New working norms
How should the workplace evolve to suit your needs as the economy recovers?
Why the contribution is important
The Scottish Government has committed to engaging with the public and is interested to hear your thoughts on this topic.
by ScottishGovernment on October 05, 2020 at 08:56AM
Posted by Marion99 October 05, 2020 at 20:44
Noone in my six person team wants to work from the office ever again but my employer is deadset on cramming all 300 of its employees back back into one and a half floors as quickly as possible.
Can we provide incentives to employers who actively enable WFH for previous home-based staff?
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Posted by WKD234 October 05, 2020 at 21:02
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Posted by HappyPumpkin81 October 05, 2020 at 21:21
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Posted by Elfie October 05, 2020 at 22:34
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Posted by OliverGoodfellow October 06, 2020 at 09:15
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Posted by rmk October 06, 2020 at 10:35
Offices should still be available for those who prefer that environment, but I envisage big changes in these spaces, there is no reason to cram hundred into a building just so they can all sit at desks. Make these more flexible spaces, people will need to meet for work or to work together on projects at times which are better in person than remote, but "going into the office" should become based on a need or desire to do so to actually achieve something specific, not a default position for a daily commute.
Other European countries have introduced legislation which effectively gives employees the legal right to work from home where possible, and I'd support similar introduction here accompanies by incentives to business owners to encourage home working.
The "office" is a natural evolution of a factory, offices used to be colocated with factories or other production facilities, then we moved into more service-focussed industries but the concept of "going to work" was entrenched deeply in our culture that it continued and for a while this was necessary, offices had computers (homes did not), offices had switchboards and many telephone lines, spaces were needed to collaborate. These days almost everyone has the capabilities of most modern offices in their home, remote collaboration has made the traditional office obsolete for most day-to-day activities.
We will still need collaborative spaces to work, that's a given, but there's potential to redefine a typical "office job" for the better.
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Posted by APragmatist October 10, 2020 at 16:31
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Posted by gwenny33 October 10, 2020 at 17:02
This would help the environment, families and also disabled people who will be able to enter the workforce ( no need to worry about building access, health and safety).
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Posted by Sharontest1 October 11, 2020 at 14:07
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Posted by Erifit10 October 11, 2020 at 14:30
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Posted by mofirth October 11, 2020 at 15:29
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Posted by Alasdair_Deasbad October 11, 2020 at 18:53
Remote/home working has many well documented benefits for both the employee and employer such as promoting a healthier work/life balance, increased efficiency and a heightened sense of commitment and loyalty among a workforce. There are also many wider societal benefits. For example, increased levels of remote/home working would help hugely with challenges such as reducing traffic congestion and meeting climate change related emissions targets due to the concomitant reduction in private car commuting. It would also allow people not to be tied to residing in particular locations just because they need to be within commuting distance of an office. This in turn could encourage repopulation of rural localities which currently struggle to maintain populations of working age people.
It would be a hugely regressive step if we just went back to outdated and archaic models of traditional office based working after the experiences of this year. We should embrace the modern and progressive remote/home working approaches which - although we have been forced to adopt them for unusual reasons - have been shown to work so well for many employees.
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Posted by ScottishLady1 October 11, 2020 at 18:55
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