Will coronavirus transform the way we work? Somehow I doubt it

Our broadband isn’t good enough for us all to work from home – and besides, we’re sociable creatures

Sitting at home in splendid, self-imposed isolation, staring out at the daffodils in the garden and contemplating what to write, I wonder why I have spent the past 20 years trekking up to the office most days of the week. Detecting the onset of a minor sniffle, I find that coronavirus is a ready-made excuse not to come in, without the sceptical disdain from colleagues that invariably accompanies the words “I’m working from home”. Of course you are, though why can we hear the Cheltenham crowd roaring in the background?

I say 20 years because that has roughly been the period in which the internet has expanded to the point where home working has been feasible for those whose physical presence in the workplace is not absolutely essential. Before that, journalists were never much in the office in any case; we were usually out and about on stories, or more likely in the pub, but rarely working from home.

The internet was supposed to liberate us from the bondage of office working. No longer would we need to traipse miserably into the city centre on crowded trains and buses, inevitably crushed up against someone coughing and spluttering. (Why do some people, even now, consider themselves so indispensable that they are prepared selfishly to spread their diseases around a packed carriage?)

The roads would be less congested, reducing pollution and carbon emissions. The two, or even three, hours it might take to get in to work and back would be saved and put to better use. We would be more productive, more efficient, more relaxed and more focused, able to stay in for deliveries or the plumber and free to get the children from school. Or that was the theory.

So what happened? The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that around 1.54 million people work from home for their main job. That is up from 884,000 10 years ago but is still a tiny proportion of the workforce.

Those who do work remotely from home enjoy the freedom and flexibility it brings, yet for many of us it’s still a bridge waiting to be crossed. But soon we may have no choice if the Government moves its coronavirus action plan formally from contain to delay and insists that people who can work from home do so.

Will that prove to be a temporary expedient or will it usher in an entirely new way of working for millions, fulfilling the early promise offered by the internet? The arrival of 5G, with its greater opportunities for streaming, video conferencing and the rest, should make remote working much more feasible. Yet that only applies if the internet connections are any good. Parts of the country, even parts of London and other big cities, are in mobile blackspots or cannot access even moderately fast broadband, let alone the ultra-fast version available elsewhere.

Our full-fibre infrastructure is far behind that of other nations, with less than 10 per cent coverage. In Japan and South Korea it is close to 100 per cent. Most of Europe is way ahead of the UK. Latvia’s coverage is 90 per cent, Spain’s 70 per cent.

In his Budget today, Rishi Sunak is expected to commit £5 billion to roll out super-fast broadband to rural areas, but what is needed is full-fibre, ultra-fast coverage. It is all well and good talking about new railways and roads; but if people are going to work from home more then this is the connectivity that matters.

As we reported yesterday, the UK’S ageing infrastructure will simply not be able to cope with millions of people working from home, which is maybe one reason why the Government has not yet recommended it. Even the best-case scenario indicates that two fifths or more of the workforce will either be off sick or will stay at home to avoid catching the virus. If schools shut, it will be even more, as parents will have to look after their children.

If we end up in a complete lockdown like Italy and there is an internet meltdown, the impact on the economy will be exacerbated. As Prof Izzat Darwazeh, of University College London, said: “I doubt that the core network can cope if even tens of thousands of people who work in the City of London are forced to work from home and need access to video conferencing and trading systems.”

In addition, sensitive businesses such as law firms and banks need to be sure their remote systems are secure from being hacked.

So home working is not all it was cracked up to be. Moreover, among its champions have been the green movement whose adherents somehow imagine all those commuters are harming the environment.

Yet if we all work from home and use the internet more to communicate we will need far more electricity than now. Online connectivity is immensely energy-consuming and most of the power comes from carbon sources, not renewables. Any youngster playing video games, watching Netflix and spending hours on Facebook or Instagram while worrying about the future of the planet, is using far more energy than we “boomers” they blame for global warming did in our entire lives. The carbon footprint of the average 22-year-old, who has probably also travelled around the world on a gap year, is infinitely greater than anything left by previous generations.

But there are other reasons why home working has never caught on in the way many thought it might. Many of us simply miss the companionship and camaraderie that going to the office provides. We are not, by nature, creatures that enjoy isolation.

In any case, isolation is a misnomer since we are not all entirely on our own but often with other family members, for whom the daytime presence of someone usually out at work may not always be a harmonious one. I recently overheard one woman remarking to a friend: “This selfisolation will increase the murder rate, starting with my husband!”

Perhaps the experience of staying home during the coronavirus outbreak will change our work patterns for ever but I somehow doubt it. Looking out of the window, I find myself fretting that perhaps I should be mowing the lawn and doing all those other chores I have put off. The office doesn’t seem such a bad place after all. Now where did I put my rail pass...?