Regular commuters: What are your current plans and preferences after lockdown?

[whole diary]

[Jason]

It occurs to me that one asepct of of WAW (working at work) that's hard to replicate at a distance is joining a team and getting to know them and understand how they work. It's one thing for a team who have worked in one place to continue remotely, but bringing in someone new will be a very different experience. No doubt that's one reason (among many) why employers are not expecting the switch to WFH^▸ (Working From Home) to go as far as employees are.

My situation is somewhat unusual that I am the only member of my team based in Europe and that due to Covid I have never had chance to meet up face to face since I started.
I think with the accelerated move to enhanced voice and video calling due to the WFH needs precipitated by Covid that these lines are increasingly blurred.

[TaplowGreen]

A small sample size but significant in the context of most of those responding being rail enthusiasts or those with an interest in the subject.

I think most people are sensible and realistic enough to see the way the wind is blowing in respect of remote working however I must admit that I found that over half of those responding indicating that they foresee 2 or less days a week commuting to the office quite surprising - and even those may not commute by rail.

If those results are anything like replicated nationwide in reality, losing such a significant chunk of the customer base together with the revenue it brings must have implications and it'll be interesting to see what the future holds for those working on the railways, or for those seeking a career in that sector going forward.

[Bmblbzzz]

Presumably one of the changes is likely to be a more permanent though less extreme version of what was reported last summer, with trains to London running half empty and those on Cornish branch lines bursting at the seams. If the railways are able to adjust to this change in travel patterns we might end up with a system that better serves more people; less London focussed, more dispersed, more attention paid to smaller places and lines. This would probably apply even within London, with more services in outer parts of the city and less concentration on the City. But it does take railway a long time to respond to changes. And of course it might not end up like that at all.

[FenMan]

Slightly late to this subject, it's noticeable a fair number of messages in this thread seem to take WFH^▸ (Working From Home) for granted. Presumably these contributors have home offices or similar that were set up pre-COVID?

It would be interesting to learn the proportion of 20 to 30-somethings who have the privacy and space to WFH.

Pre-COVID, large numbers of young people were commuting to Reading from my local station, Blackwater. Given the goatee beard quotient and the abundance of trendy satchells/rucksacks, I'd hazard a guess many were heading for the big tech employers in the Thames Valley Business Park. I happen to know, via a friend who works in the local estate agent, that rentals in Blackwater have been at a premium for years due to this influx of young commuters. I wonder how many are in house shares that make WFH far more challenging?

[Sixty3Closure]

My employer has been doing regular surveys of staff and you're right in that there has been a noticeable split mainly by age on how happy people are to work from home and continue to do so.

Younger staff tend to be in house shares and don't have a home office and one of the most common questions we got was about DSE (Display Screen Equipment) and ergonomics. Broadband was also an issue if there's alot of people sharing. I think there's probably a social issue as well. Even though as some of the younger people in my team moved back in with parents and had a home office they missed the social aspects.
I had to work with an apprentice who hadn't been in a building or met any of the her team in person and I think that must be really difficult. Its very hard to judge office politics over a Zoom call. I've been with my employer for quite some years which is a big tick in my being comfortable WFH^▸ (Working From Home).

The type of work or role was also a big factor. As a middle manager with a meaningless title I tend to write and review reports and I can do that anywhere. The younger people tend to be more creative, need specialist hardware, work shifts etc and its much harder to do that remotely.

One of the other issues that came out of the surveys was some resentment from people who had to travel into buildings vs the (generally) middle managers who could skip the daily commute.