Here we go again!!!!! – the idiotic debate about ‘working-from-home’

Last week a co-worker said to me: “why are we (human beings) like this???”.

I wish I could answer her question but I don’t have the foggiest idea how or why we are the way we are? Possibly tied to greed…

As the Covid-19 vaccination programme rolled forward in the UK, with politicians trying to take credit as usual, we all appear to have briskly closed the chapter on the 100,000+ deaths and some employers – and in particular, those whose businesses benefit from crowded trains – have been out in force this week, to signal a premature end to Covid-19 and have started campaigning for a speedy return to how the world was before Covid-19. Out goes any notion of us learning from Covid-19 to emerge into a better world….

I do not have any problems whatsoever with people trying to get their businesses moving again, BUT, why do we have to turn everything into a Brexit-style “us” versus “them”?

I would have no issues whatsoever with a train operation saying: “once the vaccine kicks in and it is safe, please be assured we will keep you safe on our trains, please get back out and let us help with your commute to work” or something along those lines. Instead, what we are starting to see and hear are snide, offensive comments such as: “people need to get ready to get off their backsides and go back to working from offices” or “the sad ones who think staying at home and using zoom is going to cut it need to get a life”. Nobody significant has come out to thank the workforce for the sacrifices they have made over the past 11 months, with some people working from their kitchens and tight corners (not everyone has a home office).

What we are beginning to see is a pathetic and cowardly attempt to bully and stigmatise those who would wish to continue working from home, which is very pathetic indeed, given the fact that working from home did not begin with Covid-19 and indeed, Covid-19 has exposed the fact that a lot of jobs can be successfully delivered via working from home and what leaders and employers should be doing right now, is working out aspects of what their workers do, that can be done from home whether full time or part time and coming up with future arrangements that will enable that and facilitate it. There is never going to be a shortage of people who still prefer going into the office or those with jobs that can only be done away from home etc. But instead of taking the time to explore that, where we are heading is another era of divisiveness and ultimatums.

Fortunately, I believe there are now enough employers who will embrace new ways of working, to provide employees with an option to switch to, if their employers attempt to force a mindless return to pre-Covid commuting to offices enmass, ignoring the appalling condition on trains (with commuters paying hefty sums only to be packed on like cattle, sweating into each other’s faces as we do in London) and the avoidable impact on the environment, climate etc.