Let’s keep remote working, and hang on to the small silver linings of coronavirus

The benefits of a flexible future to working parents, those with mental health conditions, or even simply to people wanting to live somewhere undictated by its proximity to their office’s fluorescent strip lighting, are numerous, writes Harriet Hall

Will we all be switching up our loungewear for lapels come August?

So here we are, is this lockdown over? Aside from a few final details – mass gatherings, spectators at sporting events, and hugs – the seismic shift in our quotidian lives felt by the coronavirus lockdown in the UK is more or less over.

At least according to the government. Announcing the latest easing of measures on Friday, Boris Johnson revealed he is placing the onus back on employers as of 1 August to determine whether their workforce should return to the office following over four months of working from home.

The bombshell came fewer than 24 hours after the UK’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said that there is “absolutely no reason” to change the guidance on working from home.

Remote working was never supposed to be permanent, of course, but it has exposed the outdated and in the large part unnecessary lifestyle for many office workers, who commute on average two hours a day, standing up in packed trains, then to sit in a distracting open-plan office five days a week. Exclusive focus groups hosted virtually by YouGov for The Independent revealed that office workers dream of a more flexible working future, one in which being squashed onto the Tube every day is a thing of the past, and being able to work from the comfort and quiet of their homes several days a week is the norm.

The efficiency of remote working has been undeniable during the pandemic and the benefits of a flexible future to working parents, those with mental health conditions and chronic illness, or even simply to people wanting to live somewhere undictated by its proximity to the fluorescent strip lighting of their office, are numerous.

How will workplaces respond to Johnson’s announcement? Will we all be switching up our loungewear for lapels come August or will we take some small positives from this pandemic after all? With the R number still threateningly close to 1 and councils empowered to enforce local lockdowns, it probably isn’t worth hanging up our trackies quite yet.

Yours,

Harriet Hall

Lifestyle editor