Maybe he could try living within his means instead of begging for more money. 
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He’s providing great evidence there for the benefits of term limits for elected representatives
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Also I doubt many GPs find the time to have the myriad of well paid side hustle directorships that MPs seem to manage
Fat chance is he struggling by on his base MP salary, that of course he has expenses paid for as well
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I’ve heard that some care workers in Sunderland are having a whip round to help him out 
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Tory’s trying their best to alienate and make sure they don’t get any votes in future.
Yes, this is always touted before they win again.
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Yep, they don’t even have to try really and they know it.
After five years of messing the country up, they just have to get one of their media mogul buddies to post a picture of their opposition eating a bacon sandwich awkwardly or something and they’ll win again.
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Whilst Dowden’s statement about “Getting off your Peletons” was probably not the right way to go about it, he does make a good point about civil servants.
“The ex-culture secretary said civil servants working from home should “lead by example” by returning to the office.”
No matter what your opinions on WFH, (and we won’t go into that argument) the Gov can’t expect people to return to their offices when the majority of their staff are doing just the opposite.
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when it comes to the multitude of crises with labour shortages, supply shortages and inflation though the PM keeps saying ‘this isn’t the governments business, private companies can find the solutions to all this’
So why is he also telling them where their staff should work?
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If the civil servants can do their work from home, why should they be expected to go in to the office and more than workers in the private sector?
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I guess they are worried about commercial property prices if people don’t go back to work.
Particularly because the Tory front bench owns quite a lot of commercial property.
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I’m not saying they should.
What I was saying is that the Gov can’t expect one sector to do one thing while another sector does something completely different.
If the Gov feel it’s safe for those in the private sector to return to the office, then as Dowden said, they should lead by example.
And if they’re not prepared to do that then stay out of it.
They are civil servants, not elected officials. Someone on a 15k a year admin role should be “leading by example”?
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But we aren’t going back to the office much, all our policies are enabling us to carry on WFH.
Also to add our managers have said they won’t police it, so we will carry on as is.
What Boris fails to realise is he wants cuts in office budgets in the civil service, the only option left is not paying for all that estate. So that’s what he’s getting, us staying at home.
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Besides, in the government don’t want to get involved in the energy problems because “the market can sort it out”, they can do the same here. Let everyone work where they want, and if there are any issues as a result - not to worry! The market can sort itself out.
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I’ve been into the office a couple of times recently, but can’t say I did anything I couldn’t have done at home - except for wasting time talking to colleagues!
Also because my employer had to give some staff IT equipment in March last year to WFH there’s a lack of computers which limits how many people can come in anyway.
Also we’ve got a tiny car park and if you can’t get a space you have to pay to park offsite which comes out your own pocket.
I’ve been WFH effectively and have no desire to go into the office very often for the reasons above. I’m far from alone.
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I wouldn’t trust the government on anything to do with health. They consistently say that they are “following the science” but frequently ignore SAGE when it suits them.
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I’m back in today, the talking to colleagues bit is very accurate. But so far;
- I’ve spent out money on food/drink when travelling, could have brought from home, but didn’t.
- Got up an hour earlier, did my commute and started work ~40mins after I would have done at home
- Got to commute home too obvs
- Cost to commute
- Can’t hear my teams call as easily/interrupting others in the office
- Not wearing my joggers/tshirt
- At a lull now, can’t do any washing up/house chores
- Can’t watch YouTube on my second screen while still working
WFH >
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A nice summary. Agree completely.
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I am much more productive when I’m in the office, if I’m honest. But I still prefer to work at home, so I just pretend I’m equally productive there
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It took me a while to adjust mentally to become productive at home… but I achieve as much now as I did in the office with no commute time. I was the last to keep going to the office but wouldn’t any more unless there was an emergency.
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