Working from home is here to stay despite the old fossils
Working from home has not just been a godsend for some. For so many it has involved life-changing adjustments that have transformed their quality of life so much that to consider going back to the way things were before seems ludicrous.
So why is there such a big push to use extra fuel to get workers’ bottoms back into office chairs with the additional cost to businesses of non-domestic energy charges for electricity and heat?
A time-consuming and stressful commute takes that tension to work with you. It’s like a buzzing mosquito of disquiet that you’re forced to take into a place where you should be able to focus and get on with your job. How many of us have to navigate packed trains, roaring traffic, polluted bicycled chaos and buses that just never turn up on time?
There is a pride in knowing you can be productive and fulfilled without being burnt out every day. Some experts have highlighted that the average production level has likely increased tenfold.
I can only imagine the anger at the growing number of powerful men who would rather wallow in the past than admit working at home works for so many. Such opinions are out of touch in our post-Covid society. They belong in a nanny state watching our every move and deciding what’s best for us.
We have Jacob Rees-Mogg leaving passive aggressive notes on the desks of hardworking civil servants working from home, peddling the idea that those who want or need to work from home are lazy slackers. It seems he would sooner see people chained to their desks like a ghost from a Dickens novel.
Plus we have a prime minster announcing he wants workers back in the office and out of the fridge, how ironic given he couldn’t stick to lockdown rules without stuffing his face full of hypocrisy cake.
If a company’s only reason for not following a flexible approach to working is based on the idea that adults cannot be trusted to work properly, they need to grow up themselves. They will lose staff to more forward-thinking and progressive companies.
Flexibility is the future, no matter what the crusty old fossils say.