Chris_R

100% I guess the exception is work like call centre work, done remotely. Then it's all about your availability to take calls and you can't slack in the traditional sense. You can still slack. You just have to be more creative! Standard office jobs where you're given an amount of work to do for the day/week/whatever, who cares when you do it, where, or how? The problem is middle managers and boomers, guessing Beth is one of either of those camps, who feel they need to sit and watch people work. Middle managers, especially those with shit managerial skills who have been overpromoted, feel that if they're not seen to be observing their staff then someone higher up will realise they add absolutely nothing to the company whatsoever and their cushy gig will be up so they like everyone where they can watch them. It's also partly a power trip for some. They don't actually DO anything themselves, they just like to watch "their staff" work. Add to this that we're constantly gas-lit by people like Alan Sugar and organisations / publications who own loads of office space, who are seeing this plummet in value so they need to tell everyone how evil WFH is. But hey, maybe, JUST MAYBE, these people don't have our best interests at heart.... The other category of course are the jealous. Shop workers, people who can't work from home and are really envious of those who can. Now not everyone is envious, many say "good for you, enjoy!" but not everyone likes to see others have things better than them and so they rail against the concept of working from home, hoping to spoil it for the rest of us. Retirees fall into this camp too "Well, *I* had to go in every day for 45 years so you should too!", that kind of mentality. It's 2024. I will never again work a job that requires 100% office presence. It's unnecessary and just punitive for 0 benefit.

There's two problems with Ramsdale as a £60m keeper 1) he's not worth £60m 2) we don't have £60m The problem with 2) is that we'd need to sell Bruno to buy him, and that weakens us more than it strengthens us, plus it massively strengthens Arsenal whilst costing them very little in terms of money. So no. Just no. If Bruno must go, make it the full £100m and buy a keeper from abroad. You'll get better for less, without taking a direct rival's cast-off as a vastly overpriced makeweight into a deal they otherwise couldn't make.

I'll be honest: yes, sometimes I skive when working from home. But guess what? I skive in the office too! Ha! I can slack off anywhere. I'm an artist at it. I can spend a whole day doing absolutely fuck all in the office. Like, nothing. Not even pretending. I'll skive WITH my boss. But this is because my work is already done, and the thing with office work is 'presenteeism' forces me to sit and stare at a clock until the numbers reach an arbitrary sequence before I can get in my car and go home. It's a very literal waste of my time. Working from home I can crack on with something useful and get my life back during such time, while of course being available for work if required. Whilst I take time back when this are quiet, I put in a shift when needed. 3 days ago I did a full shift at the customer site in Dhahran then went back to the hotel and did another 7 hours because it was needed. But I only do that knowing I can and will take time back on quiet days because the moment I can't, then come 5pm every day I'm downing tools no matter where I'm at, what I'm doing or what the business consequences are. The only thing a manager should ever ask of their staff is "have you completed all of your work, to a high standard and in the agreed timescale". If the answer is "yes", then where, when and how you complete it is completely irrelevant.

Yep, as someone who can work from home I'm massively more productive there. Even before the pandemic I'd ask to work from home if I had a pressing deadline coming so I could avoid distractions.

That point was so important it needed making twice.

Of course he's not working for them. They just want us to think he might be so that we reduce our compensation demands.

Of course he's not working for them. They just want us to think he might be so that we reduce our compensation demands.

I've got a conspiracy theory, if you'll indulge me... Man U are leaking they want Southgate, but they don't. Because nobody rational would. It's to make us think Ashworth is already working for them because of their time with England, so therefore we might as well just accept £2m or whatever lowball number it is today. This rumour is just to drive down the compo.

Yeah no club should touch him. Why would anyone think £40m for him is good value for a player with no legs and no resale value? Like when we had Butt, Geremi et al, we had to wallow in our own stupidity and suck it up. Similar with Hendrick etc now, nobody's touching them and rightly so.

Listen to that, then imagine the Steve Bruce version. How far we've come.

Same reason Bruno and Isak get linked with a new club every 2 minutes. We're not allowed nice things. It upsets 'them'.

You'd hope, especially given the Lingard / Ashworth situations, that someone "has a word" and that the Saudi clubs are told not to bail out one of our direct rivals like that.

You can't. Absolutely nobody is going to be stupid enough to go anywhere near him. You're stuck with him until the very day his contract expires.

He's desperate to try and become relevant. Him and the mackems are a match made in heaven.

If that's what their players are worth, how much are the squads worth of the fifteen teams that finished above them? Are there really that many squads packed full of £10m+ players, all just bobbing around in the lower-mid championship waiting to be snatched up by PL teams? Or are they chatting absolute soil again, and would be lucky to shift half that dross for any money at all? One of those options is correct, but I guess it's a complete mystery which one it is...