New Normal, My Arse!
Sean Moran CEng FCIWEM
Independent Expert Engineer: Chemical, Water and Environmental Engineering
I was watching California 2000 on the iPlayer the other night, and it reminded me of why I have such a low opinion of futurologists.
To be a little more current, do you remember back when we were on Covid lockdown, and all of those wishful thinking pundits were saying that the changes to our working patterns, hobbies, attitudes to work, high-maintenance pets and ecological footprints were nailed on now? That this was the new normal? Well, we didn't need to wait fifty odd years to find out how wrong they were.
Unless your employer can save a lot of money by selling their premises, you are probably getting your arm twisted now to get back into the office. The culture of presenteeism is just too strong, in the UK at least. Never mind the increased productivity of WFH. That's going back to being the privilege of more senior people, just as it was before.
The hills near me are still full of those who discovered walking in lockdown, but the pubs are open, and foreign holidays are available again, so I look forward to going back to days on the mountains where I don't see another soul before winter is out.
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And many of those overpriced lockdown puppies are finding themselves in doggy daycare, or being repeatedly downcycled, until they are eventually abandoned. One of my dogs was run over (whilst on a lead!) a year ago, and I couldn't get a rescue dog to replace her. I'd have no trouble now.
As far as our ecological footprint is concerned, it never contracted that much in lockdown anyway, as the internet uses lots of power. Carbon emissions rebounded quickly after lockdown. We are now using public transport less than we did before the pandemic. We aren't all cycling, we are driving in our cars to queue for fuel. Nothing has changed, because people haven't changed.
Here's my prediction-the new normal is going to be just like the old normal, but a bit crappier. That's been the trend for the whole of my life. At least back in the 60's we used to dream big. If you are going to be wrong, at least be interesting!
Chartered Chemical Engineer CEng MIChemE |Senior Process Engineer/Commissioning Engineer
3 年Those who work from home even feel they work 24hours a day and they need their lives back.
Retired Chemical Engineering Academic, no longer professionally active
3 年More than a hundred years ago, and most of the time since, the future was going to be flying cars. In which men would go to their office and dictate to women, while the wives stayed at home with robots to help them do the housework. In other words it is going to be the same but with technology. The move now is to continue to burn fossil fuel but get some magic tech to capture the CO2 from the environment, which is the old industrial practice of getting someone else to deal with the waste. (And ignoring the obvious thermodynamics.) Saudi Arabia must have an out, of course. And the USA will stop only when the profit margins decrease. But the poor countries should be stopped from developing their own fossil fuel resources. I have an old book on business ethics which says that actually banks and the like are ethical, because we saw what happened when they weren't. It goes on to explain that financial institutions would not do certain things, which are exactly what they did. And of course were baled out. And they will continue to act as they have always done. Part of the reason why they want employees back in the office, is a fixation on Command and Control as the only management system. Brexit has turned out to be the same but crappier. That's how it usually goes.
Process Safety Engineering Manager at bp
3 年Sean, It is way more complex than presenteeism and claim of increased productivity of WFH. Engineering is a team game. We are incredibly segmented by discipline, mechanical, electrical, process and then even further say mechanical static, rotating, pipeline engineers. Those interdisciplinary discussions both formal and adhoc are really important. It can work using WFH but this has been supported by the contacts and relationships we made prior to the March 2020 lockdown. As we move to more WFH and multiple locations, we need to get better and introduce mechanisms to build these relationships, but spending some time in the office is a great (and far more social) way to do this. Finally, WFH is super easy, roll out of bed, breakfast and in-front of your screen (perhaps video off still eating your breakfast ??) BUT is WFH how we want to spend the rest of our careers? We spend a huge amount of our waking hours working. Is say, 90% now going to be in front of a screen, interspersed with video calls with 2D colleagues. For those who have returned to the office (and like human contact) it has been really lovely to see 3D colleagues, have those corridor chats, go for lunch, ask quick questions, overhear a conversation that is relevant to my work, find out they are working on something new that I should know about.
Railway Systems Engineering Manager | Farming in the blood.
3 年Well said.
Project Manager
3 年Too right Sean. If people were really serious about the climate, they would have already been producing study's showing the environmental benefits of a huge reduction in commuting and office heating/cooling. Even better it is really simple to show that office space is dead money for any company, but since many depend on it for investments they are quick to avoid this issue and insist people come sit in their cramped offices. But maybe Sean, professionals like you and I don't understand that some of the less professional employees out there aren't as productive working from home and need to be in those conditions