Jacob Rees Mogg is in the Office
Jacob Rees Mogg has made the front page of the Mail with an edict that civil servants should return to the office and has reportedly been leaving what he no doubt calls billet douxs for those he finds not at their desk.
Boris Johnson, whose attendance at offices seems, er variable, backs him while Nadine Dorries for some reason or other doesn’t. One is tempted to note, who cares? To actually check whether someone is an office or not and if they are not why not, requires a significant number of people with accompanying expense and probably a (most likely illegal) electronic monitoring of what they are up to.
Many employers tend to focus in 2022 on whether employees are getting the job done they are meant to be doing and appear when they are meant to for specific things either in person or virtually. Its often called hybrid working.
I started work in an office in 1979 and I still have a (very large) central London office (to myself) which I haven’t been in for a while. This does promote some minor issues that need to be dealt with from time to time but in general in 2022 is no problem at all. Very few are interested where I actually am as long as I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.
An obsession with being in the office for many is a very twentieth century idea if not a Victorian one, which may be why Rees Mogg has it. Offices are expensive to run and rarely occupied for more than part of any week. There are reasons for being in one. Collaborative work meetings may go better in person, particularly if lengthy. Meeting colleagues, socialising and informal chats may well be helpful, depending on whether those one wants to meet are actually there and available.
The world of on-line meetings via Zoom or Teams has changed the perspective somewhat. Why spend hours travelling to a relatively brief in person meeting for example, when it can be done virtually and the time saved used productively for other things?
Of course without trade union representation and organisation one can pontificate on the matter but ultimately the employer will determine without consultation or consent. That no doubt is what Rees Mogg has in mind, but he will find the world of work in 2022 is not so simple as he thinks.
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