Parra News November 23 2021

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Tuesday, November 23, 2021
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Issue 53
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Editor’s Note
troy.dodds@parranews.com.au
Troy Dodds
@troydodds
Yes, we’re back to the rat race
We’re going back to the office
A friend of mine recently quit their job
upon hearing they’d need to return to
the office in 2022. They’ll find something
more local, not willing to battle the M4
every day.
Another had moved north at the start of
the pandemic, and now faces the headache
of moving back as the whole ‘work
from home forever’ dream starts to fade.
And it was always going to fade.
For almost two years now I’ve heard
people claim that the COVID-19
pandemic would change our working
lives forever. Working from home would
become the norm, with only the occasional
trip into the office.
The days of smelly food being left in
the fridge, the toilet paper roll not being
replaced and the printer seemingly never
working were gone, they said.
Of course this dream never matched the
reality, and by the time 2022 rolls around
most of us who work in offices will be
back to the same old desk they occupied
pre-pandemic.
There will be exceptions, of course.
But I’d suggest even those companies
holding out, claiming they’ve discovered
a new world in allowing their employees
to work from home, will eventually flick
the switch back to the way it was.
The cultures of companies big and
small will start to be impacted significantly
with their workforce split, especially
when new employees join and they
never really understand the groove of the
business.
In-person meetings or attendance at
networking events or conferences will
be needed, meaning the time saved
commuting to work will instead be spent
during the working day getting to such
events from all sorts of locations, if of
course you’ve based yourself somewhere
even remotely close to your workplace’s
base.
“It’ll be back to those
traffic jams and train
delays we were so used
to”
And then there’s the whole matter of
trust and performance management.
We’re a country that loves a sickie, tends
to hate the boss and bag the company at
Friday night drinks, but of course, that’s
no reason not to trust you’ll work just as
hard at your own home as you would in
the monitored office.
Working from home isn’t a problem
during the height of a pandemic or a lockdown
because temptations are less and
you’re desperately trying to keep your job
in such uncertain circumstances.
But as normality returns, I just can’t see
the work from home movement continuing,
or taking off further.
It’ll largely die a quickish death, and it’ll
be back to those traffic jams and train
delays we were so used to.
Local should always be the priority
It’s interesting to see radio station Triple
M taking a more localised approach to its
programming next year.
Part of that will see Penrith legend Mark
Geyer back on their airwaves at breakfast.
Triple M’s decision follows a trend
reversal of late that is taking away a lot of
national networking in radio.
Nine Radio recently reinstated a lot
of local programming into Brisbane on
4BC, after a couple of years of networking
most programs from 2GB in Sydney.
There’s plenty of other examples over
the years too, so often in radio news
departments.
In radio, local is key and always has
been, so the attempted national approach
by stations has only ever been about
money and never about audience.
Almost always, the decision has to get
reversed. It’s a weird industry where
learning from past mistakes is rare.
But that’s the media for you.
News Corp and Fairfax will likely
blame other factors but the truth is their
community newspapers started becoming
less relevant when they closed local
offices and generated content from hubs,
not in the communities they represent.
Television tends to understand the
concept better. You’d never see the
6pm news become a national bulletin,
because our cities are different and news
relevance differs significantly.
It may be more expensive, but the more
local media can get, the better.
Too often the big players have ignored
this rather obvious fact, and centralised
anyway, ultimately to their detriment
The answer to survival and growth was
always staring them in the face.
Police work shining through
As we edge closer to finally finding
answers to what happened to William
Tyrell, we must never forget the tenacity
and investment of our police officers in
such cases.
Just last week police also cracked a
30-year-old case involving the murder
of a two-year-old girl, arresting a woman
and man over the 1987 incident.
These cases never leave the detectives
who work on them. They deserve our
admiration and praise.
Western Sydney Publishing Group is a
proudly independent publisher. Talk to
us today about our sister publication,
The Western Weekender in Penrith, or
about our other services around custom
publishing and advertising solutions.
Alan Mascarenhas is currently on leave
Index
News.............................................1-20
Disability Expo...................21-28
News Continued.............29-31
Life & Style...........................32-34
Entertainment .................35-44
Business........................................45
Business Directory.......46-47
Sport ................................................48
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