Where Mrs B4W works they have put in a work from home policy (where possible) and to enable this they have bought 200 Dell laptops at £700 a pop.
They are very security conscious and wont allow people to use there own and each new one has to be configured with their propriety software, the poor IT department are pulling their hair out at the moment.
probably not a unique situation so hardware suppliers could be doing alright out of this chaos.
Cheers,
Ben
..... for I have become the Jedi of flippers
" an extravagance is anything you buy that is of no earthly use to your wife "
Our company did this, small firm but spent £300k on full blown home set up kit for each employee. They reckon they were a month ahead of the pack and sent out a handful of Techies to raid Costco, Dixons etc for enough kit to facilitate. Have to say it's very welcome being able to log in as if I'm at the office rather than my old laptop.
great if you sell laptops.
My wife works from home two days per week, I soon noticed the heating and electricity bills go up, she is working from home full time at the moment.
Our sales for PoE and 4G products (routers/antenna) are ballistic at the moment. e.g. just sold 15Ks worth, today, to one customer for 200 workers and the guy's sending a van from 'the smoke' to collect the goods this afternoon.
We're JUST keeping up stock wise. Fortunately we have supplier orders already on the way or just arriving; good luck rather than good planning ;-)
Initial cost, sure, but if the vast majority of staff are working from home, the businesses will be saving money on lighting, power and heating, possibly telecomms costs too, so while it's a big one off hit, it's at least partly offset by reduced costs.
It will be interesting to see how many firms and employees want to stick with the telecommuting model when this current situation is over (or adapted to).
I suspect the old argument of poor managers that their staff will skive off if they're not monitored continuously will be comprehensively destroyed and firms will realise they can have a much more flexible staff by giving them some respect and responsibility.
I've worked from home for years and liaised with many others who do too and most office workers can work remotely.
Obviously, it doesn't work for ALL businesses or employees, but this might be a welcome shakeup for working practices going forward.
M
I keep mulling over the same thing - surely once businesses have evidence this stuff can really work, it must be super tempting to reduce those office costs (that is, assuming they survive this)
Lots of folk being forced to try something they’ve probably always written off in the past is good too
My personal experience so far is that things work just fine when everyone is either in the office or WFH, but some in some out is harder to make work
Knock on impact of a wider WFH society is then on house prices...commuting ease add less valuable and spare rooms add much more?
Long term work via a laptop is also against health and safety advice
The firm I work for don’t like it - they prefer docking stations and proper screens
It’s all to do with posture etc - you will always lean and bend more over a laptop they say
My “office” was my study for over 10 years (working for a global IT Company) and managed to do it with a laptop (with encryption key), propriety Wi-Fi and a mobile phone. They supplied the base software (including Sharepoint's) and voice conference numbers (which were later replaced with Skype For Business). More recently they rolled out apps for stuff like Travel Booking, Expenses, Time Book, and portals for stuff like Company News, HR, Finance.
I did however buy myself a nice Herman Miller Aeron Office Chair. Money well spent
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I just told my staff to strip their offices if they wanted - someone sent me a picture earlier of his work desk in his extension at home.
Other people I provided laptops for.
Nothing to stop you doing that if working regularly from home, in fact, you should (A good chair is important too, no slouching on the sofa)Originally Posted by Sweepinghand
M
Take a look at Amazon Workspaces, Zscaler, Office365 etc. Pretty much possible to reproduce the complete office IT suite, securely and often without buying new laptops for everyone (although most of our company run off laptops).
The Management culture in the UK is typically one of,they don't trust the workforce because they take advantage perhaps,admittedly some will and do.The Wifes Manager is sciving off having an affair with an office girl!.The work output WFH will be just as visible to the company,so I don't see any issues if you can WFH.Will your company give an allowance for your heating etc etc.
My Son in laws firm allows him to work from home on a Friday only!,he could work from home everyday,why doesn't he,because other staff that can't WFH have complained!.If they can't WFH then why complain!.This may change under the present situation because my Daughter,Him & our Granddaughter are now self isolating and he will now be WFH for the 14 days now.
There has been a gradual but continuous move to more flexible working over the last 10 years. Real estate is expensive, commuting time is often wasted time, attracting and retaining good employees is difficult. Allowing home work helps with all of these. It is not without its challenges but the current situation is going to accelerate the move to less office bound working styles. I think many companies will question their working practices.and will look at home working as more than just a short term business continuity solution.
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