XPost: alt.society.zeitgeist, alt.politics.economics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   Three years have passed since Boris Johnson solemnly ordered the first   
   lockdown, and offices across the country shut down.   
      
   Britons were told to work from home where possible, while companies   
   scrambled to reorganise themselves around a workforce primarily operating   
   from home offices, spare bedrooms and kitchen tables.   
      
   In London, panicked white-collar workers scurried to trains far from the   
   capital, their arms laden with laptops, monitors and keyboards. It’s hard   
   to imagine that what followed was only supposed to last a few weeks before   
   everything returned to normal.   
      
   But two years on from the last Covid restrictions, remote working still   
   remains. Economists now fear the WFH revolution is helping to fuel   
   Britain's productivity crisis.   
      
   Since January 2022, as much as a fifth of all jobs posted on job site Reed   
   were either remote or “hybrid” roles (where workers can split their time   
   between the office and home at their discretion).   
      
   For Generation Z, those born from 1997 onward, “hybrid” models of home and   
   office work are all they have ever known.   
      
   Today’s 23-year-olds finished university degrees from home; took final   
   exams in their bedrooms; and attended graduations over Zoom.   
      
   Now starting their first jobs, those same young people accept remote   
   working as the default model. Most, figures suggest, seem to prefer it. A   
   survey by Reed found just one in five preferred to be in the office full-   
   time.   
      
   'I want to leave work at 4pm and go open water swimming'   
   But a glance at social media site TikTok shows all is not well in the home   
   offices of twenty-somethings. Home working, or to be more accurate, home   
   shirking, is a common pastime.   
      
   In one video, a corporate lawyer tracks his dwindling enthusiasm for   
   keeping up appearances while working from home.   
      
   He begins in 2020, wearing a smart shirt and frantically typing. A year   
   later he’s ditched the shirt, starting work late, and in the following   
   year he’s working directly from his bed. By 2023, he’s simply on a stroll,   
   headphones on and coffee in hand – his laptop nowhere in sight.   
      
   @thatcorporatelawyer Me ???? flexible working #corporate #9to5 #worklife   
   #workfromhome #workcomedy #millennial #wfh #lawyer #corporatemillennial   
   #office #officelife ? Looney Tunes (Main Theme) - TV Sounds Unlimited   
   Another clip, by Canadian influencer Leo Haley, takes the form of a   
   roleplay in which she discusses staying late to work on a project, under   
   the proviso she will take the time back the following day.   
      
   Over a mock-up video call in which she plays both parts, Haley says to her   
   manager: “Yes, I’ve arranged to stay late so I can assist with the launch.   
   I will be ending work at 2 o’clock on Friday because I work a 40-hour week   
   and, since overtime isn’t available, I’ll just take the extra hours that   
   I’m working on Thursday and take the time off my day on Friday so it all   
   evens out.”   
      
   When her manager protests, she continues: “I do care about this project,   
   but I will not be donating my personal time to this company for free.   
   Toodaloo!”   
      
   @loewhaley Toodalooo #wfh #relatable #corporate #career #boundaries   
   #coworkers #work ? original sound - Laura   
   Videos tagged #wfh have been viewed close to 10 billion times, according   
   to the app. Clearly, many of the clips are tongue-in-cheek and not   
   intended to be taken seriously.   
      
   But a common thread begins to emerge watching them back-to-back – that of   
   young people showing a reluctance to work beyond what is expected of them,   
   particularly if they work from home. Much of the language is couched in   
   terms of “asserting boundaries”, “knowing your worth”, and other ideas of   
   self-care popular among Gen Z.   
      
   One 23-year-old, who spoke to The Telegraph anonymously, fearful of a   
   reaction from his employer, denies a refusal to work overtime is evidence   
   Gen Z is lazy.   
      
   He says: “I do what’s required at the moment because I’m of the view that,   
   if I’m on minimum wage, I’m not gonna work myself to the bone if I’m not   
   compensated for it.   
      
   “Frankly, if I don't get paid for overtime why should I be expected to   
   provide more of a service? It makes no sense to do that. Ultimately I have   
   the view that if I dropped dead my job vacancy would be up the next day.”   
      
   Lockdown, he argues, changed his perspective on working beyond the   
   boundaries of a job description. “I realised I didn’t want to be working   
   my life away achieving nothing,” he says.   
      
   “I don’t want to get to my death bed asking why at 22 I was working a   
   little more for a company and making a little extra money. I won’t   
   remember that – I’ll remember leaving at 4pm and going rock climbing and   
   open water swimming.”   
      
   @pasha m?ntal health day slayed ?? tr?uma is no ?? #comedy #genz ? Trauma   
   Slayed - Pasha Grozdov   
   But experts worry that economic disaster looms unless young people are   
   hauled back into the office – whether they like it or not. Liz Emerson, of   
   the Intergenerational Foundation, a think tank that champions young   
   people, argues young workers are missing out on crucial development by not   
   being in an office.   
      
   She says: “Reduced participation in company culture and not being seen in   
   the office may both hinder promotion for those staff members who choose to   
   work from home.   
      
   “Younger workers also risk losing out on training, mentoring, and career   
   progression if they are less visible in the office than their older   
   colleagues. Do not underestimate water-cooler moments and the unconscious   
   bias that comes from knowing one face over another.”   
      
   @chlo.stevens Which one are you? ?? Up your WFH game with the @flexispotuk   
   Black Friday sale! Use the link in my bio to make amazing savings between   
   25th-28th November (gifted) #FlexiSpot #FlexiSpotUK ? original sound -   
   Chlo   
   Andrew Monk, chief executive of investment firm VSA Capital, has long been   
   a critic of home-working and mandates employees to be in the office. He   
   says: “There are an awful lot of jobs where you need to be in the office   
   swapping ideas. Younger people need to be learning from their elders.”   
      
   Once bustling city economies, Mr Monk adds, will be choked by fewer   
   workers using trains and buying lunches locally. “You’re just at home   
   vegetating and losing your social life,” he says.   
      
   It is against this backdrop that productivity in Britain has slumped.   
   Historically, productivity, measured by how much output is produced for an   
   hour of work, has grown by about 2pc every year. But in the first three   
   months of 2023 output declined by 0.6pc compared to a year ago, and 1.4pc   
   when compared to the end of 2022, according to the Office for National   
   Statistics.   
      
   Britain lags behind on the global stage. Of all the G7 countries, the UK   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)