THE CHANGING FACE OF THE OFFICE
What is the actual point of Lord Alan Sugar? (Apart from pretending to fire people in colourful power clothes who have just monumentally failed at something on TV?)
Just like that lovely Jacob Rees-mogg, old Al very much subscribes to the bums-on-seats school of thought when it comes to being in the office.
Hearing that accountancy firm PWC was giving its employees Friday afternoons off over summer in a bid to keep hold of staff, he was outraged. ‘This is a bloody joke,’ he fumed. ‘The lazy gits make me sick. There is no way people work as hard as when they had to turn up at a work location.’
Not only old-fashioned, but wrong. In the pandemic, millions of people, myself included, found they could do their job just as well without traipsing across town every day. Many of us started earlier and worked later. Walks could be taken at lunch. Laundry could be done. Multitasking occurred.
The benefits include saving energy and cash on commuting and having more time to spend with family. It improves quality of life. And then, you see, people don’t want to resign. The notion that someone who can’t physically be seen by their boss must be skiving is rubbish, but perhaps speaks volumes about the kind of people Lord Sugar employs? One of his Twitter supporters sniggered: ‘I know what I would do if I was allowed to work from home and it certainly wouldn’t be work.’ Well, most of us are more grown-up than that.
Much of the workforce now enjoys flexible working, and the right employees will work hard anywhere. Resignations from rigid 9-5 jobs show that people are voting with their feet. The times, they are a-changing…