Mullin it Over

I find myself agreeing with that tosser Charlie Mullins.

Covid restrictions are supposedly over. Yet much of British working life is still running at half-pace, as anyone who has struggled to get a passport or driving licence, or phone a public body, is bound to know.

The reason is that many people are still working from home.

This unhealthy luxury has allowed (mainly) white-collar employees to prioritise their personal life routines over the job they are paid to do. For many, work is now fitted round childcare, cooking dinner, walking pets, gardening and even yoga classes rather than the other way round.

What we are witnessing is an insidious culture of self-entitlement that has set in among better-off Britain like dry rot and which disrespects all those who have no choice other than to be at their traditional place of work.

Well, yes. I really cannot argue with that. I was unable to work from home and despite the so-called help from HMG, the whole farrago cost me around ten grand in lost earnings. So these self-entitled uncivil servants won’t get any sympathy from this quarter. Nor, I suspect, from anyone that worked continually throughout, providing them with the essentials of life – and the not so essentials.

Meanwhile, the most hopeless and lazy taxpayer-funded Whitehall skivers should be fired.

But I would go further. I am considering whether to withhold part of my taxes until the bloated Civil Service starts getting back into the office and doing the job for which it’s paid.

I really cannot argue with that sentiment.

14 Comments

  1. I have worked from home a lot in the years before covid. My job as a software developer was one that could be performed from anywhere for the majority of tasks, but there were still a few jobs that benefitted from or required office visits.

    I would doubt that most of the duties of most office-based roles could be performed from home. There will be lots of tasks that can be done from home (and some easier WFH without workplace distractions). Also if the day is staggered rather than 9-5 or core hours say productivity suffers as simple queries can take days to resolve.

    People respond to home working differently. Some take to it like ducks to water and enjoy the time gained by removing the commute, whilst others don’t cope so well. People with young families usually struggled as littluns couldn’t understand that daddy was busy and couldn’t play.

    Other people took between a few and lots of liberties, with some just treating it as free time and doing no work. One chap, who was let go eventually, freely admitted that he couldn’t concentrate with all of the distractions of home and just went to the park with his dog.

    Face to face contact is important for some jobs and many people really missed the contact with others in the office.

    Locally some council outside-based workers were even allowed to work from home. They didn’t do any work naturally.

    WFH is not all bad, but everything depends on the role, the individual and their personal circumstances.

    • During my last days at Network Rail, I was tasked with preparing a competence standard for signallers. I managed to convince them that this could be conducted at home. I came in on target with all the work completed. I’d start at 06:00 and clock off at midday having got the work for the day done. But you need self discipline to do it and ignore any distractions.

  2. No sorry, another covid wannabe tyrant who’s utterances and demands should not be, i for one won’t, forgotten.

  3. Be careful what you wish for.
    As with our revered MPs, MSPs, and WAMs lots of things go better when lots of Civil Servants and their ilk are doing nothing.
    The trick would go slowly ‘re-employ them and see which ones were useful.

  4. Has sunbathing in Dubai Mullins reversed his mandate of “Get jabbed or be sacked”?

    As with @Judd I will never trust anything he says. Does he have an agenda? All civil servants must be jabbed so they are safe forever at risk?

  5. I was momentarily thrown by the heading here. I had never heard of Charlie Mullin but Charlie Mullen was the front man of a grungy rock band from Hull called Bullets For Teeth. They were actually quite good and are worth looking up, if you like that kind of stuff.

  6. New driving licence (over 70) arrived 9 days after applying; new Tfl veterans oyster card arrived before old one expired; HMRC reply to tax enquiry almost by return of post. Some people, it seems, may be WFH but still doing their job. Credit given where credit due.

  7. My opinion of the DVLA went up when I had to deal with them as a recently diagnosed diabetic. At first I was using insulin which meant a slightly restricted licence that had to be renewed every three years. After three years I was on diet and exercise only and their form didn’t have a tick box for that. I drew in my own box, wrote in diet and exercise only, and ticked it. They accepted this and I no longer have to re apply for my license every three years.

    • I didn’t know that the guy was a remainer. Does he not know that the EU equivalent of civil servants make ours look like rank amateurs when it comes to the art of skiving?

      • Not sure I can agree with this. The number of bureaucrats in Brussels is surprisingly small; they are, however extremely productive since the amount of damage they do per bureaucrat far exceeds that achieved by the average UK civil servant.

Comments are closed.