Working from where?

I was wittering on about "working from home" on this blog just a few days ago. Since then something else has arisen - no, not just the expected reference to research about the harm it is doing but the "right" to do it.

Right? There is a right to work from home? Apparently there is and employers now need to take any request to do so into sympathetic consideration. Really? 

Obviously nurses and police and teachers and shop assistants and... well, you get the idea don't you? None of them can work from home. So why should some people in some roles be allowed to do it when others cannot do it? Isn't it treating people differently? Is it fair? Is it reasonable? 

Apparently "productivity has fallen off a cliff" and "the pundits are baffled" by this. I am not baffled at all. People working from home may have started out by doing more. They may have started doing so with the best of intentions. They may well believe that they are still doing as much as they once did. The reality is that they won't be. Even I, a long time work from home person, have to watch myself. I find I have to keep a constant list of what must be done. While I add things to it and cross things off as they are done I am also watching how much I have done. No, I am not a particularly organised person but I do know that others are relying on me in order to be able to do their jobs. That matters.

If you are one of our Commonwealth Public Servants I doubt very much you think about your work in the same way. It wouldn't be the same sort of work in your mind. Perhaps it isn't but unless you fill in that form and check those receipts it might mean someone does not get paid and that they in turn cannot pay their employees. Still these "public servants" now have the right to work from home if they so wish. I wonder how many more "the file is at the office" type excuses I am going to come across. They certainly increased during the pandemic - so much so in some cases I began to wonder if they had ever heard of computers.

And now there is yet another thing that needs to be taken into account, special consideration must be given to "indigenous" people who want days off for "cultural" and "connection to country" reasons. One of our aboriginal senators has found that ridiculous. I think she is right. There are so very few people this would genuinely impact they would be given a sympathetic hearing. By making an issue however there will be many more of  very limited aboriginal heritage who, wanting an extra day off, will take advantage of the ruling. No, I am not being "racist" in suggesting this. It is something the Fair Work Commission is conscious of but is powerless to prevent.  It simply flows on from the other decision. 

I sometimes go past the local coffee areas in our local shopping centre and observe the number of people who, instead of chatting quietly, are staring at the screen of their fancy phone - the one that does just about everything for them. Once the idea of having coffee with a friend or family member would have met the chance to talk with each other. Problems would be solved. Support would be given. I really do believe there is less of this than there once was. Humans need one another to survive and that means being connected with one another in many ways. People need to go back to the office for the sake of their mental health and the survival of us all.