It wasn’t so long ago that having the option to work from your lounge in your slippers felt like a futuristic dream bordering on utopia.
Yet here we are, practically on the doorstep of the full remote revolution, and I’m watching a queue of business leaders feverishly backpedal towards outdated notions of “bums on seats.” Or, as I like to call it: “The Return of the Status Quo.” Pardon me while I stifle a yawn. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from a decade-plus of banging the proverbial drum about the virtues of working from home, it’s that the naysayers are usually being led by something that’s more about control (and a touch of distrust) than genuine business sense.
Let’s be perfectly clear: I’ve been peddling the work-from-anywhere mantra since 2011, if not earlier—my piece in Business Matters a five years ago, “Working at Home Can Lift Positivity, Productivity, and Profitability,” should have been etched onto the hearts of every forward-thinking employer. Back then, I remember the world patting me on the head and saying, “Yes, dear, lovely idea,” while proceeding to double-check no one was playing solitaire in the back corner of the office. It was like telling a Victorian mother you planned to feed her precious son vegetarian sausages. The horror. The uncertainty. The mild panic that everything we knew about corporate life was about to disintegrate into chaos.
Fast-forward a few years—well, more than a few—and we’ve all seen precisely how viable working from anywhere can be. There are even fewer excuses for archaic attitudes now. Technology has made it simple, cheap, and ridiculously flexible to replicate all the necessary functions of a physical workplace without actually dragging your bleary-eyed body onto a crowded commuter train. Of course, that’s not to say the standard HQ has no purpose. Some people genuinely love the camaraderie and structure of a shared space. But to insist that it’s the only way? That’s a bit like refusing to let your kids have a smartphone because you think carrier pigeons were doing just fine all those years ago.
One of the earliest arguments I recall making, in another Business Matters piece titled “Bodies & Bums Cost Money, Can Go Virtual,” was that paying for an army of chairs to be occupied from nine until five is both expensive and, frankly, pointless in the modern age. You’re shelling out for the real estate, the electricity, the toilet paper—and for what? A chance to watch Sandra from accounting type away in real time? A daily chat over the coffee machine about last night’s telly? I’ve nothing against Sandra’s enthralling conversation, but let’s be honest: a good Zoom or Teams meeting can deliver the same interplay, minus the leaky commute. If you want to foster human interaction, schedule weekly get-togethers or one good off-site a month. But making it mandatory every single day feels as antiquated as a carbon copy receipt.
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