Work is something we do... not somewhere we go

IN the cupboard in the bedroom I have a row of beautifully pressed shirts. Some are striped, some plain, some are double-cuffed, some single. They are hanging on hangers and facing the same way. Underneath and to the right hang my suits. There are several of them, some blue, some grey, one black, a couple of proper old fashioned pin stripe jobs that have been hanging there for years. Underneath them some shoes, the sort of shoes that you need to polish. They are black and brown. All of these things are very nice and some of them were quite expensive. The other thing they have in common is that their sole purpose now is to gather dust.

Except for dad’s funeral, I have not worn any of them for just short of a year. I did put on a ‘proper shirt’ once for an important zoom meeting, but as I was readying myself felt overdressed and uncomfortable so quickly went to change. All of those clothes feel like the uniform of a bygone age. They have remained hanging there in preparation for the day when things ‘get back to normal.’ Now I am pretty sure things never will. The longer any form of lockdown goes on, the more we adjust. Different ways of working emerge, different forms of communication evolve, and being the brilliant things that we humans are, we adjust. A couple of years ago, I used to worry that the easiest way to talk to my teenagers was on the phone. Not talking on the phone, but instant messaging on the phone. If you actually ring a teenager’s phone the chances of it being answered are zero. Send a message and you will get an immediate reply. So I have adjusted and, to be honest, the emoji-laden text-speak conversations I have with them now – even when they are in the next door room – are often more fun than the grumpy single word face-to-face interactions that used to qualify as normal healthy communication. I think the same is happening with regards to how we dress for work and where we work. I was immensely jealous of the England cricket fan I saw on the news this week who had stayed in Sri Lanka for 10 months in order to watch the England test matches that were postponed last year because of the virus. My immediate thought was that he must have given up work, but in fact he had carried on his trade as a web designer remotely. Have laptop and wifi, and there are a whole load of jobs you can do from just about anywhere. Two years ago, a colleague asked if I thought he could carry on working for this newspaper if he lived in Crete. Then the answer was no, now it might be different. If I look into the future now, it is very difficult for me to see many occasions when I might need a suit for work. A year ago I would not have dreamed of talking to my boss wearing a T-shirt, now it feels odd not to. I know of female colleagues who have vowed never to wear high heels again. We have all discovered that going to work is not as important as working. Work has become something we do, not somewhere we go. It’s obviously not just me who feels this change may be permanent. Mrs Martin – who loves clothes and has an awful lot of them – has started to get rid of the lot. Designer suits, work tops, smart trousers and dressed are all appearing on clothes resale sites. “I will definitely never wear them again,” she says. I found myself telling The Boy earlier today that taking him out for a driving lesson was a “good opportunity to put on some shoes.” “Just come in your slippers if you want,” he smiled. That was a step too far for me. But, give it time.