Express & Star comment: Working from home works
Boris Johnson has been urging people to return to work, by which he means to get back into the office, or wherever.
Yet there is a problem with his nostalgic yearning for a return to the way things were before mid-March. The genie is out of the bottle.
Get back into the office? Why?
From the point of view of how companies operate, the coronavirus lockdown has been a voyage of discovery and, both employers and employees may well think, enlightenment.
While you cannot manufacture a car engine at home, the lockdown has seen many jobs which it was assumed could only be efficiently done in a workplace environment being done instead on the dining room table.
This is a revolution and for some companies there will be no going back, because this new way of working suits them. If they can get by without having offices, then why have offices with all their associated expense?
Keeping in touch by video conferencing online has been taken to a whole new level. And it is Covid-19 safe, as well.
As for staff, by definition the advantage of working from home is that they don't have to travel to work, so in effect they are getting a significant pay rise. Avoiding the work commute is a very considerable cost saving for those forking out bus or train fares daily, or racking up big fuel bills for the round trip in their car.
Then there is that double-edged sword in that they don't have the bosses breathing down their neck, or monitoring what they are doing. For those with the inclination, that could be a licence to be a bit lazy, although others feel that working from home they are more productive.
One survey shows that just shy of seven out of 10 workers have enjoyed the experience of working from home. Less happily, if overall GB Ltd can successfully work from home, it underlines how little manufacturing we do these days.
What seems likely to emerge after the lifting of the coronavirus restrictions is a hybrid model, perhaps with some people going in to the office on designated days of the week, and working from home on the others.
It's a game changer. Britain has discovered working from home works.
