NSW Catholic school sparks four-day week debate with ‘learn from home’ Mondays for senior students

Opportunity to learn from home will ‘set students up for success’, principal of Chevalier College says

Parents at a regional Catholic college in New South Wales are welcoming a proposed change to the school week that would mean seniors spend Mondays at home.

Chevalier College, based in the southern highlands, has announced a proposal that would see students in years 10 to 12 learn and work from home on Mondays, a move the principal says would “set students up for success”.

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More Australians head back to the office and most prefer Thursday or Friday, study finds

Exclusive: Transport Opinion Survey says in September workers spent 21% of their week working from home, down from 27% in March

As an increasing number of Australians favour the office over working from home, Friday has emerged as one of the most popular days to commute and be among colleagues, new research shows.

On average Australian workers spent just 21% – or between one and two days – of their work week at home during a two-week survey period in September, down from a corresponding data point of 27% in March. This is according to the latest Transport Opinion Survey conducted by the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, based on data from 1,029 respondents, who were also asked about priorities and transport attitudes.

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Bad management has prompted one in three UK workers to quit, survey finds

Study shows widespread concern over quality of managers, with 82% of bosses deemed ‘accidental’, having had no formal training

Almost one-third of UK workers say they’ve quit a job because of a negative workplace culture, according to a new survey that underlines the risks of managers failing to rein in toxic behaviour.

Research carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) pointed to widespread concern about the quality of management, and its impact on workers’ daily lives.

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Number of Britons facing significant internet outages doubles in a year

Two-fifths of UK adults disconnected for three hours or more with one in four left without service for nearly a week

The number of Britons who have experienced their internet connection failing for at least three hours has almost doubled in the last year, with irate consumers now ranking broadband outages as a bigger frustration than roadworks or public transport delays.

In the past year, two-fifths (41%) of all UK adults – 22 million consumers – have had their internet disconnected for three or more hours, a significant increase on the 12 million who reported disruption the previous year, according to a report by the price comparison website Uswitch.

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Britain has felt the shift to home working more than most countries

For many reasons it is no surprise that the office exodus is so pronounced in the historical centre of Anglo-Saxon capitalism

Working from home is a seismic shift in employment patterns that has rocked businesses, charities and public sector organisations across the world.

From Hong Kong and Singapore to London, New York and Toronto, white collar workers have changed the way they work, shop and pursue leisure, culture and recreation, shifting many local economies on their axis. For many towns and cities it’s as if the sun shines at a different point in the day, such is the transformation in how about 60% of people conduct their lives.

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South East Water blames working from home for hosepipe ban

Utility’s head says demand for drinking water has risen 20% since pandemic, outpacing supply

A water company has blamed more people working from home post-pandemic for a new hosepipe ban.

South East Water, which supplies more than 2m homes and businesses, will impose the first hosepipe ban of the summer on Monday, affecting households across Kent and Sussex.

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Staff work in central London offices for 2.3 days a week, study finds

Thinktank warns against wholesale switch to working from home and raises fears over lost productivity in capital

Office workers in central London are spending on average 2.3 days a week in the workplace, according to a report that warns against a wholesale switch to working from home.

The thinktank Centre for Cities carried out polling of office workers in the capital and found they were spending 59% of the time in their workplace compared with pre-Covid levels.

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Germany’s would-be spies seek licence to work from home

BND intelligence service is finding expectations of flexible working and taking a mobile to the office are affecting recruitment

James Bond was famously given the licence to kill by MI6, as part of his role as a British secret agent.

Today’s wannabe spies are more likely to ask for something else: permission to work from home – a cultural shift that has hit recruitment figures for Germany’s intelligence service.

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Australia hits peak ‘return to office’, transport experts say

In what looks to be the new work-from-home normal, the average Australian worker spends 27% or more of their working hours at home

Transport experts believe post-pandemic work habits have finally stabilised and that the return to the office is unlikely to progress any further.

The average working Australian is spending 27% of their working hours at home, calculated across full and part-time employees.

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Schools in England seeing more pupil absences on Fridays

Change in parents’ work patterns since Covid may have led to pupils staying home

Schools in England are seeing “a huge amount” of pupil absence on Fridays with children staying at home with their parents following a shift in attitudes post-Covid, MPs have been told.

Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, told the education committee that persistent absence from schools is “one of the issues of our age” and called for a “razor sharp focus” on the problem.

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Australia’s Covid recovery: which capital cities have bounced back best?

Visits for retail and recreation have boosted activity in Sydney and Melbourne, but work from home preferences are keeping office trips low

Activity across Sydney and Melbourne’s central business districts is still below pre-Covid levels as work from home preferences keep office vacancies high – however, the business community is heartened by a surge in recreational visits that is expected to “rebalance” Australian cities.

Melbourne’s CBD was 33% less busy from mid-September to mid-November this year compared with the same period in 2019, with Sydney’s CBD slightly more active, down by 30% on pre-Covid levels, according to movement data drawn from anonymous mobile phone activity and analysed by research firm Roy Morgan.

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Rise in back pain and long-term sickness linked to home working – ONS

Sharp rise in people leaving labour market in past three years could be related to home working since Covid

Back and neck injuries caused by working from home during the Covid pandemic has been identified by the UK’s official number crunchers as a possible factor contributing to a sharp rise in people leaving the labour market over the past three years.

The Office for National Statistics said there had been a marked increase in disabilities often associated by medical experts with excessive screen use, after the increase in the number of people home working while offices were shut during the pandemic.

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Australia’s richer areas more likely to have people working from home in pandemic, analysis finds

Census data shows Sydney’s northern suburbs had highest WFH proportion, with lowest in regional areas such as Maryborough in Victoria and Taree in NSW

Areas with higher incomes in NSW and Victoria were more likely to have a higher percentage of people working from home during the pandemic, according to a Guardian Australia analysis of census data.

The data provides further evidence of how differently people in areas with different socioeconomic backgrounds experienced the pandemic.

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Proposed work-from-home tax changes would mean lower deductions or more paperwork

If adopted, Australian Tax Office draft guidelines would cut 80c flat rate to 67c and affect tax returns from next July

People working from home would lose hundreds of dollars in tax deductions if new draft guidelines released by the Australian Tax Office are adopted.

Under the proposed changes, those working from home would not be able to claim expenses such as internet, electricity and mobile separately using the popular shortcut method, which sets out a flat rate for hours worked at home, rather than calculating the actual costs.

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Revealed: Suella Braverman sets Home Office ‘No boats crossing the Channel’ target

UK’s new home secretary upsets civil servants with speech on migrants, trashy TV and back-to-office call

The new home secretary has already prompted consternation among Home Office officials after telling them she wants to ban all small boats crossing the Channel, the Observer has learned.

During her inaugural address to departmental staff last Wednesday, Suella Braverman said a top priority would be stopping all Channel crossings. She has also asked all staff to watch “trashy TV” to help their “mental wellbeing”, a source said, specifically citing Channel 4’s Married at First Sight and First Dates as well as Love Island.

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Nottingham named worst UK city for broadband outages

Internet downtime for the city averages 70 hours a year, with 11m Britons losing almost two days a year

Almost 11 million consumers have suffered a broadband blackout lasting more than three hours over the last year, with Nottingham named Britain’s “outage capital”.

The average UK household lost a total of almost two days of internet time as a result of loss of service, power cuts and maintenance, figures show.

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Tokyo mayoral win a ‘huge surprise’ for candidate living in Belgium

Japanese national Satoko Kishimoto won ward of 500,000 people 5,800 miles away with online campaigning

A Japanese woman living in Belgium has been elected as mayor of a district in Tokyo after coming to prominence through her online campaigning during the Covid pandemic.

Satoko Kishimoto, 47, who has lived in the Belgian city of Leuven with her husband and children for a decade, is now mayor of Suginami city, a ward of 500,000 people, more than 5,800 miles away from her home.

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Elon Musk’s return-to-office threat to Tesla staff sparks Twitter spat with Australian billionaire

Atlassian boss Scott Farquhar says he’d be happy to poach Musk’s employees for remote jobs at his software company, which allows staff to work from home

Elon Musk’s order that Tesla workers return to the office has sparked a Twitter spat with Australian billionaire Scott Farquhar, after the Atlassian CEO suggested he would be happy to poach Musk’s staff for remote working positions.

In a memo sent to staff, headlined “Remote work is no longer acceptble” [sic], the Tesla CEO wrote that “anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours a week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers”.

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Julia Gillard says Covid-led shift to remote working could render some female employees ‘invisible’

Former PM joins panel discussion of pandemic’s effect on workplace gender equality and urges bosses not to overlook women

Former prime minister Julia Gillard says women risk becoming “invisible behind the screen” during the Covid-led transition to remote working and has urged bosses to ensure female employees working from home aren’t overlooked for promotion.

Australia’s first female prime minister on Wednesday also welcomed the record number of women in Anthony Albanese’s cabinet, calling it “very important” as the Labor ministry was sworn in.

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No 10 admits PM meeting with Sue Gray was instigated by Downing Street – UK politics live

Latest updates: PM’s spokesperson clears up that No 10 requested meeting after Simon Clarke suggests it was the other way round

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished, and the PM’s spokesperson told journalists that Boris Johnson has still not received the Sue Gray report into Partygate. The spokesperson did not say when it would be arriving, but it is not expected to be published today.

Boris Johnson has recorded a clip for broadcasters during a visit to a school in south-east London. PA Media has written up the key lines.

I’m not attracted, intrinsically, to new taxes. But as I have said throughout, we have got to do what we can - and we will - to look after people through the aftershocks of Covid, through the current pressures on energy prices that we are seeing post-Covid and with what’s going on in Russia and we are going to put our arms round people, just as we did during the pandemic.

Of course, but on the process you are just going to have to hold your horses a little bit longer. I don’t believe it will be too much longer and then I will be able to say a bit more.

It’s basically very rare disease, and so far the consequences don’t seem to be very serious but it’s important that we keep an eye on it and that’s exactly what the the new UK Health Security Agency is doing.

As things stand the judgment is that it’s rare. I think we’re looking very carefully at the circumstances of transmission.

It hasn’t yet proved, fatal in any case that we know of, certainly not in this country.

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