Should employees stay working from home or return to the office?

I FULLY support Boris Johnson’s return to work campaign. Of Britain’s 66 million population, only a small percentage have caught the virus and, though tragic, an even smaller number have died from it. Even if we have to go shopping and use public transport looking like bank robbers and local lockdowns need to be imposed, getting the economy up and running again is far more important than the views of scientists who seem to want to instil fear into us all.

BARRY HILL, Whipsnade, Beds.

WHERE does the figure of 49 per cent of us working from home come from? What about all the NHS staff, supermarket workers, warehouse workers, transport and delivery drivers, building workers, emergency workers, train and bus drivers and thousands more who can’t work from home? There may be many office-based jobs in London, but that is not the way the whole country works.

B. SPRING, Wakefield, W. Yorks.

IT MAKES no sense for employers or employees to return to the office. Once children are back in the classrooms, most parents can continue to work

effectively from home uninterrupted. Employers can save money by moving to smaller premises and renting meeting rooms for staff to get together on an occasional basis. Employees not only make substantial savings by not having to travel to their place of work, but also gain valuable family time. The office spaces that become vacant, together with empty shops, can be converted into flats, providing a quick and cheap way of dealing with the lack of housing. Continuing to be based at home will also help reduce overcrowding on public transport, making it safer for those who have to go out to work.

JILL FREEMAN, Waltham Cross, Herts. PEOPLE like me who have had to go out to work through the Covid crisis are sick of the bleating masses who are reluctant to return to the office. Just get on with it! Many who have carried on going out to work are at breaking point, though all we hear about are the effects on those in lockdown. Now we are being told that for safety’s sake we have to wear masks in shops. What happened when the pandemic was at its height — were we miraculously protected? I would like to tell those on furlough or working from home to get over yourselves and come back into the real world. The rest of us are no longer able to man the economic lifeboats alone.

JAYNE JEUNE, Sheffield.

WHAT to do with empty offices is glaringly obvious: convert them into apartments, which would help towards solving the housing shortage. Forward thinking would give a future to city centre shops and cafes.

JANET MARSHALL, Gosforth, Cumbria. WE ARE following the science, says Boris. Now get back to work and don’t listen to what the scientists saying. BRIAN BEST, High Wycombe, Bucks.

LAST MONDAY, I had a phone call from Helen; on Tuesday an email from Pam; and on Wednesday I bought a birthday card for Frances. They are all friends from when we worked in Lloyds Bank 25 years ago. Yes, commuting to the City could be tedious, time-consuming and expensive, but many friendships and several marriages arose out of the close, daily contact we had with our colleagues.

JAMES ANDERSON, Southampton.