“Yo ho, my boys,” said Fezziwig. “No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer. Let’s have the shutters up,” cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, “before a man can say Jack Robinson.”Shutters open again on January 3.
Legal & General commissioned a poll of more than 2,000 full-time office workers in the UK to explore attitudes towards remote and hybrid working. Headline findings include:
• Manchester is the remote working capital of the UK - Mancunians work an average of 53 days remotely
• A majority (59%) of workers say that they’re more productive working in the office than at home
• 75% of UK workers work from home at least some of the time
• 2.5 is the mean numbers of days per week that people say they work remotely
• 4% of peole say they’re allowed to be fully remote every day if they wish
Breaking this down, 71% of arts and culture employees say they already enjoyed high levels of remote working pre-pandemic (a figure that has since risen to 88% today). But in industries like IT and finance/accounting, the change has been dramatic, 58% of these workers were remote before COVID, compared to 90% today.
Accounting and financial services was the sector where employees were most likely to say they preferred working from home compared to the office, 40% as against 18%.
Some other interesting findings:
• Men are slightly more likely to work remotely than women, although 34% of women prefer WFH, compared to 28% of men
• In general, older workers are less likely to work from home. The survey found that 85% of 18–24-year-olds work from home at least sometimes, compared to 62% of people aged over 55.
• Attitudes differ across the generations people under 45 are more likely to prefer home working to the office, but among 45-54-year-olds, the preference is 34% (office) versus 31% (home). For those aged over 55, this rises to 43% (office) and 28% (home).
Overall, 60% of workers say they would consider changing their role if they had to return to the office full-time. When asked why, 73 % say that it saves time on commuting, a similar number that it saves money, 71% that it's more flexible, and 50% that it offers fewer distractions.
Image courtesy Garden Affairs
-------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
An interesting survey of shedworkers and other homeworkers from Lakeland reveals that 85% of people working from home enjoy at least a 30 minute lunchtime break, just over a third taking a full hour (quite right, though that figure drops to 9% when it comes to people under 25).
A sandwich is still king, although 81% of those in the 25-34 age group cook something warm (either from scratch or leftovers). Here are the full results:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some interesting research into Christmas parties and working from home out recently. Various reports suggest, optimistically, that bookings for office Christmas parties are on the up and indeed past 2019 levels pre-lockdowns.
Yet small business advice centre Startups reports increasing numbers of people turning down the change to attend the traditional Christmas knees-up, and recruitment experts Walters People UK have described this drop in interest as a "tide change", its figures indicating that 48% of UK employees will simply not go to one and another fifth will just go briefly then nip back home. A third said it was just too much effort.
This has all been attribued to the growth of flexible working and a growing lack of interest in in-person social work events. We'd be interested to hear from shedworkers what their arrangements are this year and if they've changed from previous years. Maybe it's time to resurrect the Shedworkers' Christmas Party we ran some years ago?
--------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officers are urging beach hut owners to protect themselves against burglary following a reported break-in at beach huts in Greatstone, Kent.
Kent Police say they were alerted to a report that padlocks had been cut from beach huts next to the car park on Coast Drive and are appealing to anyone who may be able to offer information about the incident to contact them.
Detective Inspector James Wyles from Folkestone’s Community Safety Unit, said: "While
investigating the recent reports, we’d like to remind beach hut owners
to review their security and take simple steps to protect against
burglars and vandals now that the summer season is over."
He also offered some advice for beach hut owners:
• Do not leave anything of value in your hut at any time
• Lock doors and windows with at least one good quality closed-shackle padlock
• Consider fitting a bar lock and/or a monitored alarm
• Security-mark property left in your hut and keep a photographic record of any items
• Do not leave flammable substances or matches in your hut
• Do not leave materials around the hut which could be used to commit crime, such as tools
-------------------------------------------------------
