UPDATE (20/5/23): Pope's Pandemic Prediction on Flexible Working Comes To Pass
Commenting on discussions on the future of work, and predictions that he made during the Pandemic, Andrew Pope says:
What is so remarkable is that this did not happen before the Pandemic. It should not have taken employers to have a Global Pandemic to listen to their workers. That this was necessary tells us a lot about employers.
Almost twenty years ago, when I was a union representative, I was advocating for flexible working in the IT industry, in the jobs that I and my fellow workers were doing. We already had remote working, yet were expected to go into the office. It was totally unnecessary and literally a waste of our time and of the company's time. That travel time could also be spent working.
Yet as shown in the ITV report, we still see resistance from dinosaurs like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Alan Sugar that seem to put their own property portfolios first, or bad employers that do not assess their workers on their output, rather than being fixated on their location or being able to watch over them.
Why do they need to be so overbearing on their workers and have to physically watch them?
It is completely unnecessary if they train and motivate their workers, and the work is rewarding.
If employers really need their workers to be on site, it should be for productivity reasons and legitimate reasons - not just that they do not trust their workers.
As I said then:
"If employers don't trust
their employees, why did they employ them in the first place and why are
they still employing them? Avenues exist for sorting out low
productivity employees, such as training, support and ultimately,
disciplinary and grievance procedures."
I am delighted that workers will now get flexible working rights and that it will be the law to be able to ask for them from day one."
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"The pandemic has meant many firms are now geared up to switch to remote working.According to official figures, 38% of workers now spend some of the week working from home."
But the impact of the strikes has still been significant. As Craig Beaumont of the Federation of Small Businesses said yesterday on BBC Breakfast, there is a split in two of the workforce - those that can do their job remotely have been able to adjust with the agreement of their employers, but those who cannot do their job remotely have been inconvenienced or cannot work at all.
There is a different impact and this may mean that the already lower paid suffer even more, during the cost-of-living crisis and inflation at record levels. And so the strikes are not only affected passengers, but workers outside the rail industry too.
Unlike many other local media in Somerset, we have strived to report on the impact of the train strikes and the Pandemic on Somerset residents and Somerset workers.
We have also given the Right of Reply to those on strike - the RMT union, and Conservative MPs as well as Somerset Labour and Somerset Lib Dems. So far, only the RMT union and local TUC have replied to our questions.
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In the original Think Piece below, written by our Leader Andrew Pope and published in July 2020, Andrew suggested that there would be long-term impacts of the Pandemic on businesses and employment.
This has turned out to be the case.
Andrew says:
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Andrew Pope
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"I was right to predict long-term changes. These can't be wished away by the Government, which is responsible for disruption, poverty, death and illness on a massive scale. Their job is to protect British citizens and British workers but they failed.
Instead, here in Somerset, the Somerset Tories and Tory Government have imposed an unnecessary and unwanted change to our local councils. And as we've shown on this website repeatedly, and when speaking at meetings, the local Tories at Somerset County Council failed to stand up against the Government.
David Fothergill and his Tory cronies are lickspittles of the worst kind - of the failure that is Boris Johnson.
Boris Johnson's Government seems to want to wish away the Pandemic, all the deaths and illnesses and disruption to businesses that happened when Johnson was supposed to be in charge as Prime Minister, and to forget that it ever happened. Johnson has no authority.
Johnson wants us to pretend that Covid-19 is just like the common cold. But it isn't. The Pandemic is not over, but Johnson wants to pretend that it is. I've heard it this week from Conservative councillors here in Somerset - and a Tory on Question Time - claiming that "Partygate" should be "got over". No, it should not. The audience at Question Time laughed, but they were angry at Boris Johnson's lies when he misled Parliament.
We know that Johnson's own staff at Downing Street, ignored the rules - ignored the law - that Johnson's own Government set and which MPs across the House of Commons supported. Then Boris Johnson lied about his own Downing Street staff and his own Government.
This is why Somerset Tories don't want to comment when I have challenged them to. They put their Party first and residents last.
Johnson does not seem to have any authority, even amongst his own staff. And he certainly has no authority amongst Somerset people.
So going back to my predictions...
The Think Piece that I wrote nearly two years ago, suggested that office work would reduce. It has massively reduced. I suggested that shops would close. As shown below, they have closed on a huge scale.
Now that infections are at record levels, the Financial Times is reporting "offices emptying fast". When will the Government help employers to make the changes that are permanent? Our country has been saddled with crippling debts for future generations to pay off but employment is struggling to adapt. The latest P & O Ferries debacle is just one example.
Some employers are taking the initiative, but this is no thanks to the Government who it is clear, are controlled by special interests instead of the national interest.
Whether Government wants to pretend or not, it is the British public and British employers, that have to try to adjust to long-term and permanent changes to employment in Britain that were caused by the Pandemic and the Government's slow response to the Pandemic.
Government should help, but it was more of a hindrance than a help. And it is still a hindrance by operating wishful thinking instead of dealing with reality.
This Government has shown that with Covid-19, as with pretty much anything else, the British Government is largely impotent or incompetent at dealing with the things that matter to British people.
Did Labour offer any realistic alternative nationally? No, it did not.
Did the Somerset Lib Dems offer any realistic alternative locally? No, it did not.
Once again, it's another case or Labour, Lib Dem or Tory, same old story."
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UPDATE (19/2/22): The BBC's Business Correspondent Emma Simpson has written an article showing that "more than 17,000 chain store shops closed last year".
As our Leader Andrew Pope suggested in the below article from July 2020, existing trends of closures have been continued and magnified during the Pandemic. The trends in Andrew's article have turned out to be correct.
The research mentioned in the BBC article was conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) and these results "reflect the rise of online shopping and the impact of the pandemic."
Andrew says:
"Somerset Independents wants to see Somerset thrive and if Somerset is to thrive, it is important that trends are recognised and opportunities for business are supported by local authorities and national Government.
We will continue to try to identify these opportunities so that we can meet the aims of Somerset Independents to stand up for residents and workers, and to promote businesses in Somerset.
We don't just say that we do this. It is written in our Constitution and we listen to act for residents, workers and businesses."
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People want to work from home more, and it seems that companies are responding to the requests. In the piece, employers say that they will allow their employees to choose, and a hybrid model of office and home working will allow this.
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UPDATE (16/8/20): The BBC reports on more research that shows that people want to work from home.
Coronavirus: Appetite grows for home working and local lockdowns
"King's College London (KCL) has been tracking attitudes during the pandemic.Results
from a survey reveal that 86% believe that, until a vaccine is found,
workers should be able to decide whether they returned to the office.
Experts said the results show people are prioritising public health over the economy and their social lives."
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"Staff should continue to work from home if they can."
Andrew Pope says:
"From anecdotal reports and survey evidence, it is clear that people want to carry on working from home. What will be interesting to see is how many of them continue to do so, and how many of them will return to offices. A lot of this will be to do with employment law and the power relationships between employers and employees. Employers and employees may tray to argue that there has been a variation of the employment contract through "custom and practice". And both sides may try specious arguments to make their case.
We will see how it pans out, but I believe that this is a pivotal moment that needs to be grasped to make positive lasting change that should have happened years ago."
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UPDATE (25/7/20): The i reports latest research showing that employers and employees agree with our suggestions that changes are needed and wanted.
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Co-Founder of Somerset Independents Andrew Pope writes...
Somerset Independents has already written about the changes to education that have been brought about by the Covid-19 virus, in our piece "Education Is Compulsory - School Is Not". Somerset residents have responded positively to our reminder that parents have the choice as to how to educate their children.
In contrast, vested interests such as national Government, local councils, headteachers, teachers and unions are struggling to cope with the realisation that they have to adjust or they will soon be redundant. They are desperately asserting that "school is best", even when responsible parents have seen from their own experiences that home education is the best for their children and for the bonding of their family. The limitations of schools pre-existed Covid-19 and they have been exposed and exacerbated by the National Emergency.
We believe that permanent changes to the workplace, and to retail, have also occurred. With reports of London's Oxford Street and Bond Street being as "dead as a dodo" today (a Friday), it is a fact that existing trends have been exacerbated.
Again, vested interests such as the British Retail Consortium, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are struggling to cope with the realisation that times have changed. Like in education, they regularly try to justify their own existence by carping on about their members being under threat. They are definitely right to be unsure about the health and safety of their members - at schools, in shops or in the workplace. But the problems with workplaces and retail have pre-existed Covid-19. Consumers have been ripped off for too long. Better ways exist.
For many years, employers and employees have had the ability to agree "flexible working". These changes were originally only for parents, but more and more workers have agreed to change their working practises. Done properly and working it out together, it can be a great situation for employer and employee - as long as higher productivity is the result. Workers feel that they are more productive, the latest surveys have shown, as reported by The i. Workers have suffered for too long. Productivity has struggled to reach the levels in other countries. Better ways exist.
With the advent of the Coronavirus and the lockdown, it has been essential for workers to use remote digital technologies and broadband to be able to carry on their work. As the New Statesman has pointed out, office-working has become home-working. And workers want it to continue. Yet there are vested interests that want to stop them - the Government thinks that they should travel to work, just to prop up cafes, restaurants and pubs that service workers. No, we say - the economy can change to be more efficient and productive.
For some, this has led to home-shirking, with employers not able to "supervise" them at home.
Others have been furloughed by their employers to be paid with Government money, but still forced to work. There has been fraud of the Government bailouts. More unintended consequences occur when legislation is rushed - despite the virus being known about for at least three months before the legislation. And then law enforcers get over-run. That is for another article...
Yet workers have realised that the commute is unnecessary. Commuting for hours every day can be better spent with loved ones, or being more productive. And travel money can be saved.
Workers have realised that the office is redundant. Not only is it unnecessary, it is unsafe and unhealthy.
Some employers worry that too much home-working leads to home-shirking, but shouldn't they evaluate their employees on productivity, not on the number of hours spent in the office? Surely productivity is better than presenteeism?
If employers don't trust their employees, why did they employ them in the first place and why are they still employing them? Avenues exist for sorting out low productivity employees, such as training, support and ultimately, disciplinary and grievance procedures.
Or do some unscrupulous employers know that their jobs are so unsatisfying, so unworthy of human attentions, that the only way to sustain them is to use a form of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon to surveil their workers? That is, the office as a Panopticon? If they do, it needs to stop and they need to think again.
Obviously, not all jobs can be done remotely. Farming, manufacturing, construction, hairdressing and more, have to be done in-person.
But with modern Information and Communications Technology (ICT), so many jobs can be done remotely. Hybrid arrangements such as hot-desking, and only essential in-person meetings, are possible and we would argue, desirable.
And as for shops being necessary? Are they really? Not any more.
The ONS said via the BBC:
"But the real growth has been in online sales. Online sales continue to go from strength to strength."
With better planning, decent broadband - especially in rural areas, the right delivery networks and home delivery with safe working practices for customers and staff, a new, more efficient and safer way of buying and selling is possible.
Not only is it possible, it is desirable for the reduction of energy usage, slashing the use of carbon fuels (e.g. as delivery company DPD are doing with their increased rollout of electric vehicles) and the reduction in natural resources.
There are better ways to live. The virus has forced them on us to a certain extent. But those existing malaises have been exposed and now the existing trends have been exacerbated.
And if there is a silver lining to the monstrous Covid-19 clouds, it is that the future of work and retail can change for the better. It's a massive opportunity, but it needs to be taken.
It requires Government to invest in making those changes, instead of artificially propping up already dying sectors of our economy, and their old and failed working practises.
Our country has been there before, in the 1970s and 1980s and it took decades of pain for our country to adjust. Let's learn from those mistakes NOW, with gradual adjustment and radical thinking.
Andrew Pope, M.Sc. Social Sciences (Soton)
