, nail-bars, pubs, clubs, gyms and other amusements are going bust. Not least - the owners of city-offices and commercial premises have no tenants and are in danger of going bust; unless they change the use of their buildings. Of equal weight, BP, Shell and Big-Oil sales have slumped and new car sales are decimated. UK private pensions rely heavily on dividends from the oil companies.
LETTER TO THE GUARDIAN: You report that empty city centres need revival by re-establishing commuting, for example “Pret a Manger cuts almost 2,900 UK jobs as sales plummet” – Guardian on-line 27th August 20. Interviewees on BBC News today argue on one-hand for Pret, who seek full restoration of commuting – on the other for Siemens, who will rotate 75% who remain working at home and 25% in socially distanced offices. Both need to redesign their business-models. To re-boot the UK economy and create real lasting wealth, we ought to immediately convert the empty town and city premises to homes. We calculate that from 3 to 6 million new, quality homes, with telework-offices, can be created in locations already fully supplied with roads and services infrastructure; quickly creating several million building jobs. The idea that millions of ex-commuters, now happy home-workers, must waste 2 to 4 hours a day and spend an average of £5,000 a year on travel, to rescue city sandwich shops – costing the workers another £5 per day, is very bad economics. The thousands of new High-Street-Village-Families will ultimately compensate the landlords, and restore Pret and similar service businesses – without the polluting, costly, gruelling commute. The national energy savings will be immense.
Noel Hodson, Oxford
6 Sep 2019 - Britain's commuters spend 492 days travelling to work at a cost of £37,399 over a
lifetime; One in five (21%) say their commute has become less reliable over ... While many may dream of rolling out of bed and straight into the ..
Of the 27 million workers across England, by far the most usual method of travel to
work is car; just 11% take the train. However, the share of train
commuters has been increasing and is up from 1.6 million commuters (7%) in 2002 to 2.9 million at the last count.
The sane alternative to herding 27 million workers into towns and cities
is to convert the empty buildings into homes. From 3 million to 6 million
new homes, with telework offices, can be built. There are of course,
two sides to every story.
How working from home affects family life
Letters
Noel Hodson and his wife Pauline Hodson point out that WFH has its downsides
‘It is extraordinary that in an editorial exploring the pros and cons
of working from home, there is no mention of the impact on family
life,’ writes Pauline Hodson.
The Guardian Published onThu 6 Aug 2020 18.07 BST
Re your editorial (The Guardian view on empty offices: goodbye to all that?, 4 August) on working from home (WFH), in 1992 I was commissioned to
edit the book Teleworking Explained, which analysed and promoted the socioeconomics of not commuting to
work. My colleagues have just formed a new group, Resurrect the High
Street, to encourage the conversion of redundant commercial premises
into 6 million new, good-quality family homes with home-telework
offices or local hubs. From 30 years of case studies, we can assure
employers, employees, families, economists, environmentalists and
property owners that WFH is hugely beneficial and will, as you say,
transform all nations and clean the air we breathe.
On the downsides, the most neglected issue is family life. My wife
wrote Bringing Home the Electronic Baby in 1995, a psychotherapeutic analysis of the impact on families.
One of the earliest recorded cases was of the Canadian prime minister
Lester Pearson retiring to work from home. His wife, Maryon, commented:
“I married him for better or worse. I didn’t marry him for lunch.” The
disruption to the home is significant. As you say, we must plan for the
downsides.
Noel Hodson
Oxford
Noel Hodson
Oxford
• It is extraordinary that in an editorial exploring the pros and cons
of working from home, there is no mention of the impact on family
life.
As a couple psychotherapist I see the stress, albeit currently on
Skype, that working from home can bring. It seems that neither employers
nor employees – nor indeed the couple – take seriously the impact of
this new way of working. Consequently no allowances or understanding are
brought to the new situation and therefore no emotional or psychological
help is sought or given.
I believe there is an unconscious expectation that “home”, just like
“mother”, can cope with anything and adapt to any situation, but just
like the office our home is an institution, and as such has a culture
and adheres to a set of rules and boundaries that need to be recognised
and taken into account if working from home is to be successful.
Pauline Hodson
Oxford
Pauline Hodson
Oxford
PRACTICAL WAYS FORWARD:
Directors: Ayes Amewudah, Marcus Hickman, Noel Hodson, Richard
Nissen
Piltdown Lodge, Piltdown, East Sussex, TN22 3XJ
Cellphone: 07957 622545 E-mail: ayes@amuda.co.uk
RESURRECT OUR HIGH-STREETS - DISCUSSION PAPER
The current situation:
COVID-19: May 2020. The decline in people travelling to work and for
family or leisure reasons is not yet calculated but common experience
and business statistics indicate that passenger traffic this month is
80% less that before Covid-19 took hold.
The reports of traffic reducing to 1955 levels indicate a fall from 32
million licenced cars travelling 7,500 miles per annum to about to 4.5
million cars. Similar reductions have occurred on buses and trains.
People are staying at home – and where possible are working at and from
home. (WFH)
From our own statistics of workers who stay at home and use IT to
communicate, prior to the Covid-19 Lockdown about 4 million worked in
this way at home “on any one workday”. Approximately 12.5% of the
workforce. Add to that the 80% of new WFH (work-from-home) workers,
which is 16 million, and it totals 28.5 million in voluntary or imposed
lockdown. Only 4 to 5 million continue to commute daily.
Many business leaders have commented publicly on the positive benefits
that they have seen, first-hand, as a result of their employees having
to work from home during this lockdown. In particular, the well
documented productivity gains which can be achieved from flexible
working.
Employees have been able to effectively demonstrate to their managers
that they can effectively manage the additional conflicts, which can
arise when working at home, and deliver on time.
The current lockdown has also placed a further strain on the following
two challenges which government, local authorities, town planners and
property developers are trying to address:
Provide more affordable homes inside and outside of cities.
Restore High Street shopping and office work.
We see opportunities to collate and analyse the positives from the
current lockdown and use them to rapidly rethink new ways to address
these.
The opportunity
As lockdown lifts, over the coming weeks, employers will have to meet
the additional cost of implementing new government guidelines to
minimise the spread of COVID 19 in the workplace. For example: It is
likely we will see the implementation of one-way stairways, deployment
of automatic hand sanitising dispensers and flexible working hours or
and staff rotation. These costs could be minimised with the
implementation of better facilities for employees to live and work
locally in a more flexible way or live closer to the office.
The average space occupied by a worker is 250 sq. feet. (23.2 sq.
metres.) Multiply by 28.5 million WFH workers = 7,125,000,000 sq. feet
or 7.1 Bn sq. ft (662 million sq. metres). Average family homes
plus a telework office are about 1,200 sq. ft; so, the recently emptied
space is equivalent to 6 million home units. This space is already built
– requiring conversion to create homes+offices.
Empty retail property could be converted into homes (with a home
office) and into Telework hubs, which would have all the additional
facilities that employees need to work efficiently away from their main
offices. For example, they should have telephone integration and
reception facilities, meeting rooms, workstations, state of the art
video conferencing suits, postal and courier services mass printing,
photocopying and IT support services. The work-space in these hubs could
be rented by businesses on a per hour, per week or per year basis.
Employees could live locally and work flexibly between their home, local
high street hub, or any other high street hub and their main central
office.
Sample Some of the benefits for to central government and local
authorities:
High streets would be rejuvenated, as a result of the additional homes
and the telework hubs – enabling increases in spending locally.
Increased local jobs (building and maintaining homes – plus eateries)
and a greater sense of community.
More homes could be provided rapidly in town centres, through the
conversion, using less green belt land.
Cleaner air in the towns and cities – promoting better health.
Less commuting and congestion -
Our goal
The International Flexible Working Association aims to provide
government and local authorities with well-researched proposals that
will enable developers to convert local empty business units into family
homes – with telework offices and telework hubs in High Streets. This
will provide millions of new homes, revive High Streets day and night
with families, support the businesses that remain – and, of equal
importance, greatly reduce commuting and business-travel – and
preserving the clean and quiet environment we are all now aware of due
to the Covid-19 Lockdown.
What we are seeking
The founder members of The International Flexible Working Association
will apply for government grants to make a public study, to create
partnerships with builders, architects, planners and finance houses, and
to put the economic facts to mortgage companies for the provision of
family finance to buy the converted homes. We have development companies
standing by to deliver action-this-day.
Our credentials
The International Flexible Working Association’s founder members:
Richard Nissen invented the concept of the Virtual Office in the 1990s,
set up a consultancy and has lectured on how to implement working from
home and flexible working. Advances in technology have made
this much easier. However, the importance of the human dimension
covering how employees feel and how to manage remote workers to promote
productivity is paramount.
Data used to compile this initial discussion document:
#Pre-Covid: ONS : Of the 32.6 million in employment, around 1.7
million people reported working mainly from home, with around 4.0
million working from home in the week prior to being interviewed for
the survey.
#UK road travel falls to 1955 levels as Covid-19 lockdown takes
hold
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/10/more-than-2400-shops-lost-from-top-500-uk-high-streets-in-2018-banks
# Almost 2,500 shops lost from top 500 UK high streets in 2018
# Almost 2,500 shops lost from top 500 UK high streets in 2018
#About 24,000 commercial properties in London that could be turned
into temporary housing or workspaces are lying empty, a report has
found.
#Workers eye a permanent flight from the office
Appendix – For further qualification and or quantification as part of
the study
Obvious benefits of lock down
CLEAN AIR – Bringing major health savings.
QUIET STREETS – Bringing major health savings
FEW if any ROAD ACCIDENTS – Bringing major health benefits.
REWILDING – Eco-benefits are widely reported.
PRODUCTIVITY – All sensible studies from 1992 to date show 10% to 50%
increases.
BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE – 70% 50% want to continue WFH.
MASSIVE SAVINGS OF FUEL AND VEHICLE IMPORTS.
NEW HOMES – About 3 million new-homes if 50% remain WFH.
VIGOROUS HIGH STREET ECONOMIES – Due to family residents.
LOW COMMUTING – Most work at home.
How to keep the benefits
CONVERT THE EMPTY SPACE This work will employ millions of UK
residents.
CHANGE BUSINESS RATES TO DOMESTIC RATES. Business rate are failing
fast.
MORTGAGES FOR THE NEW UNITS. Occupied by productive workers.
TREAT THE CONVERTED AREAS AS TELEVILLGES. Pleasant family areas.
INVITE TOP ARCHITECTS & DEVELOPERS. E.g. Docklands developments.
RESTORE BANK BRANCHES and POST OFFICES – Village scale
LATEST BROADBAND – Empower and fund BT. Ensure global reach.
EDUCATE ALL THE WORKERS IN I.T. Empower the Open University.
CONCLUSION
The benefits of clean-air and quiet-streets will be maintained. High
Streets will be useful day and night, seven days a week. The blight of
deserted town and city centres after 6pm and massive commuting crowds
will vanish. The new WFH residents will create and support local
facilities and local commerce.
