In defence of the office
In a year that has forced a shift away from the typical office environment, Laura Aldington looks at what working from home has really meant for collaboration, culture, and the collective.
As lockdowns slowly begin to ease and state government leaders take steps to lifting restrictions, we’re seeing more and more business leaders talking about their return to office plans. Or, more specifically, their ‘will not return to office’ plans. The general gist is that this radical social experiment has revealed just how redundant the office has become. That we’re just as efficient, communicative and collaborative a workforce when we’re free to do it from the comfort of our own Uggs; that it offers better work life balance; that it makes for a more ‘flexible’ workplace.
They certainly raise some valid points. There can surely be little doubt that for certain types of business, a 9-5 (and then some) return to a physical location every day is a thing of the past, that we’ve entered a new era of work, and that the flexibility and choice that offers can only be a good thing..
For years now, advocates of remote working have been touting the eminently quotable sound bite, “Work isn’t a place you go, it’s something you do.” The New Statesman championed the concept as its headline when the right to flexible working was extended to all UK employees back in 2014. But I wonder if the two have to be mutually exclusive? Could work be a place you can go to help with the thing you do.
