Home working puts more power in hands of bosses

WAS 2020 the death of the office? When it was more profitable for employers to move workers into factories, they did so.

That was the start of the Industrial Revolution, which put the Great into Britain. But now it’s more profitable to send them home to work, employers are happy to do that.

“Bosses predict the end of full-time office working” read the headline over a story that three-quarters of businesses will keep home working that was introduced last year. I suspect it won’t be a matter of choice, but a condition of the work relationship that passes for employment these days.

Pandemics can produce profit. If it suits the bottom line, people will have to do the job from their child’s bedroom

– or find other work.

“Working from home, or workshy at home?” I asked early on. But productivity has held up well, because six out of 10 say they find it impossible to switch off.

Instead of working from home, we’re living at work. I’ve been doing it most of this century.

Fragmentation of employment has been going on for years. Covid-19 has accelerated the trend, putting greater power in the hands of the employer, who no longer has to provide office space, heating, lighting or car parks. And there will be no office romance on Zoom.

Businesses benefited mightily from the generosity of Chancellor Sunak, while the employee has been reduced in status to that of an 18th century outworker.

Strange, the thoughts that pop into one’s head while contemplating the world from a home office. But I thought I’d get them off my chest. There, that’s better.