How can it be right to exploit cushy WFH asks LUKE JOHNSON

Britain, like much of the world, is on the brink of an economic downturn, fuelled by inflation, a cost-of-living crisis and the impact of war in Ukraine.

I fear we may be heading into a recession worse than any seen during the 40 years I’ve been in business.

It is a grim prospect and we are going to need all our grit and determination to make it through the tough times ahead. Certainly, one luxury we cannot afford to allow ourselves any longer is WFH — working from home.

Confronted with a frightening new virus and lockdown, the digital technology that afforded us the ability to WFH was a godsend for millions. It certainly stopped the economy from going into free fall.




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Two years on, as the shadow of the pandemic recedes, too many people have become addicted to the practice of WFH

But two years on, as the shadow of the pandemic recedes, too many people have become addicted to the practice of WFH and show no inclination to return to the office.

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Howls

They have lost the habit of commuting and, perhaps, got rather too used to staying in their pyjamas until a Zoom meeting dictates otherwise.

They enjoy having constant access to the kitchen and the biscuit tin, or the chance to wander out into the garden to smell the roses whenever they fancy, while relishing being able to idly scroll on their mobile phone without fear of a boss’s wandering eyes.

And, of course, they find they are able to spend more time with their partner or offspring.

Yes, I am being a touch facetious, but the truth is working from home has facilitated the holy grail — viewed as such particularly by those on the Left — of the work-life balance.

Unfortunately, all the emphasis is now on ‘life’ rather than ‘work’. Domestic routines have been prioritised at the expense of workplace routines.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the taxpayer-funded civil service.

It is little wonder then that there have been howls of protest from the usual suspects — not least the unions — condemning Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for Government Efficiency, for daring to tell Cabinet colleagues this week that their officials must return to the office full time.

His intervention came after the Mail revealed that tens of thousands of civil servants were being encouraged to continue to work from home indefinitely — for up to three days a week.

This mix of home and office time has become known as ‘hybrid working’, a bit of jargon intended to make it sound innovative and progressive. But, in practice, I view it as a licence to skive.

Indeed, the Mail’s investigation found that on a typical Monday morning, in many public-sector offices, less than 10 per cent of staff were at their desks.

It is not hard to conclude that new ways of working are being exploited to enable staff to take long weekends. But it’s not just Mondays. A league table drawn up by Rees-Mogg’s office shows that some Government departments are all but deserted throughout the week.

At the Department for Education, three quarters of staff are at home on any given day.

The Department for Work and Pensions and the Foreign Office are not much better, with more than two-thirds of employees at home.

There are other concerns, too. Reports this week that even Downing Street had been targeted by hackers snooping on digital communications via Pegasus spyware in staff phones, ought to make every Government department (and business) fear their vulnerability to criminal activity.

Make no mistake, hacking into an at-home wifi network is child’s play compared to bugging Whitehall.

Yet, as the Mail revealed yesterday, GCHQ jobs and roles in counter-terrorism at the Home Office are still being advertised as partial or total working-from-home opportunities.

Civil service unions might view Rees-Mogg’s call to end the WFH culture ‘vindictive’ and insist that it is just as effective as being in the office — but that is simply not true.

It’s a travesty to pretend that people at home work as diligently as colleagues who turn up to the office.

My own experience as a businessman over the past two years, liaising with people at the Home Office or the Vehicle Licensing Agency, is that working from home has made for a bureaucratic nightmare. And I know that tens of thousands of people in contact with other departments, perhaps in need of passports or other vital documents, would agree with me.

Calls go unanswered, emails are not replied to and people take far longer to carry out the routine administrative tasks than they did before.

And as you while away the time waiting for someone to get back to you, you can’t help wondering how many staff are out walking the dog, taking a break on their Peloton or picking the children up from school when, previously, they would have been at their desks.

Contact

It has gone too far and similar scenarios are playing out in businesses across the country — with all the knock-on economic consequences that come with lost productivity.

There is resistance to the curtailing of working from home, of course, because few people are eager to return to the harder ‘old ways’.

Commuting, for instance, was rarely a pleasant experience. It was also expensive, in both time and money, and a return to the office might feel like a pay cut for some.

But the fact is that if people don’t go to their workplace, the work doesn’t get done.

Nor do I believe that work conducted outside the workplace is done to the same standard or at the same pace.

It is hard to stay motivated in the absence of colleagues — especially for younger staff who need the guidance that comes from face-to-face contact.

Socialising — even if it’s just an exchange at the water-cooler — is also an important aspect of working. Indeed, social interaction is key to generating vital creativity whatever field you are in.

What we are seeing now is the rise of a new social divide, with some workers, particularly those on the lowest wages, having no choice about where they work.

Waiters, factory workers, builders, supermarket staff and delivery drivers can’t work from home. So how can it be right that the laptop class gets to exploit the WFH option afforded them by their employers under the cynical guise of ‘staying safe’?

Haven

WFH enthusiasts claim that all these objections are an out-dated reaction to a positive sea-change that has occurred in the landscape of British industry since the onset of Covid. But they are very wrong.

They ignore the impact on tens of thousands of small inner city businesses — and our transport links — that previously relied on the flow of commuters. It has been nothing short of devastating — these companies and their employees are conveniently forgotten in the ‘bright new future of work’ narrative.

The economic concerns are not the only reason I fear the grip that home working has on us. There is a human cost, too.

From the start of lockdown in March 2020, I walked to my office every day because I needed to create space between home and workplace. Without it, I would lose my haven, the place where I am able to escape the pressures of work at the end of the day.

Being in the same location day and night is not healthy. It is isolating. Humans are social animals. It is how we work best.

And with the challenges we face in the months ahead, we will have to work at our very best to survive.

Luke Johnson is an entrepreneur and founder of Risk Capital Partners

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Source: Thanks msn.com