Flexitime Will Go Full-time

Wherever we lay our laptops, that’s our office. Companies will have to loosen their policies on flexible working

We won’t all continue to work remotely, but we will work more flexibly. That’s not so revolutionary for women, who have long done so to accommodate care for their children (and sometimes parents). But men have hitherto been reluctant, as Cary Cooper’s studies at Manchester University have shown, because they were worried it would damage their careers. “Well, now that’s gone,” he says.

Dialling in will be “totally acceptable”, but we’ll still come into the office for the big meeting or the kind of team building that can’t be done remotely. Head offices will be skeleton-crewed flagships, with workers, unmoored from major cities, docking in more regularly at smaller regional outposts.

Business travel that isn’t essential will disappear almost entirely. “Employees will realise that video conferencing can be more flexible, family-friendly and environmentally sustainable,” says Johann Fortwengel, senior lecturer at King’s Business School. “Employers will realise that it can be more economical.”

However, working from home doesn’t automatically mean a better balance with life: after all, remote employees tend to put in more hours. “You can video call, you can send tonnes of emails,” says Cooper, who predicts that the role of line managers will change significantly to include monitoring employees’ mental health in the absence of body language. And it won’t only be so-called snowflakey millennials who want to work for companies that promote well-being, “where people feel recognised, have some autonomy, work flexibly – all of that”.

Companies will in turn replace vulnerable human assets with more digitisation, automation and AI. That can be a good thing – for example, online teaching and economies of scale may make higher education more geographically and financially accessible, says Fortwengel – who isn’t worried about his job. “I think this moment presents great opportunities,” he declares.