The move to flexible working won’t liberate us all – it will push women out of the workplace

Any inclusiveness fostered by those grids of faces over Zoom will be forgotten and that isn’t good enough, writes Mary Dejevsky

Older or younger, the biggest losers from the pandemic could be women (Getty/iStock)

The government may be warning of a “second wave”, but a sizeable section of the population is already looking to a post-coronavirus future. Images are conjured up of a Britain, even a world, which is slower, quieter, greener and more humane.

It is a world more local than global, where neighbours look out for each other, rushed commuters are replaced by happy cyclists, motor vehicles are banished from the roads and children play in pollution-free streets.

Central to this halcyon future are projected changes in, and at, work, with the office suddenly becoming more of an optional extra than a must-have. The months of working from home (for those who could), plus the changes necessary to make an office “Covid-compliant”, have prompted a new look at the merits or otherwise of office-working.