Working from home matters
Millionaires and Lords can shout all they want. I am not going back.
I am getting very tired of millionaires and billionaires urging people like myself to go back into the office. From my personal point of view, working from home has been the biggest positive change in working life since I started 45 years ago. I am definitely not a millionaire, I can assure you.
Most recently Nigel Farage, hot off the trot with his latest electoral gains, is promising to end the concept of working from home for anyone in local government. I would love for someone to reveal how often he is in the office.
Other corporate loons include Lord Rose, former boss of M&S and Asda. He said it was not a satisfactory way of working, ‘particularly in…a fast-moving consumer goods industry.’
I find it quite ironic that a Lord should be urging people back to the office since working from home is pretty much the definition of being a Lordship.
Maybe he just resents the fact that many ordinary people no longer need to doff their cap to him in the lobby. Or maybe he doesn’t like the fact that employees have voted with their feet to leave his domain.
He is not alone. Working from home has been the subject of threats and admonishments from a host of companies - Santander, Amazon, Apple and a few of the big investment banks in the US.
Ironically, it is companies like Amazon, Apple, Google et al who have created the world of home working with the technology they have built. Mobile phones in particular have so much computing power now that I am not even sure I need a laptop much of the working day any more.
Bosses cite the need for team togetherness and creativity - even though before the pandemic, more than a few of them consistently undermined any sense of togetherness by sacking selected people. Creativity? I don’t think so.
These days, I avoid the dreadful commute, I have a beautiful working environment and I am able to flex work demands against life demands when required. I recognise I am fortunate and that not all jobs can be done in this way. However, I hope that I am the thin part of a big wedge that will ultimately improve the lot of all of us non-millionaires.
I am sure Karl Marx, were he around, would have a few things to say about all these capitalists trying to get people back in the office. He would stress their need to control workers, which is far easier to do when they are all in the same place. He would also cite the bosses’ need to maximise the value of office spaces, which is, after all, a capital investment for many of them.
Others cite the negative impacts of large portions of the working population working from home. Public transport systems are often mentioned - if nobody is travelling to work, how can they make money? What about all the restaurants and cafes that used to thrive on commuter traffic?
Well, that is not really my problem. Big corporations always bleat when there are changes. They plead for less legislation when it suits them and scream for more legislation when they face ‘unfair’ competition.
I don’t recall restaurants or public transport systems taking any account of my needs before the pandemic - on the contrary, they fleeced me then and they still do. They all need to wake up and start behaving differently.
Karma is a wonderful thing. How do you feel on this?