Working From Home Megathread

Sadly no, nothing. And it's one of two employers in the south of the country so they can basically do what they want.

Government paying for remote working hubs for private sector workers, possibly working for tech companies, is definitely not going to happen. It would be very hard to quantify the benefits of things you list there and therefore it would be hard to convince people.

As for government providing remote working hubs for PS, it might happen over time, but it would be a slow process given we already have enough office space for staff, so no need to add additional cost.

Lots of people would be happy to pay. They are already paying for commuting costs so paying for a hub would replace these costs. And they'd gain a lot of time back. And the cost of these hubs would decrease based on more usage.

So your department will presumably have to figure out what the most cost effective way of doing it is I guess. They could reconfigure the office. They could have some people work remotely and hot desk in the office. They could get additional office space or pay for co-working hubs, both of which add costs.

That's always been the case, so why has the Chinese lad who you mention not already taken the job from Ireland?

Also, due to the living costs in Ireland, I could see it being appealing for Irish people to start emigrating to the new big MNC haven should the landscape change over the coming years; we have had a good run of bringing in other EU citizens to work good jobs here but that doesn't mean it will last forever; the flexible Irish workers in their 20s and 30s could easily see the appeal of moving to somewhere else in the EU that has a lower cost of living should it be the case that other countries start to develop as places for big companies to hire across the EU.

Except companies have rules saying you can only work from outside the country for 4 weeks!!

Also if the company deals with private information, you are not allowed at all to work outside a country where the company doesnt have an office in

Not even cheaper places but just being in their home country with friends and family is the draw and it turns out there are actually jobs in France, Spain, Germany etc. that can be gotten for people that work in Dublin but service their home markets (I've never understood the rationale for bringing a French person to Dublin to speak in French and service the French market).

Really?

Who?

I presume so. I'd imagine there are enough people who would like at least some form of hybrid working that at least some might be able manage some sort of hot desk set up - provided people are willing to give up their personal desks and go the hot desk/shared desk/shared office route.

At this stage I can't see them going the route of paying for co-working hubs, but I'd love to see the ability to hot desk in other CS/PS offices, which could replicate the co-working hubs idea.

Will be interesting to see how things progress over the next while. I'm certainly hoping to keep some sort of hybrid working ability, as are the vast majority of people I talk to.

We have been great at attracting companies based on our tax rate. The model has been to shift taxation onto employees so that we have relatively high tax on high earners. The problem is that unlike many other European countries we have very poor services. So, we have this combination of high taxes and poor services. I think this will make the country unattractive to the types of workers that we need to attract. They will work from their home countries, paying taxes there, while working for Google or Facebook or whatever. I think it will also be the case that people from here will move to other countries and work as remote contractors for lifestyle/taxation reasons. This is something I am looking at myself, particularly if they are looking at increasing taxes to pay for all this. The current model of shifting all income tax onto higher earners and keeping a million workers out of the tax net might not be sustainable in the future.

Separately, with remote working, I would imagine there will be increased outsourcing. I would guess that even smaller tech companies will be more willing to make remote new hires as well. I don't think the future looks great for Ireland given the changing landscape, with MNC taxation and also the ability of workers to work from other countries. The whole foundation is under threat. Potentially great for individuals who can take advantage of the new landscape though!

Yeah, to add to your post, sort of similar situation in our case; remote working is the only thing that might keep us in Ireland (insurance and finance jobs) in the next few years as we have options to move to other European countries and the housing situation not looking like it is being resolved anytime soon will drive us away. I'm Irish and in my 30s as well, with family and friends here, with a very well paid job so I don't think it is a good sign for even people who should be well off here leaving. This is why I think it would be a missed opportunity for the government to not grow out communities in the country by really putting out plans to encourage long term wfh with remote hubs, strong laws for employees to demand wfh, guidance for employers, upgrades to trains and public transport around towns in Ireland, grants to small town businesses which will do well in the long run as wfh takes off as well as, obviously, getting more housing built.

Unfortunately, despite the promising signs from the government a few months ago, even with their wfh policy document, I fear there are vested interests stalling the roll out, e.g. the legal right to request wfh is not yet in place and was looking like it would be practically impossible for an employer to say no to an employee who wfh the last 18 months as the employer would need data to show that the job required that employee to be in the office. We'll see how it goes but as I said, even upsetting 10% of the workforce would be a nightmare for employers in the tightest labour market we've had in a long time.

They could have enough employees here to qualify for the attractive rates while having enough remote employees that it makes a major dent in the income tax take. The corporate tax rate is coming under increasing pressure anyway. I think the government (and any future government) is facing into an impossible situation of reduced MNC tax, reduced income tax from high earners as they work abroad and increased demand for services from those who don't pay much in tax. If the water charges protests showed anything, it was that it will be very politically difficult to get people to pay more/any tax.

My view would be the remote working will be hugely beneficial to some employees, either those whose work can only be done here or highly skilled workers who can work from anywhere. It will be detrimental to the country in general though over the medium term.

I am in a bit of a different situation to you, Irish, 40, bought a house in SCD 9 years ago so don't really have much concern about accommodation costs. I can see that the housing situation would be another push factor, not just for immigrants but Irish people too.

Do companies have to maintain social distancing guidelines anymore or are they being dropped on October 22?

Your concerns may only be valid for the next 4 weeks.