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Post by ChrisM on Nov 1, 2020 15:14:45 GMT
We may be allowed to travel for business purposes (we need to sort out details of some "special processes" and assess storage capability, suitable batch sizes etc) but our bosses may decide that we are not to travel on business, or we may need to obtain special permission to travel. Also the supplier may impose additional restrictions on visitors - we already have a significant number of suppliers who are not allowing any visitors at all onto their sites.
We also have a potential new supplier we would like to assess, and they are keen to take us onboard as a new customer.... but they too are not allowing any visitors on site, so we have reached an impasse with them for now. It's a crazy old world we live in
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Post by chipbutty on Nov 1, 2020 17:50:54 GMT
Agreed - working from home has been a curse for just as many as it has been a blessing. I can just imagine the difficulties of two working people trying to fight for space on a kitchen table and having to deal with home schooling or holidays.
I don't like WFH at the best of times and I hate the way work and home now have almost zero demarcation. Many businesses (including my own) have realised the negatives of prolonged homeworking and are doing a great job to offer alternatives.
I can't take any positives from the working practises driven by the events of the last 7 or so months - the job losses and ruined business toll is just awful and part 2 of the lockdown shit show is going to be horrific.
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Post by ChrisM on Nov 1, 2020 21:04:47 GMT
I don't like WFH at the best of times and I hate the way work and home now have almost zero demarcation. Many businesses (including my own) have realised the negatives of prolonged homeworking and are doing a great job to offer alternatives. I can't take any positives from the working practises driven by the events of the last 7 or so months - the job losses and ruined business toll is just awful and part 2 of the lockdown shit show is going to be horrific. Indeed.... WFH - as an example one of my colleagues shares a flat/house with three other single professionals. All 4 have been working from home most of the time since March and she said (on the only time I have seen her actually in at work on the same day as me since March) that it's been very difficult since there isn't space for 4 of them to work from home. They've been taking it in turns with one working in the "living area" and the other 3 having to work from their bedrooms... but when one gets up to make coffee or have lunch when the person in the "Living area" is on a video call, it's not a good situation at all.... and now they face another month minimum of this. It's grim and despite what we were told about having to make the huge sacrifice for at least 12 weeks earlier in the year, we are having to do it yet again. The toll on people's mental health (and on those with non-covid illnesses who aren't receiving treatment) is immense |
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Post by ChrisM on Nov 2, 2020 15:34:31 GMT
^ The roads are far from eerily quiet around where I live. Traffic levels are almost back to pre-covid levels. Even with schools on half-term this past week, driving to and from work has hardly been a pleasure... and work is just on the right side of the border with a Tier 2 region. Next Thursday I have the dubious pleasure of visiting a supplier in Nottingham, a Tier 3 area (and we do have the special permission required to travel there for essential purposes; must remember to take the letter with me in case we are stopped). Maybe not now! Confirmed as "not going ahead" .... not because of us, but because the supplier has decided to ban visitors unless it's an emergency, following Boris's week-end announcement |
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Post by michael on Nov 2, 2020 15:41:34 GMT
I've been looking into garden offices and the waiting lists for these things are massive now. It seems a lot of people are looking at long term home working.
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Post by Tim on Nov 2, 2020 16:59:33 GMT
I've been looking into garden offices and the waiting lists for these things are massive now. It seems a lot of people are looking at long term home working. It sounds like a good idea if you have the money and space. Mrs Tim and I have been using the dining table but have now ordered a couple of tables to stick in one of the bedrooms so we can reclaim the dining room. Hopefully it'll allow us to separate work a bit better as well since the dining room is also a thoroughfare that you can't avoid during the day. |
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Post by Martin on Nov 2, 2020 17:11:29 GMT
Thankfully we've got an extra bedroom which has always been set up as a home office, but has been particularly good to have over the last 7 months. Lindsay is due back at work in January and will be working from home at least a couple of days a week, but we've got a dining room she can base herself in, which won't be an issue as we only really use it at the weekend, we use the table in the Kitchen most of the time.
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Post by LandieMark on Nov 2, 2020 17:21:14 GMT
Yes, I feel rather lucky to have a spacious home office downstairs.
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Post by michael on Nov 2, 2020 17:25:28 GMT
My office is a spare bedroom. Louisa has claimed the dining room which is fine as we hardly use it.
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Post by Martin on Nov 2, 2020 17:58:10 GMT
Thankfully my office is Bedroom 5, so I didn't lose it when we added to the family. It's a double, albeit a small one, but plenty big enough.
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Post by cbeaks1 on Nov 2, 2020 19:31:52 GMT
I've been looking into garden offices and the waiting lists for these things are massive now. It seems a lot of people are looking at long term home working. We got one during Lockdown 1. It is brilliant, especially if there are 2 or more of you at home. We were quite lucky in that they had the configuration we wanted in stock so we had one of the first installs when they started working again. |
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Post by racingteatray on Nov 2, 2020 19:46:34 GMT
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Post by PetrolEd on Nov 2, 2020 21:05:06 GMT
Luckily my office is bedroom 8 in the east wing. It has historically been used for the slaves but I’ve transferred them to a tent city I’ve built in the lower fields so luckily it doesn’t ruin my vista. All I can say is It’s been a struggle.
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Post by Alex on Nov 2, 2020 21:22:18 GMT
So when you sell your house you take out the desks and convert it to an outdoor playroom / games room and don't mention it in the advert. The revenue need never know. As for the tax relief I used the online tool and it took seconds but it only gets you £1.20 a week back. Still that's £60 a year which at least gets you a meal out or a few trips to the pub (when they reopen) |
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Post by michael on Nov 2, 2020 21:31:39 GMT
Thanks. I was planning on using it as a studio as I’ve got into oil painting and the smell of paint thinner “fucking stinks” so I’m told (daily). |
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Post by Andy C on Nov 2, 2020 22:11:59 GMT
Luckily my office is bedroom 8 in the east wing. It has historically been used for the slaves but I’ve transferred them to a tent city I’ve built in the lower fields so luckily it doesn’t ruin my vista. All I can say is It’s been a struggle. Did you lend them your decathlon special or is that just for special occasions |
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Post by PetrolEd on Nov 2, 2020 22:25:37 GMT
Luckily my office is bedroom 8 in the east wing. It has historically been used for the slaves but I’ve transferred them to a tent city I’ve built in the lower fields so luckily it doesn’t ruin my vista. All I can say is It’s been a struggle. Did you lend them your decathlon special or is that just for special occasions No mate, the 2 man pop up is far too good for them but I have given up my air mattress with a hole and squeaky foot pump. |
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Post by Tim on Nov 3, 2020 9:05:43 GMT
Luckily my office is bedroom 8 in the east wing. It has historically been used for the slaves but I’ve transferred them to a tent city I’ve built in the lower fields so luckily it doesn’t ruin my vista. All I can say is It’s been a struggle. What's the drainage like down there? |
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Post by PG on Nov 3, 2020 12:20:17 GMT
That article is scaremongering in my view. I can't see that the revenue would ever get away with attempting (or even attempt) to pull that off to the degree stated in the article. The fact that the space must be "exclusively" used for business, means that pretty much any space attached to or accessible via your home and that can also be used for domestic activity (which might even mean reading the Sunday papers at your desk once a week for example) in any way is not caught. From what I was ever taught, the rule is more aimed at people who build or convert clear business premises at their house, like dentists or chiropracters etc that have an area with a separate entrances and is full of specialist stuff (on which they'll be claiming capital allowances) or office suites that have several desks and that clearly cannot be domestic at any time. |
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Post by Blarno on Nov 3, 2020 12:38:30 GMT
I'd love to be able to work from home, but sadly my role requires a physical presence, so even with Lockdown 2.0 looming, my day-to-day routine is not likely to change. Not unless Joris decides to prevent people travelling into Tier 3 regions for work, in which case I will stay at home and finish the alterations to my house without ruining my weekends. My poor bike has been sat in the garage covered in Welsh mud, unused, for the last 5 weeks.
I can't even go and collect the MX5 as it's in Lancashire - first world problems and all that.
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Post by johnc on Nov 3, 2020 13:42:31 GMT
That article is scaremongering in my view. I can't see that the revenue would ever get away with attempting (or even attempt) to pull that off to the degree stated in the article. The fact that the space must be "exclusively" used for business, means that pretty much any space attached to or accessible via your home and that can also be used for domestic activity (which might even mean reading the Sunday papers at your desk once a week for example) in any way is not caught. From what I was ever taught, the rule is more aimed at people who build or convert clear business premises at their house, like dentists or chiropracters etc that have an area with a separate entrances and is full of specialist stuff (on which they'll be claiming capital allowances) or office suites that have several desks and that clearly cannot be domestic at any time. You're right PG - that what the rules are designed for but occasionally we see people who are hell bent on claiming 1/5th of all their house expenses because they use one room as an office - they can do so but the CGT flag will be marked somewhere in HMRC. |
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