2020 Retailers in trouble thread
Discussion
jakesmith said:
I haven’t heard of / read about one office based business that is planning a large scale return to the office.
At the moment the directive is to work from home if you can. As it has been imposed, businesses have been forced to change. Due to family life, work life balance, environmental concerns, property prices, commuting capacity and cost etc it is a natural move in keeping with the pressures of the times.
And lots of businesses that feared it before have been forced to pilot it and change their ways.
Now the businesses and staff have a taste of what I’ve been enjoying for the last 5 years with a job that gives me back 3 hours of my time a day and £5k-£10k gross salary, plus saves the office overhead, the Valid question over supervision is a hurdle they have already had to adapt to.
I think the genie is out of the bottle personally and we’ll see a seismic change now.
We most certainly are going back to the office. The challenge with WFH is accommodating change. We’ve got along just fine in the last few months because it is the same people doing roughly the same jobs. Every one knows what to do, it doesn’t matter where people are working. I’m now trying to spin up a new team to design something that is rather hard. WFH is sodding impossible - I’d guess we are about 30% as productive. We’re all desperate to get back in the office and into rooms with white boards so that we can actually do some work together.At the moment the directive is to work from home if you can. As it has been imposed, businesses have been forced to change. Due to family life, work life balance, environmental concerns, property prices, commuting capacity and cost etc it is a natural move in keeping with the pressures of the times.
And lots of businesses that feared it before have been forced to pilot it and change their ways.
Now the businesses and staff have a taste of what I’ve been enjoying for the last 5 years with a job that gives me back 3 hours of my time a day and £5k-£10k gross salary, plus saves the office overhead, the Valid question over supervision is a hurdle they have already had to adapt to.
I think the genie is out of the bottle personally and we’ll see a seismic change now.
rxe said:
We most certainly are going back to the office. The challenge with WFH is accommodating change. We’ve got along just fine in the last few months because it is the same people doing roughly the same jobs. Every one knows what to do, it doesn’t matter where people are working. I’m now trying to spin up a new team to design something that is rather hard. WFH is sodding impossible - I’d guess we are about 30% as productive. We’re all desperate to get back in the office and into rooms with white boards so that we can actually do some work together.
Sounds energetic dude. smashing said:
dantournay said:
And it gets worse than that. I've got one client with a 40,000 sqft office which I designed for 600 staff.
We've worked out they only need office space for 65 permanent on a daily basis with a similar number dropping in once or twice a week. They've found it to be a revelation how many can actually WFH and as a consequence, potentially require less than half of their building moving forward. The other more worrying suggestion is that all the WFH staff roles could be shifted to the far east where salaries are a third of what they are here.
They are far from my only client saying this.
Yep, recession coming, costs need to be cut....We've worked out they only need office space for 65 permanent on a daily basis with a similar number dropping in once or twice a week. They've found it to be a revelation how many can actually WFH and as a consequence, potentially require less than half of their building moving forward. The other more worrying suggestion is that all the WFH staff roles could be shifted to the far east where salaries are a third of what they are here.
They are far from my only client saying this.
rxe said:
We most certainly are going back to the office. The challenge with WFH is accommodating change. We’ve got along just fine in the last few months because it is the same people doing roughly the same jobs. Every one knows what to do, it doesn’t matter where people are working. I’m now trying to spin up a new team to design something that is rather hard. WFH is sodding impossible - I’d guess we are about 30% as productive. We’re all desperate to get back in the office and into rooms with white boards so that we can actually do some work together.
Collaborative design / R&D?Earthdweller said:
anonymoususer said:
Rymans seem to be taking a "leisurely approach" to reopening some stores
Schools are shut, offices are shut, can’t imagine there’s much demand for stationary at the moment 
Anecdotal musings from the past week.
Called into the metro centre on Monday as it's close to work, managed to use a barber with only a short wait. The centre itself was far less busy than an ordinary weekday. Lots of empty or not open units, a big miss is the lack of opportunity to sit down and grab a coffee or meal which I'd assume will keep folk away.
On Wednesday I popped to Northallerton. It was market day and the high street was absolutely packed with people. It's hard to know if businesses are taking money but it was like nothing had changed save for a couple of queues outside smaller shops.
It was quite a contrast between a large consumer palace which felt like it was struggling to stay alive and a bustling market town serving a rural community.
Called into the metro centre on Monday as it's close to work, managed to use a barber with only a short wait. The centre itself was far less busy than an ordinary weekday. Lots of empty or not open units, a big miss is the lack of opportunity to sit down and grab a coffee or meal which I'd assume will keep folk away.
On Wednesday I popped to Northallerton. It was market day and the high street was absolutely packed with people. It's hard to know if businesses are taking money but it was like nothing had changed save for a couple of queues outside smaller shops.
It was quite a contrast between a large consumer palace which felt like it was struggling to stay alive and a bustling market town serving a rural community.
hyphen said:
Only 543 pharmacist jobs. Which might give you a clue about how few of us would wish to work for them.... 
Salmonofdoubt said:
Anecdotal musings from the past week.
Called into the metro centre on Monday as it's close to work, managed to use a barber with only a short wait. The centre itself was far less busy than an ordinary weekday. Lots of empty or not open units, a big miss is the lack of opportunity to sit down and grab a coffee or meal which I'd assume will keep folk away.
On Wednesday I popped to Northallerton. It was market day and the high street was absolutely packed with people. It's hard to know if businesses are taking money but it was like nothing had changed save for a couple of queues outside smaller shops.
It was quite a contrast between a large consumer palace which felt like it was struggling to stay alive and a bustling market town serving a rural community.
I saw this today- in Wells, a tiny city, you wouldn’t k ow anything was happening out of ordinary- everything very busyCalled into the metro centre on Monday as it's close to work, managed to use a barber with only a short wait. The centre itself was far less busy than an ordinary weekday. Lots of empty or not open units, a big miss is the lack of opportunity to sit down and grab a coffee or meal which I'd assume will keep folk away.
On Wednesday I popped to Northallerton. It was market day and the high street was absolutely packed with people. It's hard to know if businesses are taking money but it was like nothing had changed save for a couple of queues outside smaller shops.
It was quite a contrast between a large consumer palace which felt like it was struggling to stay alive and a bustling market town serving a rural community.
In Bath later a smallish city but much bigger than Wells with Apple stores and such like- much less busy
jakesmith said:
I saw this today- in Wells, a tiny city, you wouldn’t k ow anything was happening out of ordinary- everything very busy
In Bath later a smallish city but much bigger than Wells with Apple stores and such like- much less busy
Bath is pretty reliant on international tourism, like York?In Bath later a smallish city but much bigger than Wells with Apple stores and such like- much less busy
The stuff about the markets above is because (imo) there is no queueing or being ordered around. You can go, browse around in peace and no-one seems to care for the CV19 scaremongering so it just works. Plenty of money changing hands. 'Proper' shops (excluding supermarkets which are a necessary evil so can't be compared) are largely dead because people quite rightly refuse to comply with their silly rules and dumb one-way systems, constant scrubbing your hands with questionable lotions every 5cm, having to wear a muzzle and being barked at by some dragon for having the temerity to come within 1.99m of someone.
Edited by Lemming Train on Sunday 12th July 19:50
Lemming Train said:
The stuff about the markets above is because (imo) there is no queueing or being ordered around. You can go, browse around in peace and no-one seems to care for the CV19 scaremongering so it just works. Plenty of money changing hands. 'Proper' shops (excluding supermarkets which are a necessary evil so can't be compared) are largely dead because people quite rightly refuse to comply with their silly rules and dumb one-way systems, constant scrubbing your hands with questionable lotions every 5cm, having to wear a muzzle and being barked at by some dragon for having the temerity to come within 1.99cm of someone.
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