Re: Coronavirus
 

Totally agree mate, strange statement indeed.

Re: Coronavirus
 

I don't think it's that odd although I don't have knowledge of how true it is.

Surely the logic behind it is that the jobs which are more able to work from home are more likely to be those who occupants are middle-class or above? We're talking office workers, managers, IT jobs and technical jobs of some sort, marketers, writers and so on.

Whereas the jobs you would typically associate as being working class tends to be in manufacturing or retail. Work where you need to be in a specific location to either work with machinery you cannot bring more or serve people.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Strange how those in 'key' jobs don't need computers to do it for them :D

Re: Coronavirus
 

Makes sense really. Nurses, Doctors, Police, bar staff. They all deal with people directly to address urgent needs.

Re: Coronavirus
 

From Reed U.K.

Avg Plumber salary 30K
Avg Office Co-ordinator salary 22K

My next door neighbour is a plumber (one man band) and he earns ( I fully expect) Well more than the average too. Detached farm house, his Van, BMW M3, Nissan Juke, ride on mower for His 1.5 acre garden.

Using IT for work is in no way any prediction of earnings or “class”

The whole Class argument is an old fashioned argument anyway. Blue collar/white collar can still be used as a descriptor, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that a white collar job is better or pays more than a blue collar job.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Well said, and spot on.

Re: Coronavirus
 

As I said I don't have the stats so it could be misplaced but at the same time taking two examples isn't going to tell us the overall picture either.

There will be office jobs that pay minimum wage and highly technical, well paying, manual jobs. I just wonder what the aggregate is. I don't think it's bizarre that someone would assume that people who can work from home are more likely to have higher income jobs, even if it's wrong.

I agree blue collar/white collar is a better description than class though. I sort of took class to mean income in this context.

Re: Coronavirus
 

It’s too much of a nuanced subject to apply a sweeping generalisation, as was originally/ flippantly applied.

It’s funny but when was young working from home was the direct opposite of that assumption. Working from home was more associated with licking stamps and stuffing envelopes, or niche craft enterprises.

An amazon warehouse worker can earn as much, potentially more, than a Virgin Media telesales advisor.

So, I take your point, but given who said the original statement I don’t think he was applying a more considered view, such as yourself.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Are they on loan or can they keep them?

Re: Coronavirus
 

Yeah it makes sense. Lots of not very well paying jobs you do from home too.

It'll be interesting to see what incomes got paid by the furlough scheme. I am starting to get worried we're now just putting off a huge wave of unemployment whilst newspapers chat comfortably about how nice working from is and we should keep doing it.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Actually I have no idea ... nobody’s been given one yet, it’s all very new. I suspect the computer will come home with a covering letter of some sort so we may find out more then.

Re: Coronavirus
 

My daughter and her partner were working from home for the last 4 years..and still are.They earn enough to pay a mortgage and bring up two children. It is possible especially if you have internet skills.

Re: Coronavirus
 

China the gift that keeps on giving

China bubonic plague: Beijing seals off village as panicked experts confirm black death

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...wn-Suji-Xincun

Re: Coronavirus
 

I didn’t consider the statement particularly controversial.

It, clearly, wasn’t intended to say all middle class people are at home and all working class people are at workplaces. However, as often on the forum, statements get interpreted in absolute terms for the purposes of putting up a straw man to argue back against.

In your own post here you’ve made a generalisation based on observations when you are young. My observations are that the vast, vast majority of my friends, family and colleagues working from home I’d consider middle class.

The vast majority of people I encounter in their workplaces are observably working class. As with my friends and their families that I’m aware of attending workplaces.

It’d be interesting to see the stats.

Re: Coronavirus
 

I think it's time to raise the drawbridge, lock the gates, and fill the moat with high octane (affordable currently).

oh, and a few blokes with sniper rifles roaming the Kent coast wouldn't go amiss either