Why growth might not be enough for Labour – politicalbetting.com

PB should ban me from discussing any topic where I am completely right, and eventually shown to be right, and right in a way which horribly annoys everyone else, not least because I gloat, endlessly, about my clairvoyant genius

Unfortunately, going forward, this will restrict me to commentary about Liz Truss and What3Words. And even What3Words is looking a bit perkier than it was

"Ulaanbaatar, December 24, 2024 /MONTSAME/. The National Emergency Management Agency of Mongolia has launched a campaign to encourage every citizen to install the location-identifying What3Words application on their mobile phones. As part of this effort, the app has been installed and implemented for use on the mobile phones of 636,876 Mongolian citizens across 21 aimags of Mongolia."

Selebian said:

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Taz said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

So the governments pick for Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration lives full time in Finland.....there is hybrid working and then there is hybrid working. Will he be doing his inspections via Zoom?

That's nothing

The Deputy Town Centre Manager for Windsor, Eton and Ascot resides in Kyrgyzstan.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20250201/281771339880704

We really are being taken for mugs.

We should do what Trump has done. You work for the government? You work in the office. End of

To be fair, the Police have been making progress on that.

Just need to get the ‘work’ bit cracked now.

I am honestly not sure why some governments and companies have an obsession over office instead of home working. It’s cheaper, more efficient and more versatile. A hybrid insistence of at least two days a week onsite I could understand, but not this ‘five days or the sack’ rubbish.

If you don’t have the systems and methodologies in place, working from home is less efficient.

I work in a bank, where we use Citrix - I can log in from any computer or iPad on the planet and have my fully supported, backed up machine in front of me.

We use Jira, which divides work into traceable chunks, with responsibility for each. Testing is a combination of automation and other people checking the results of the ticket.

We have fully integrated phone/video/desktop sharing.

In short, the tools, technologies and management methods mean that, for us, location is not relevant, 95% of the time.

Exactly. Good management/motivated workforce and the right tech and it works fine.

I worked for a couple of years, early career, in the Civil Service (well, executive agency of). Absolutely in office - we were barred from accessing anything off site. We actually clocked in and out as part of a flexitime scheme - you only had to be present in certain core hours, but there were limits on how far over hours or under hours you could get. We also had targets, but they were easily achievable if you were vaguely competent and there were no real incentives for going beyond them* and so it was common enough to find people reading books at their desks waiting for the required flexi-time to pass. My boss spent a lot of time speccing his Cayenne.

In my present job, there are no core hours. No one tracks my time. But, given I'm research funded, I'll be out of a job if I don't keep delivering projects and winning new funding. No one cares if I can deliver my job in 30 hours a week (I can't!) and chill the rest of the time - and why should they?

*a bonus system, giving say setting the target to an assumed FTE work rate and then giving a bonus of half the pro-rated extra time equivalent of work over target would clearly have made financial sense, rather than paying people to do nothing.

You do realise that at least half of my daily happiness derives from laughing at people who have to go to the fucking office? Every morning, nine to five?

Just because you don't like the daily drudgery, why should I have to suffer and be less exultant?

GET BACK TO WORK, DRONE

viewcode said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

What’s the best AI software to ask this question

‘Why do people who have been told to stop posting on PB about AI keep on posting on PB about AI? Is it because they are really low IQ?’

I don't know the answer to that question. Would you like me to ask CoPilot?

(runs, hides under table)

You can discuss it, everybody except Leon can discuss AI.

AnneJGP said:

Selebian said:

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Taz said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

So the governments pick for Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration lives full time in Finland.....there is hybrid working and then there is hybrid working. Will he be doing his inspections via Zoom?

That's nothing

The Deputy Town Centre Manager for Windsor, Eton and Ascot resides in Kyrgyzstan.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20250201/281771339880704

We really are being taken for mugs.

We should do what Trump has done. You work for the government? You work in the office. End of

To be fair, the Police have been making progress on that.

Just need to get the ‘work’ bit cracked now.

I am honestly not sure why some governments and companies have an obsession over office instead of home working. It’s cheaper, more efficient and more versatile. A hybrid insistence of at least two days a week onsite I could understand, but not this ‘five days or the sack’ rubbish.

If you don’t have the systems and methodologies in place, working from home is less efficient.

I work in a bank, where we use Citrix - I can log in from any computer or iPad on the planet and have my fully supported, backed up machine in front of me.

We use Jira, which divides work into traceable chunks, with responsibility for each. Testing is a combination of automation and other people checking the results of the ticket.

We have fully integrated phone/video/desktop sharing.

In short, the tools, technologies and management methods mean that, for us, location is not relevant, 95% of the time.

Exactly. Good management/motivated workforce and the right tech and it works fine.

I worked for a couple of years, early career, in the Civil Service (well, executive agency of). Absolutely in office - we were barred from accessing anything off site. We actually clocked in and out as part of a flexitime scheme - you only had to be present in certain core hours, but there were limits on how far over hours or under hours you could get. We also had targets, but they were easily achievable if you were vaguely competent and there were no real incentives for going beyond them* and so it was common enough to find people reading books at their desks waiting for the required flexi-time to pass. My boss spent a lot of time speccing his Cayenne.

In my present job, there are no core hours. No one tracks my time. But, given I'm research funded, I'll be out of a job if I don't keep delivering projects and winning new funding. No one cares if I can deliver my job in 30 hours a week (I can't!) and chill the rest of the time - and why should they?

*a bonus system, giving say setting the target to an assumed FTE work rate and then giving a bonus of half the pro-rated extra time equivalent of work over target would clearly have made financial sense, rather than paying people to do nothing.

I'm long past my sell-by date where paid work is concerned and I struggle to understand how any new entrant learns anything. A lot of my learning came through overhearing colleagues discussing their work problems.

Good morning, everyone.

Good mornin @AnneJGP . I am in a similar situation and have to learn new things rapidly. I find that CoPilot or Perplexity.ai are useful in getting me over the bridge. I'm surprised by how much I have come to rely on it and I don't consult my books at home half as often as I did.

Taz said:

Leon said:

Taz said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

So the governments pick for Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration lives full time in Finland.....there is hybrid working and then there is hybrid working. Will he be doing his inspections via Zoom?

That's nothing

The Deputy Town Centre Manager for Windsor, Eton and Ascot resides in Kyrgyzstan.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20250201/281771339880704

We really are being taken for mugs.

We should do what Trump has done. You work for the government? You work in the office. End of

Rayner and co will be giving them 4 day 32 hour weeks for the same pay and work where you like.

Labour won't do anything to upset its client vote.

That would do more for levelling up than any amount of silly initiatives over city centres in the North of England.

It's obvious that governments have been far too obsessed with GDP growth. Even more concerned with it that GDP per capita. Maximise growth and then we can invest in helf and educashon.

No government seems to know how to bring about a productive economy outside the south east of England. I don't have much idea now either. I was speaking yesterday to an academic computer scientist who said his skills are now completely redundant and has no idea what he'll do next. We could at least try to do the obvious stuff like price stability in the property market. No doubt there will be a few idiots who think property price growth leading to GDP growth will mean Britain is back.

Good video from the Speccy on how so much of the UK is owned by the USA. I know a fair number of right wing 'patriots' are quite happy with this state of affairs. We've had plenty of debate about a cashless economy. Personally I'm happy enough with the fact that every time I pay for something a small fee goes to American tech companies but other people obviously feel differently.

Leon said:

PB should ban me from discussing any topic where I am completely right, and eventually shown to be right, and right in a way which horribly annoys everyone else, not least because I gloat, endlessly, about my clairvoyant genius

Unfortunately, going forward, this will restrict me to commentary about Liz Truss and What3Words. And even What3Words is looking a bit perkier than it was

"Ulaanbaatar, December 24, 2024 /MONTSAME/. The National Emergency Management Agency of Mongolia has launched a campaign to encourage every citizen to install the location-identifying What3Words application on their mobile phones. As part of this effort, the app has been installed and implemented for use on the mobile phones of 636,876 Mongolian citizens across 21 aimags of Mongolia."

I have to admit that we used W3W a fair bit on my watch in my old job. Leicestershire is a very rural county and W3W enabled us to locate incidents quickly if it was used. Even just using it to identify to other crews where we were using a portable pump for water or the best gate to use to traverse a field was a regular occurrence. I haven't used it since, but a couple of Amazon drivers said it helps if people in remote or complex locations put it in their delivery notes on orders.

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Selebian said:

AnneJGP said:

Selebian said:

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Taz said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

So the governments pick for Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration lives full time in Finland.....there is hybrid working and then there is hybrid working. Will he be doing his inspections via Zoom?

That's nothing

The Deputy Town Centre Manager for Windsor, Eton and Ascot resides in Kyrgyzstan.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20250201/281771339880704

We really are being taken for mugs.

We should do what Trump has done. You work for the government? You work in the office. End of

To be fair, the Police have been making progress on that.

Just need to get the ‘work’ bit cracked now.

I am honestly not sure why some governments and companies have an obsession over office instead of home working. It’s cheaper, more efficient and more versatile. A hybrid insistence of at least two days a week onsite I could understand, but not this ‘five days or the sack’ rubbish.

If you don’t have the systems and methodologies in place, working from home is less efficient.

I work in a bank, where we use Citrix - I can log in from any computer or iPad on the planet and have my fully supported, backed up machine in front of me.

We use Jira, which divides work into traceable chunks, with responsibility for each. Testing is a combination of automation and other people checking the results of the ticket.

We have fully integrated phone/video/desktop sharing.

In short, the tools, technologies and management methods mean that, for us, location is not relevant, 95% of the time.

Exactly. Good management/motivated workforce and the right tech and it works fine.

I worked for a couple of years, early career, in the Civil Service (well, executive agency of). Absolutely in office - we were barred from accessing anything off site. We actually clocked in and out as part of a flexitime scheme - you only had to be present in certain core hours, but there were limits on how far over hours or under hours you could get. We also had targets, but they were easily achievable if you were vaguely competent and there were no real incentives for going beyond them* and so it was common enough to find people reading books at their desks waiting for the required flexi-time to pass. My boss spent a lot of time speccing his Cayenne.

In my present job, there are no core hours. No one tracks my time. But, given I'm research funded, I'll be out of a job if I don't keep delivering projects and winning new funding. No one cares if I can deliver my job in 30 hours a week (I can't!) and chill the rest of the time - and why should they?

*a bonus system, giving say setting the target to an assumed FTE work rate and then giving a bonus of half the pro-rated extra time equivalent of work over target would clearly have made financial sense, rather than paying people to do nothing.

I'm long past my sell-by date where paid work is concerned and I struggle to understand how any new entrant learns anything. A lot of my learning came through overhearing colleagues discussing their work problems.

Good morning, everyone.

In many jobs, a hybrid approach where there are one or two days per week when everyone in the team is in is very helpful, I think. Managers may also need to be in more, particularly with new starters.

That said, it can be done to an extent - there are remote-only businesses (I've worked for a couple) and I did take on two new post-docs during Covid when we weren't in the office. But you have to be far more proactive about the learning and encourage informal chats for people to catch up and ask those little questions (during Covid we had a 'tea break' that everyone except the management team went to twice a week - also one with seniors, but definitely some without to enable asking the stupid questions/bitching about management etc )

Essentially, as Malmesbury and others have said, you have to be proactive and plan for what's needed, not just leave people to it.

My environments were almost all the being left to it kind. Perhaps that was just par for the course in those days.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/fbi-uncovers-secret-jfk-assassination-files-as-task-force-head-believes-there-were-two-shooters/ar-AA1yRr0K?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=94e4d12fc4a6401da1d3465435468d42&ei=17

Interesting. I've always thought it very strange that none of the doctors treating Kennedy in the emergency room thought he'd been shot from behind. Could one of his own people have accidentally shot him in the melee?

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

AnneJGP said:

Selebian said:

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Taz said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

So the governments pick for Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration lives full time in Finland.....there is hybrid working and then there is hybrid working. Will he be doing his inspections via Zoom?

That's nothing

The Deputy Town Centre Manager for Windsor, Eton and Ascot resides in Kyrgyzstan.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20250201/281771339880704

We really are being taken for mugs.

We should do what Trump has done. You work for the government? You work in the office. End of

To be fair, the Police have been making progress on that.

Just need to get the ‘work’ bit cracked now.

I am honestly not sure why some governments and companies have an obsession over office instead of home working. It’s cheaper, more efficient and more versatile. A hybrid insistence of at least two days a week onsite I could understand, but not this ‘five days or the sack’ rubbish.

If you don’t have the systems and methodologies in place, working from home is less efficient.

I work in a bank, where we use Citrix - I can log in from any computer or iPad on the planet and have my fully supported, backed up machine in front of me.

We use Jira, which divides work into traceable chunks, with responsibility for each. Testing is a combination of automation and other people checking the results of the ticket.

We have fully integrated phone/video/desktop sharing.

In short, the tools, technologies and management methods mean that, for us, location is not relevant, 95% of the time.

Exactly. Good management/motivated workforce and the right tech and it works fine.

I worked for a couple of years, early career, in the Civil Service (well, executive agency of). Absolutely in office - we were barred from accessing anything off site. We actually clocked in and out as part of a flexitime scheme - you only had to be present in certain core hours, but there were limits on how far over hours or under hours you could get. We also had targets, but they were easily achievable if you were vaguely competent and there were no real incentives for going beyond them* and so it was common enough to find people reading books at their desks waiting for the required flexi-time to pass. My boss spent a lot of time speccing his Cayenne.

In my present job, there are no core hours. No one tracks my time. But, given I'm research funded, I'll be out of a job if I don't keep delivering projects and winning new funding. No one cares if I can deliver my job in 30 hours a week (I can't!) and chill the rest of the time - and why should they?

*a bonus system, giving say setting the target to an assumed FTE work rate and then giving a bonus of half the pro-rated extra time equivalent of work over target would clearly have made financial sense, rather than paying people to do nothing.

I'm long past my sell-by date where paid work is concerned and I struggle to understand how any new entrant learns anything. A lot of my learning came through overhearing colleagues discussing their work problems.

Good morning, everyone.

It took us a while to figure it out with our last cohort of apprentices.

And it turns out that "working with a colleague on things; watching them, discussing, then having a supervised go yourself, backed up by time dedicated to personal reading and experimenting" is still the best way to do things for most people. And works just as well remotely as it does in person for any job which can actually be done remotely - i.e. most admin and knowledge work. And, the act of teaching as the mentor is still a great way for experienced people to learn new stuff.

Apprenticeships - working well for at least 2,000 years.

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

God, you’re suck an oik.

Why haven’t you got a tax adviser or wealth manager at a bank say like C Hoare & Co* to do this for you?

*If you want remain unsophisticated try Coutts.

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Certificate of residence? I think that can only be done in the office. But yeah it's been a nightmare backlog.

Yes! Cert of residence

Are you actually in HMRC? Can you go round to this person's house and hit them with a cucumber until they get this done?!

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Perhaps you find yourself in the hands of people who think everything is an algorithm from which escape is impossible?

Leon said:

PB should ban me from discussing any topic where I am completely right, and eventually shown to be right, and right in a way which horribly annoys everyone else, not least because I gloat, endlessly, about my clairvoyant genius

Unfortunately, going forward, this will restrict me to commentary about Liz Truss and What3Words. And even What3Words is looking a bit perkier than it was

"Ulaanbaatar, December 24, 2024 /MONTSAME/. The National Emergency Management Agency of Mongolia has launched a campaign to encourage every citizen to install the location-identifying What3Words application on their mobile phones. As part of this effort, the app has been installed and implemented for use on the mobile phones of 636,876 Mongolian citizens across 21 aimags of Mongolia."

There's still time for Truss to surprise on the upside. Keeping a low profile for a bit would suffice.

algarkirk said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Perhaps you find yourself in the hands of people who think everything is an algorithm from which escape is impossible?

Only two things in life are certain, death and nurses. Sorry, taxes

File under: FFS

"No.10 now accepts gloomy talked killed growth. And there's a hope talking up growth can reverse that. But you can't whilst simultaneously introducing £40 billion of tax rises. It's like jumping on a slide carrying an elephant, then trying to turn half way down and crawl back up."

https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/1889632710932500888

Leon said:

twistedfirestopper3 said:

Leon said:

PB should ban me from discussing any topic where I am completely right, and eventually shown to be right, and right in a way which horribly annoys everyone else, not least because I gloat, endlessly, about my clairvoyant genius

Unfortunately, going forward, this will restrict me to commentary about Liz Truss and What3Words. And even What3Words is looking a bit perkier than it was

"Ulaanbaatar, December 24, 2024 /MONTSAME/. The National Emergency Management Agency of Mongolia has launched a campaign to encourage every citizen to install the location-identifying What3Words application on their mobile phones. As part of this effort, the app has been installed and implemented for use on the mobile phones of 636,876 Mongolian citizens across 21 aimags of Mongolia."

I have to admit that we used W3W a fair bit on my watch in my old job. Leicestershire is a very rural county and W3W enabled us to locate incidents quickly if it was used. Even just using it to identify to other crews where we were using a portable pump for water or the best gate to use to traverse a field was a regular occurrence. I haven't used it since, but a couple of Amazon drivers said it helps if people in remote or complex locations put it in their delivery notes on orders.

W3W remains a brilliant idea, yet one that induces weird hatred in a lot of people. I've no idea why!

I have noticed it creeping up in Asia. It was used a fair bit on my recent trip to Japan, by the tour company but also by Japanese authorities. Far from ubiquitous, but noticeable

Anyone who has wrestled with Japanese addresses will understand why

It it also - slowly - gaining traction in Australia and Canada. But W3W the company is still losing money, albeit less, and may still go bust, which is a shame as the concept is pure and beautiful. We shall see

The problem was that it is badly implemented.

If they had bothered to read the history of commercial codes, it would have been much, much better.

98% of that stuff was about making information, for transmission, more compact *and* more reliable. See checksums, non contiguous code names etc..

carnforth said:

(Extracts of) Transcripts of the Gwynne WhatsApp, per Guido:

https://order-order.com/2025/02/12/full-gwynne-group-chat-leaked-drag-queen-thornberry-and-rayner-a-waste-of-time/

Those chats aren't too dissimilar to the stuff we[1] get up to on here. Should we be concerned?

[1] Not me, obvs. I'm perfect, and I will instruct my lawyer accordingly...

algarkirk said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Perhaps you find yourself in the hands of people who think everything is an algorithm from which escape is impossible?

The hollowing out of HMRC’s back office is one of the stupidest, most self-defeating pieces of government policy over the last decade, and one that accelerated since Covid.

From 2015 onwards there’s been a programme to close over 100 local tax offices, but without any increase in call centre staff. Since 2021 customer service staff have been cut by a further 5,000 following cuts almost every year since the financial crisis.

Last year the headcount went down yet again, by nearly 4%.

There are some hopeful noises coming out of government but the problem is HMRC desperately wants to automate and go more online and self-serve, but risks creating a service gap in the meantime.

viewcode said:

carnforth said:

(Extracts of) Transcripts of the Gwynne WhatsApp, per Guido:

https://order-order.com/2025/02/12/full-gwynne-group-chat-leaked-drag-queen-thornberry-and-rayner-a-waste-of-time/

Those chats aren't too dissimilar to the stuff we[1] get up to on here. Should we be concerned?

[1] Not me, obvs. I'm perfect, and I will instruct my lawyer accordingly...

Oh, I think we hold politicians to far too high a standard on this stuff. But I also love gossip. File me under hypocrite.

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Certificate of residence? I think that can only be done in the office. But yeah it's been a nightmare backlog.

Yes! Cert of residence

Are you actually in HMRC? Can you go round to this person's house and hit them with a cucumber until they get this done?!

I do work there. As it relates to foreign income it has to be signed off by a technical officer. And the stamping has to be done in the office.

That is basically what the senior manager admitted to me. The person on the line genuinely wants to help me but the fucking stamp is in the fucking office, and this stupid REDACTED REDACTED, sorry, lovely hard-working tax person, is siting having a biccie in her semi in Newent, she's not at the office

Insane. This is causing havoc for lots of people. This is why people like me, who actually generate tax for the UK, from foreigners, think What is the point, and also: GO BACK TO THE OFFICE

Apparently the only other country as bad as us (for tax chaos) is Germany, I have no idea why

Leon said:

MoonRabbit said:

Leon said:

PB should ban me from discussing any topic where I am completely right, and eventually shown to be right, and right in a way which horribly annoys everyone else, not least because I gloat, endlessly, about my clairvoyant genius

Unfortunately, going forward, this will restrict me to commentary about Liz Truss and What3Words. And even What3Words is looking a bit perkier than it was

"Ulaanbaatar, December 24, 2024 /MONTSAME/. The National Emergency Management Agency of Mongolia has launched a campaign to encourage every citizen to install the location-identifying What3Words application on their mobile phones. As part of this effort, the app has been installed and implemented for use on the mobile phones of 636,876 Mongolian citizens across 21 aimags of Mongolia."

🥱 Of course, it's always about you, isn't it

Are you planning to stop off for R&R at the White Lotus Resort, Koh Samui, Thailand anytime soon? We’d all love you to check in there, and eventually check out ☺️

Is it actually on Koh Samui? Do we know which hotel they are using?

Koh Samui is a tragic example of a beautiful Thai island almost completely destroyed by tourism and over-development. I can remember when it was virtually all dirt roads and fishing villages. A friend was there recently and says there is now not a single beach, as far as he knows, without a 7/11

So, in a sense, the White Lotus people chose well, given the darker themes of the series

“The Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui stood in as the hotel” it’s says

https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/the-white-lotus-filming-locations-season-3-thailand

Yes it’s the Dark themes which make it. Money. Sex. Death. And as you just touched on, appropriation of the mystical nice bits of religion and foreign travel without the effort of living the real life. Is it just me or is naturalistic portrayals of characters trapped by their social circumstances and biological predispositions, so Zolaesque?

Taz said:

A great day recently for democracy as servant of the people, Sue Gray was inducted, or whatever the term is, into the House of Lords.

It is great to get rid of all those hereditary peers who only got into the Lords based on their connections and we are replacing them with a true meritocracy.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sue-gray-takes-seat-in-lords-after-leaving-government-amid-internal-rows/ar-AA1yPowR?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=b4c2b78735244708c61e355723293265&ei=18

Based increasingly to your service and loyalty to the government of the day

HYUFD said:

Interesting that Reform voters want to tax non doms more than Conservative voters, even if less than Labour, LD and Green voters do.

Suggesting that while Reform voters are more socially conservative and anti immigration than Tory voters, they are less economically Thatcherite than Conservative voters too

If REF do ever get into government, they will collapse quickly under the weight of their own contradictions, IMO.

Well that and they will probably be absolutely useless.

Leon said:

File under: FFS

"No.10 now accepts gloomy talked killed growth. And there's a hope talking up growth can reverse that. But you can't whilst simultaneously introducing £40 billion of tax rises. It's like jumping on a slide carrying an elephant, then trying to turn half way down and crawl back up."

https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/1889632710932500888

This cannot be true as those of us who said this, like @Alanbrooke and myself, were attacked by labour party fanboys for picking on labour and being mean to them for broaching it.

GIN1138 said:

HYUFD said:

Interesting that Reform voters want to tax non doms more than Conservative voters, even if less than Labour, LD and Green voters do.

Suggesting that while Reform voters are more socially conservative and anti immigration than Tory voters, they are less economically Thatcherite than Conservative voters too

If REF do ever get into government, they will collapse quickly under the weight of their own contradictions, IMO.

Well that and they will probably be absolutely useless.

They might, but it might not matter much electorally , if we're seeing the right wing version of Labour replacing the Liberals.

Sean_F said:

GIN1138 said:

HYUFD said:

Interesting that Reform voters want to tax non doms more than Conservative voters, even if less than Labour, LD and Green voters do.

Suggesting that while Reform voters are more socially conservative and anti immigration than Tory voters, they are less economically Thatcherite than Conservative voters too

If REF do ever get into government, they will collapse quickly under the weight of their own contradictions, IMO.

Well that and they will probably be absolutely useless.

They might, but it might not matter much electorally , if we're seeing the right wing version of Labour replacing the Liberals.

Then though Labour became the party of the newly enfranchised working class while the Conservatives were the party of most of the middle class to counter Labour so the LDs go squeezed.

Now though it is increasingly Reform the party of the working class while Labour is increasingly the party of the Remain voting middle class (along with the LDs) and the public sector.

So the Conservatives are left with the Leave voting middle class and pensioners

Taz said:

A great day recently for democracy as servant of the people, Sue Gray was inducted, or whatever the term is, into the House of Lords.

It is great to get rid of all those hereditary peers who only got into the Lords based on their connections and we are replacing them with a true meritocracy.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sue-gray-takes-seat-in-lords-after-leaving-government-amid-internal-rows/ar-AA1yPowR?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=b4c2b78735244708c61e355723293265&ei=18

As I see it her ennoblement was down to writing some nasty stuff about Boris Johnson.

Pretty sure most of PB will be following her into Ermine on that basis...

HYUFD said:

Taz said:

A great day recently for democracy as servant of the people, Sue Gray was inducted, or whatever the term is, into the House of Lords.

It is great to get rid of all those hereditary peers who only got into the Lords based on their connections and we are replacing them with a true meritocracy.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sue-gray-takes-seat-in-lords-after-leaving-government-amid-internal-rows/ar-AA1yPowR?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=b4c2b78735244708c61e355723293265&ei=18

Based increasingly to your service and loyalty to the government of the day

Which is no real improvement on the hereditary peers.

Selebian said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Certificate of residence? I think that can only be done in the office. But yeah it's been a nightmare backlog.

Yes! Cert of residence

Are you actually in HMRC? Can you go round to this person's house and hit them with a cucumber until they get this done?!

I do work there. As it relates to foreign income it has to be signed off by a technical officer. And the stamping has to be done in the office.

That is basically what the senior manager admitted to me. The person on the line genuinely wants to help me but the fucking stamp is in the fucking office, and this stupid REDACTED REDACTED, sorry, lovely hard-working tax person, is siting having a biccie in her semi in Newent, she's not at the office

Insane. This is causing havoc for lots of people. This is why people like me, who actually generate tax for the UK, from foreigners, think What is the point, and also: GO BACK TO THE OFFICE

Apparently the only other country as bad as us (for tax chaos) is Germany, I have no idea why

The thing there seems to be to remove the physical stamp from the process. Somewhat archaic even if everyone was in the office - I would guess it wouldn't be hard to fake so it's either meaningless or is backed up by e.g. online records in which case it's obsolete.

Briefly delurking (too much work and not been well), I suspect the actual problem is the need to authenticate the original document from the foreign tax authorities, and one has to be in the office to have access to eg samples of what these documents should look like, and a special phone that can make international calls. The physical stamp on the original document thus marking the end of this authentication process.

Today was the day that we discovered the US government still holds most of its historic personnel records on paper in a literal Iron Mountain.

Taz said:

HYUFD said:

Taz said:

A great day recently for democracy as servant of the people, Sue Gray was inducted, or whatever the term is, into the House of Lords.

It is great to get rid of all those hereditary peers who only got into the Lords based on their connections and we are replacing them with a true meritocracy.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sue-gray-takes-seat-in-lords-after-leaving-government-amid-internal-rows/ar-AA1yPowR?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=b4c2b78735244708c61e355723293265&ei=18

Based increasingly to your service and loyalty to the government of the day

Which is no real improvement on the hereditary peers.

Indeed arguably worse

HYUFD said:

Taz said:

HYUFD said:

Taz said:

A great day recently for democracy as servant of the people, Sue Gray was inducted, or whatever the term is, into the House of Lords.

It is great to get rid of all those hereditary peers who only got into the Lords based on their connections and we are replacing them with a true meritocracy.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sue-gray-takes-seat-in-lords-after-leaving-government-amid-internal-rows/ar-AA1yPowR?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=b4c2b78735244708c61e355723293265&ei=18

Based increasingly to your service and loyalty to the government of the day

Which is no real improvement on the hereditary peers.

Indeed arguably worse

#NU10K vs #Old10K

HYUFD said:

Sean_F said:

GIN1138 said:

HYUFD said:

Interesting that Reform voters want to tax non doms more than Conservative voters, even if less than Labour, LD and Green voters do.

Suggesting that while Reform voters are more socially conservative and anti immigration than Tory voters, they are less economically Thatcherite than Conservative voters too

If REF do ever get into government, they will collapse quickly under the weight of their own contradictions, IMO.

Well that and they will probably be absolutely useless.

They might, but it might not matter much electorally , if we're seeing the right wing version of Labour replacing the Liberals.

Then though Labour became the party of the newly enfranchised working class while the Conservatives were the party of most of the middle class to counter Labour so the LDs go squeezed.

Now though it is increasingly Reform the party of the working class while Labour is increasingly the party of the Remain voting middle class (along with the LDs) and the public sector.

So the Conservatives are left with the Leave voting middle class and pensioners

Matthew Parris made the point that the Tories got themselves into the position where a lot of people needed to remain poor and stupid for them to survive. Now they've lost even the poor-and-stupid element. We'll see how the GOP pans out, but Tories do seem to be the embodiment of the greatest act of political self-destruction in modern times.

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Certificate of residence? I think that can only be done in the office. But yeah it's been a nightmare backlog.

Yes! Cert of residence

Are you actually in HMRC? Can you go round to this person's house and hit them with a cucumber until they get this done?!

I do work there. As it relates to foreign income it has to be signed off by a technical officer. And the stamping has to be done in the office.

That is basically what the senior manager admitted to me. The person on the line genuinely wants to help me but the fucking stamp is in the fucking office, and this stupid REDACTED REDACTED, sorry, lovely hard-working tax person, is siting having a biccie in her semi in Newent, she's not at the office

Insane. This is causing havoc for lots of people. This is why people like me, who actually generate tax for the UK, from foreigners, think What is the point, and also: GO BACK TO THE OFFICE

Apparently the only other country as bad as us (for tax chaos) is Germany, I have no idea why

It would now be difficult for everyone in the Civil Service to go back to the office. Even before Covid, I was doing some work for the Home Office and it was impossible to get a desk on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because the office was sized for only about an average 50% attendance, and that was based on employees only and ignored the fact that about half the staff on site were contractors. Will the people who are calling for a return to the office (pensioners, mostly, from what I can tell, or other people who have never worked in an office) be happy to pay the extra tax required to double the amount of central London office space? (And I'm guessing, elsewhere too). Thought not.

There is a serious point about ensuring work is actually done remotely, and that to some extent depends on the calibre of management. It does need more careful supervision, at first at least, than when all sitting together. My experience is that many of the staff at all levels are of low calibre, reflecting the low wages compared to what other similar jobs pay. That also needs more management. But of course many of the managers aren't very good for the same reason. There has been no political desire to fix that either. My view is that it wouldn't cost more to pay a market rate, as you would be able to fire many of the contractors like me who actually do all the work, and end up with fewer better paid staff overall. But the inevitable screaming from the Daily Mail and others if anyone were to try it makes it politically impossible.

Theuniondivvie said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

So the governments pick for Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration lives full time in Finland.....there is hybrid working and then there is hybrid working. Will he be doing his inspections via Zoom?

At least living in a country that more or less works might rub off on him?

Would it be unreasonable to require by law that all public sector employees whose work is in the UK actually live here ?
Apart from anything else, it might significantly improve our balance of payments.

Sandpit said:

Selebian said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Certificate of residence? I think that can only be done in the office. But yeah it's been a nightmare backlog.

Yes! Cert of residence

Are you actually in HMRC? Can you go round to this person's house and hit them with a cucumber until they get this done?!

I do work there. As it relates to foreign income it has to be signed off by a technical officer. And the stamping has to be done in the office.

That is basically what the senior manager admitted to me. The person on the line genuinely wants to help me but the fucking stamp is in the fucking office, and this stupid REDACTED REDACTED, sorry, lovely hard-working tax person, is siting having a biccie in her semi in Newent, she's not at the office

Insane. This is causing havoc for lots of people. This is why people like me, who actually generate tax for the UK, from foreigners, think What is the point, and also: GO BACK TO THE OFFICE

Apparently the only other country as bad as us (for tax chaos) is Germany, I have no idea why

The thing there seems to be to remove the physical stamp from the process. Somewhat archaic even if everyone was in the office - I would guess it wouldn't be hard to fake so it's either meaningless or is backed up by e.g. online records in which case it's obsolete.

Briefly delurking (too much work and not been well), I suspect the actual problem is the need to authenticate the original document from the foreign tax authorities, and one has to be in the office to have access to eg samples of what these documents should look like, and a special phone that can make international calls. The physical stamp on the original document thus marking the end of this authentication process.

Today was the day that we discovered the US government still holds most of its historic personnel records on paper in a literal Iron Mountain.

"Today was the day that we discovered the US government still holds most of its historic personnel records on paper in a literal Iron Mountain."

What is the problem with that? Here in the UK, we had the Ministry of Justice saying that historic wills were going to be destroyed, because they had been digitised. The move was cancelled after it was rightly criticised as being an insane move.

Hope you feel better soon!

My good deed for the day - I sorted out all ConHome, from their “Starmer should gift the Chagos Islands to Trump, and end our grand delusion of ‘Global Britain” Click bait piece, by relaying our agreed PB understanding.

“But for last 60 years US had 100% control with 0% of hassle that comes with ownership. In 60’s USA told us to carve it up so they can have Garcia base, and we did. USA told us to ethnically cleanse Chagos of Chagouns, and as owners we did it. It’s both those things deemed much too naughty that’s dropped us in it, but with UK in the dock of course, not USA. (Though US did quietly compensate us all these years we can assume).

Even if handing all responsibility for Chagos and Garcia USA was possible, it couldn’t happen without USA saying “okay, bubble screen it on to us” - why upon earth would they want to make such a painful plunge from the current arrangement? Do we have a special relationship with them? Are they our friends?

There’s this pretty girl, at highschool, who is in the habit of going out on dates where she can drink vodka, she also has a bit of tempestuous relationship going on with a flatmate she shares Chinese food with. She’s not got lots of money, but she might in the future, as her daddy’s business is on the up. She’s also popular with everyone around her, they look up to her, so she’s a leader of the pack. Now there’s these two other young bucks - I picture OC and Stiggs in all sorts of guises and situations - who want her to come to a party and hang out with them. She plays hard to get. What’s it going to take for them to woo her away from the others?

By the way, the girls name is India - key player why UK Conservative government and Biden White House u-turned from stalling at UN in 2022, and jointly negotiated this deal over last 2 years - deal waiting for UK election out the way, with Washington on our case to finalise asap - so a deal not all about the pressure from UN over our morality misstep 50 years ago - it’s the courting of India.”

I’m so clever at sussing out politics and coming to the right understanding. Just like my amazeballs election day analysis and July 4th prediction 😇

Leon said:

PB should ban me from discussing any topic where I am completely right...

More importantly, where you think you are completely right.
It's then when you are at your most tedious.

Oh dear, Kai Havertz out for the rest of the season.

I think Ian Wright and Alan Smith might have put their boots back on at this rate.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6129812/2025/02/12/kai-havertz-hamstring-injury-arsenal/

Sandpit said:

Selebian said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Certificate of residence? I think that can only be done in the office. But yeah it's been a nightmare backlog.

Yes! Cert of residence

Are you actually in HMRC? Can you go round to this person's house and hit them with a cucumber until they get this done?!

I do work there. As it relates to foreign income it has to be signed off by a technical officer. And the stamping has to be done in the office.

That is basically what the senior manager admitted to me. The person on the line genuinely wants to help me but the fucking stamp is in the fucking office, and this stupid REDACTED REDACTED, sorry, lovely hard-working tax person, is siting having a biccie in her semi in Newent, she's not at the office

Insane. This is causing havoc for lots of people. This is why people like me, who actually generate tax for the UK, from foreigners, think What is the point, and also: GO BACK TO THE OFFICE

Apparently the only other country as bad as us (for tax chaos) is Germany, I have no idea why

The thing there seems to be to remove the physical stamp from the process. Somewhat archaic even if everyone was in the office - I would guess it wouldn't be hard to fake so it's either meaningless or is backed up by e.g. online records in which case it's obsolete.

Briefly delurking (too much work and not been well), I suspect the actual problem is the need to authenticate the original document from the foreign tax authorities, and one has to be in the office to have access to eg samples of what these documents should look like, and a special phone that can make international calls. The physical stamp on the original document thus marking the end of this authentication process.

Today was the day that we discovered the US government still holds most of its historic personnel records on paper in a literal Iron Mountain.

Hope you get well soon, Sandpit.

Stark_Dawning said:

HYUFD said:

Sean_F said:

GIN1138 said:

HYUFD said:

Interesting that Reform voters want to tax non doms more than Conservative voters, even if less than Labour, LD and Green voters do.

Suggesting that while Reform voters are more socially conservative and anti immigration than Tory voters, they are less economically Thatcherite than Conservative voters too

If REF do ever get into government, they will collapse quickly under the weight of their own contradictions, IMO.

Well that and they will probably be absolutely useless.

They might, but it might not matter much electorally , if we're seeing the right wing version of Labour replacing the Liberals.

Then though Labour became the party of the newly enfranchised working class while the Conservatives were the party of most of the middle class to counter Labour so the LDs go squeezed.

Now though it is increasingly Reform the party of the working class while Labour is increasingly the party of the Remain voting middle class (along with the LDs) and the public sector.

So the Conservatives are left with the Leave voting middle class and pensioners

Matthew Parris made the point that the Tories got themselves into the position where a lot of people needed to remain poor and stupid for them to survive. Now they've lost even the poor-and-stupid element. We'll see how the GOP pans out, but Tories do seem to be the embodiment of the greatest act of political self-destruction in modern times.

Matthew Parris can never help but reveal his disdain for the lower classes (ever snice he was Mrs. Thatcher's secretary, and wrote a letter purportedly on her behalf to a council tenant, who was complaining about her neighbours, telling her she should consider herself lucky to have a council house).

Then or course, there were his remarks about the awful people of Clacton.

His version of "Conservatism" is one that is actively hostile towards non-elite voters.

In almost every Western country, the upper middle classes have shifted left, and the working and lower middle classes have shifted right. A successful political party takes its votes where it finds them, not where it would like to find them.

TheScreamingEagles said:

Oh dear, Kai Havertz out for the rest of the season.

I think Ian Wright and Alan Smith might have put their boots back on at this rate.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6129812/2025/02/12/kai-havertz-hamstring-injury-arsenal/

Would be really embarrassing if Liverpool don't win it now...

Selebian said:

AnneJGP said:

Selebian said:

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Taz said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

So the governments pick for Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration lives full time in Finland.....there is hybrid working and then there is hybrid working. Will he be doing his inspections via Zoom?

That's nothing

The Deputy Town Centre Manager for Windsor, Eton and Ascot resides in Kyrgyzstan.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20250201/281771339880704

We really are being taken for mugs.

We should do what Trump has done. You work for the government? You work in the office. End of

To be fair, the Police have been making progress on that.

Just need to get the ‘work’ bit cracked now.

I am honestly not sure why some governments and companies have an obsession over office instead of home working. It’s cheaper, more efficient and more versatile. A hybrid insistence of at least two days a week onsite I could understand, but not this ‘five days or the sack’ rubbish.

If you don’t have the systems and methodologies in place, working from home is less efficient.

I work in a bank, where we use Citrix - I can log in from any computer or iPad on the planet and have my fully supported, backed up machine in front of me.

We use Jira, which divides work into traceable chunks, with responsibility for each. Testing is a combination of automation and other people checking the results of the ticket.

We have fully integrated phone/video/desktop sharing.

In short, the tools, technologies and management methods mean that, for us, location is not relevant, 95% of the time.

Exactly. Good management/motivated workforce and the right tech and it works fine.

I worked for a couple of years, early career, in the Civil Service (well, executive agency of). Absolutely in office - we were barred from accessing anything off site. We actually clocked in and out as part of a flexitime scheme - you only had to be present in certain core hours, but there were limits on how far over hours or under hours you could get. We also had targets, but they were easily achievable if you were vaguely competent and there were no real incentives for going beyond them* and so it was common enough to find people reading books at their desks waiting for the required flexi-time to pass. My boss spent a lot of time speccing his Cayenne.

In my present job, there are no core hours. No one tracks my time. But, given I'm research funded, I'll be out of a job if I don't keep delivering projects and winning new funding. No one cares if I can deliver my job in 30 hours a week (I can't!) and chill the rest of the time - and why should they?

*a bonus system, giving say setting the target to an assumed FTE work rate and then giving a bonus of half the pro-rated extra time equivalent of work over target would clearly have made financial sense, rather than paying people to do nothing.

I'm long past my sell-by date where paid work is concerned and I struggle to understand how any new entrant learns anything. A lot of my learning came through overhearing colleagues discussing their work problems.

Good morning, everyone.

In many jobs, a hybrid approach where there are one or two days per week when everyone in the team is in is very helpful, I think. Managers may also need to be in more, particularly with new starters.

That said, it can be done to an extent - there are remote-only businesses (I've worked for a couple) and I did take on two new post-docs during Covid when we weren't in the office. But you have to be far more proactive about the learning and encourage informal chats for people to catch up and ask those little questions (during Covid we had a 'tea break' that everyone except the management team went to twice a week - also one with seniors, but definitely some without to enable asking the stupid questions/bitching about management etc )

Essentially, as Malmesbury and others have said, you have to be proactive and plan for what's needed, not just leave people to it.

Insofar as home working in a particular office is seen as permanent, it opens up the possibility to recruit staff in much cheaper environments but roughly the same timezone - parts of Africa, for instance - which for some jobs may be practical. It's an unforeseen consequence, which has been quietly adopted by some firms - software support, for example.

tlg86 said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Oh dear, Kai Havertz out for the rest of the season.

I think Ian Wright and Alan Smith might have put their boots back on at this rate.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6129812/2025/02/12/kai-havertz-hamstring-injury-arsenal/

Would be really embarrassing if Liverpool don't win it now...

The Premier League have tried to stitch us with the fixture calendar, making us play Everton, City, and Villa away in the space of eleven days in February and five matches in fifteen days and leaving us with only one PL match in March, it’s a bloody scandal.

Sandpit said:

Selebian said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

Leon said:

FrankBooth said:

As a civil servant* I have to say things seem a lot less intense since covid and more working from home. My guess is people are nowhere near as productive now but that's just my one small branch of a very big tree.

Do you, perchance, work in the Foreign Tax Exemption Department at HMRC?

Not specifically. Are you struggling to prove you have paid tax elsewhere?

I've been waiting OVER A YEAR for a single form to be stamped. I have rung them half a dozen times, they always say the same thing "Oh we're so sorry, yes this isn't good enough, it will now be done straight away, I will see to it"

It is not done yet

I once got a senior HMRC manager on the line and he straight=up admitted that WFH was a productivity disaster for HMRC. My foreign accounts people have heard the same

Certificate of residence? I think that can only be done in the office. But yeah it's been a nightmare backlog.

Yes! Cert of residence

Are you actually in HMRC? Can you go round to this person's house and hit them with a cucumber until they get this done?!

I do work there. As it relates to foreign income it has to be signed off by a technical officer. And the stamping has to be done in the office.

That is basically what the senior manager admitted to me. The person on the line genuinely wants to help me but the fucking stamp is in the fucking office, and this stupid REDACTED REDACTED, sorry, lovely hard-working tax person, is siting having a biccie in her semi in Newent, she's not at the office

Insane. This is causing havoc for lots of people. This is why people like me, who actually generate tax for the UK, from foreigners, think What is the point, and also: GO BACK TO THE OFFICE

Apparently the only other country as bad as us (for tax chaos) is Germany, I have no idea why

The thing there seems to be to remove the physical stamp from the process. Somewhat archaic even if everyone was in the office - I would guess it wouldn't be hard to fake so it's either meaningless or is backed up by e.g. online records in which case it's obsolete.

Briefly delurking (too much work and not been well), I suspect the actual problem is the need to authenticate the original document from the foreign tax authorities, and one has to be in the office to have access to eg samples of what these documents should look like, and a special phone that can make international calls. The physical stamp on the original document thus marking the end of this authentication process.

Today was the day that we discovered the US government still holds most of its historic personnel records on paper in a literal Iron Mountain.

Again, in process, most of the verification should be possible by HMRC servers talking to overseas tax authority servers - this document, this check code, or simply transfer a digital copy of the document direct (authorised by applicant, as for e.g. driving licence checks, or the way that you can prove power of attorney nowadays without rocking up with a piece of paper). The process is broken.

Hope you feel better.

TheScreamingEagles said:

tlg86 said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Oh dear, Kai Havertz out for the rest of the season.

I think Ian Wright and Alan Smith might have put their boots back on at this rate.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6129812/2025/02/12/kai-havertz-hamstring-injury-arsenal/

Would be really embarrassing if Liverpool don't win it now...

The Premier League have tried to stitch us with the fixture calendar, making us play Everton, City, and Villa away in the space of eleven days in February and five matches in fifteen days and leaving us with only one PL match in March, it’s a bloody scandal.

They should have rescheduled the Everton match for right at the end of the season, to be the final game played at Goodison Park.