‘Working From Home Is Not Productive’ | Calls To Scrap Flexible Working

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]We have to be different today, mate. You know the why, the reason. The polls have opened. We We cannot do anything political. So, I'm going to throw at you uh a few topics that we have picked up upon, including my favorite today. Uh the civil service are being accused of abusing flexi time to claim up to 50 days holiday a year. Staff are able to clock up the extra leave by declaring overtime and most importantly, leaving their laptops on uh to pretend they're in a meeting whilst going out and enjoying doing other things like playing tennis and seeing their friends for lunch. Your thoughts JP?

[00:00:29]>> Well, there might be five Bradwells across our green and pleasant land, but there's only one priority for our dear beloved civil service, and it's working from home slashnot working very much at all. When when I was in uh government working alongside cheek by jowl with our Rolls-Royce civil service, the number one priority they all seem to have was about being able to work from home. Um, and when the Department for Education was at the bottom of a league table published for getting people back into the workplace physically after COVID lockdowns and all the rest of it, we said, "Right, enough is enough. We're going to put uh as an edict that says that basically we want staff in the office 4 days a week, which doesn't even seem that much, but considering when you have politicians who have to go off to their constituencies on Fridays, that seemed fair enough that actually if the politicians gone, maybe you can actually get some work done." And this caused more outrage amongst the civil servants of the department for education than anything else done I think even up to including Michael Gob's reforms 15 16 years ago or anything else I've ever heard of when there would be messages that would go around obviously sent over teams from from civil servants who were sending it from home to the permanent secretary saying things like I can't believe you're doing this you're betraying us you're ruining my life was I think one message that came through because it it was a pretty cushy life for a lot of these people, right? You maybe rock up into the office once a week to go for a prep coffee with your friends. Other coffees are available, but by and large, you could work from home. And in the first, you know, months or whatever, it was kind of understandable. No one had a clue what was going on with COVID. You'd have dodgy internet connections and all the rest of it. They wouldn't be like I am now with a proper Ethernet cable and a proper camera and stuff like that. But, you know, you'd get six months, a year, two years in and you'd still have civil servants dialing in to calls, you know, the last minute very important meetings with some information for the politicians and their signal would keep cutting out because they still couldn't get any of that sorted, let alone come into the office. And so, this is a key priority for these people. It's a nice cushy life. I should say that I think that it's fine if a business wants to choose to do this, a private business.

[00:02:41]That is on them. And I don't think that the government should be telling people how many times they should have staff in the office because that opens the door for, you know, god alone trade unions, but for businesses to be told what to do by the government. But given that these people are all paid by taxpayers money, everybody listening to this at home, I think there is a responsibility on civil servants, certainly senior ones, to be in and around their junior colleagues, to show them how it's done, to train them up, >> isn't it? Oh, mate. I'm with you and I'd love and I mean this Jenny, by the way, for anybody who was offended, the middle finger thing was meant as a joke. Thank you very much indeed. But no, no, just point that out cuz somebody >> Be tolerant of our intolerance.

[00:03:19]>> Be tolerant be tolerant of the fact that we were trying to smile for an hour. Um, on a serious note about this working from home, I want to hear from you if you work from home and for you it's changed your life for the better. Do you do you think it's a scam? Do you think it's genuine? There are people who perhaps would look at it and go, I haven't got the chance to do that. I haven't got the choice. Maybe there's a degree of jealousy. I also was saying earlier that there's a my brother-in-law's firm big big accountancy firm worked out during co that the millions that they pay in rent for this ridiculous office in London that actually they decided to look at productivity levels whilst they were in the middle of the pandemic and actually it was better thank you so much it was better than than before. So, I think there's a balance, but there will always be always be people uh that take advantage. Listen to this quote. Le says, um, Jez, this working from home thing, would working from home affect your house insurance and what if you have an accident at home whilst working?

[00:04:12]Would you be covered by sick pay? Really interesting. Dan, good morning.

[00:04:16]>> Morning, Jez. It's uh Dan from Kent talking about working from home. I had an ear infection once and I couldn't get a doctor. Surprise, surprise. So, I went to the chemist and they suggested I uh paid this 30 fee and sat in a room and had a a Zoom meeting with a doctor who was somewhere in the country. I knew she was working from home because she was at her dining room table and I noticed a child was playing in the background. I'm just glad it was just my ear that they were looking at. Great show.

[00:04:45]>> Honestly, what's happened to you lot this morning, Jay, just to completely confuse you. Um, and and thank you cuz watching you try and deal with the madness of the first hour is one of the funniest things ever. We discussed uh Bradwell apparently is a there's five Bradwells. I've just been told that Black Heath there's a large town called Black Heath in Dudley in the West Midlands as well. So I'm completely confused. Let's move on. Have you ever worked from home by the way?

[00:05:10]>> Well, I'm talking to you right now from home. Is it?

[00:05:12]>> Exactly. That's why I asked you. Right.

[00:05:14]But but it's responsible as well. The the thing that people were talking about is is is you've got to be pretty switched on to be that dedicated to go in for that number of hours and close the door. So, because it's easy if your partner's there, your wife, your husband, whatever, the kids, it's easy to get distracted. the guy I know somebody who works from home and he and he says I have to I literally have to be very very you know balanced but but but dead set on going into my office at night and I take a lunch break and I go for a walk because I need to clear my head but for me the thing about working from home mate apart from productivity is the social interaction thing's not great is it all of that after co >> right absolutely right and I do think we've seen an awful lot of problems with our society in general after lockdown so I think we can see we've really tested to the absolute extremes what would happen were everybody to be atomized forever and ever and I think it's really bad I think we'll probably see in the long term provided you know god when we don't have another pandemic for a long time that actually all the negative effects of the lockdown probably will outweigh the benefits of keeping lots of people alive when you look at it in the long run you look at children's development in schools look at young babies development look at old people being lonely look at all the other health problems all the other cancer treatments that went by the wayside and so on. So I think we've learned an awful lot from all of this. And again, I think that this is something that unless you are the government and you are, you know, it's civil servants and people are therefore forced to do this stuff to try and train the younger people up. I think this should be a decision for individuals and for families and for businesses. I mean, for my my part, I end up working a lot at weekends and take different breaks in the week. I'm in the office. Sometimes I'm not. And that kind of flexibility works for now.

[00:06:56]Uh you know, certainly as we've fled London and live as little hermits out in the middle of nowhere. the good life.

[00:07:01]His life now Felisti Kendall and Richard Bri, have you have you tended to your marrows this morning in the countryside?

[00:07:08]>> Well, that far beer for me to talk about my marrows at two.

[00:07:11]>> Oh god, what's going on today?

[00:07:14]>> I don't know which one of the five fingers marrow tend to start. If you're just tuning in, this is because Poppy Coburn, ladies and gentlemen, announced in the last hour of a slightly slightly strange first hour because we can't do any political stuff today that she was taught about at school about the five fingers disciplines and the middle finger was tolerance, which has led Chris in the southwest to just message me and say, "Thanks to Poppy. I'm going around today showing everyone my middle finger." And when they complain, I'm just saying it's tolerance. Accept it. I think that's a I think that's a brilliant story, John.

[00:07:44]>> Careful because my my dad is a Chris from the Southwest. So I said, "Dad, go home. Take your meds. Stop showing the middle finger to everybody."

[00:07:50]>> Thank you. Um, do you know what? Why is the West Midlands called the Black Country? I can't do this anymore today.

[00:07:56]I need to get back to seriousness. It's gone absolutely mad. Jay, the other thing that you touched upon there, we've talked about, we've talked actually about CO and the impact on working from home. Um, we were joking this morning that there's a big ship that's arrived and you can see it's parked in the temps. Parked. You know, don't you park a ship? But anyway, and and of course this terrible story that's in all the newspapers about the uh the hivirus rat rat linked virus outbreak on that cruise ship. Countries are saying you can't come in. Two Brits, we found out this morning are selfisolating at home. 21 further Britain remaining on the ship will be repatriated when it's allowed to birth in Tenneref. Several countries have said no. This is is is is this in your mind um panic stations because and I'm being completely serious what happened with the pandemic would we be reacting like this or is it important that people are aware because how this has started I believe is literally this sounds such a bizarre story but two um uh bird watchers going to some tip or dump to to try and find I don't know what to do with bird watching quite why you do that and this is rat linked this illness but it's killing people killing people they two Argentine bird watchers as well. So hopefully this isn't linked to their recent claims about the Faullands. I'm sure it's not God.

[00:09:10]>> Um look, I think I think one of the things that we're still trying to learn from the pandemic and obviously we've got this incredibly expensive inquiry going on that is going into you know how much cake Boris Johnson ate rather than learning any of the actual lessons unlike the way that the Swedes have already wrapped up their inquiry and so on. I think that we need to have some more money invested in the really early testing for these sorts of things. So Dominic Cummings does great stories about how they managed to start testing all the sewage to work out rates of where corona virus had got in and then all of the great technology would use for that had been scrapped by the blob that didn't want to be held accountable for any of these things. You've got to know is this the sniffles or is it Ebola when it's one end of the spectrum that if something is like Ebola where there is a 70% mortality rate then if there's any slight risk of it you got to shut everything down shut all the borders down immediately. If it's a sniffles, you got to tell people to put on their their, you know, their grown-up trousers uh and keep calm and carry on. Yeah.

[00:10:04]You've got to work that stuff out early doors. The problem is we didn't know with COVID what it was because frankly the Chinese Communist Party were lying to us. They were withholding the truth about these things to the point where in China now, you know, they'll often try and say it was actually started by the Americans. So, we couldn't trust them on there. And there was a there was an argument inside government and well, should we be really robust and quick now or not? And you might recall that Donald Trump of all people, not necessarily known as a cautious man, was trying to advocate for closing all of America's borders and certainly all of the flights at the time from China because that was where the virus was emanating from. And the Democrats, who I assume, even though it's local election day, we can have a pop at the American Democratic Party.

[00:10:45]They said it's racist to stop the flights coming in from China. So no, that's where this virus has has come from. So I think in this case we have to look very quickly very seriously about what this is and shut down if any avenues of these people coming into the country or at least quarantine them until we know better what's going on because we definitely didn't act fast enough. And I think the cruise ship is a perfect example of how many different nationalities are represented on that ship which means how quickly an outbreak could spread to all the corners of the of the globe. And I think >> I I always found it astonishing >> how international a problem this I mean, I I always found it astonishing and I wasn't I wasn't on air during COVID and I know that people have very entrenched views. I I I always found it astonishing that a country that was supposed to be the fifth leader in the world did not have practices in place. I I will forever forever say that whoever had been in charge, I think that the the the link between I'm going to kill a quarter of a million people or destroy an economy. I can't imagine having to make that decision. I think in hindsight we can say we should have done this, we should have done that. I know all the antiaxers and the people that were against lockdowns and the people who will say, "Well, we should have done it sooner." I think it should have been and hopefully was a massive wakeup call for the world. Um, you're you're you're attracting a bit of criticism now. Good morning, Jeza. I can't believe this posh James Chaft moaning about working from home while sitting in his bloody house.

[00:12:07]Glass houses comes to mind. That's Pauling Kent.

[00:12:11]>> Guilty. Guilty is charged. Well, look, I'm not a civil servant. I'm not paid by the taxpayer. And I think that's where the difference comes in. I mean, I think I've actually got a where is it? An Emma Bridgewwater jug over my shoulder here that literally says taxation is theft on it. So, I don't think I'm being too hypocritical.

[00:12:28]>> I love that. Um, just very quickly as well, we've talked about Hunter Varus.

[00:12:31]We've talked about um civil servants working from home. Bit about migration in the papers this morning. Did you see that footage of the French police finally slashing a migrant boat to stop it heading to the UK? Peeps, I don't know if you saw this this morning. I always wonder if the French do that cuz there's a television camera. That's just one boat. This, you could see it if you're watching on YouTube, uh the Jean Dam running out slashing the boat to avoid it going. Um and you suddenly think, oh my god, a change. They've realized they're getting 500 million pounds a year and they need to do something about it. As a direct result of what you if you're on the radio, you can't see it, but this is French police slashing a boat. Migrants then come ashore. Guess what's happening? The French human rights watchdog is investigating whether those um those policemen by slashing the boat took away the human rights of those illegal migrants from coming over here. What's the world become, Jay?

[00:13:21]Well, it's it's interesting to see that it's no longer just an Anglophere virus that our institutions and our mores and our cultures that are designed to protect and look after the most vulnerable people in societies have been co-opted by far-left lunatics. Frankly, it's interesting. A few years ago when woke was really kicking off, you had people in France saying, "Ho, Liz Rosby, if there's American pig dogs, you know, they don't understand uh how in France we don't get affected by this stuff."

[00:13:50]Well, they're getting affected by it and good and hard now. So, I think this is a broad problem that you see around the world and unless you have a worldwide response to being able to sort this stuff out, that's why Britain, I'm afraid until that happens, is going to have to act unilaterally in order to sort this out. It's great that the French are doing a little bit of this, but it's not going to touch the sides because those people will keep going and keep going until we have a proper deterrent that stops them from coming.

[00:14:15]And I think probably something like the Rwanda scheme that if people that do get across here will get sent back again. I think this is something that will become a more and more of a cross party consensus. And let's remember that as we're now going into the summer months, the weather will be easier for people to cross over in small boats. So the numbers will rise and the veilance of this in the minds of the British public will go up and up and up.

[00:14:37]>> I can say this in a really I can say this in a in a really wide ranging way.

[00:14:42]This is this is not political because it covers everything. I cannot believe this country be its institutions, its leaders, its political base or just the general public do not have it amongst us or them to make what to me is a really simple decision to deal with a problem that is undermining so many people's lives. I'm sick of the pontificating and the posturing and the platitudes. You talk about Rwanda. I've said it repeatedly on this show. I would have a liner in the channel. I'd have the Navy.

[00:15:13]Nobody would set foot in this country unless they had the correct paperwork.

[00:15:17]They would be sent to detention centers.

[00:15:18]I'm not getting into a debate about where they are today, but they would be detention centers that would send a very strong message which would say this isn't the life of Riley. You get what you give in this country. There are people who deserve more because they're paying into it. We're not suddenly an uncaring, horrific race of people. We're talking about fairness. We're talking about priorities. I do not and cannot believe that there are not politicians that do not have the gumption or or frankly the the courage to do something about it. Jay, lovely to speak to you working from home. You relax. Go and we going to do a Pilates class. There you are. There are the there are the five fingers, the middle finger of tolerance as tick kids are now tall. Check out the Telegraph Pix. James Price, thank you very much indeed.