I’m working from home get me out of here

A love letter to the office. We all bring our personal experience to the discussion about the divide between home and office working. This is mine.

There are lots of benefits of working from home, but lockdown has taught me that I’m not suited to it on a full-time basis.

Human beings are creative social animals. Exploring the external environment and social interaction is part of our psyche.

Lockdown is the antidote to the human condition. The relentless monotony isn’t healthy. It’s boring. It’s Groundhog Day with none of the humour or wit of Bill Murray.

Lockdown has been a huge experiment in our relationship between life and work. 80% of us are working from home according to a survey of 2,000 British professionals by Currys.

I miss boundaries. The commute into an office marked a clear separation between work and home.

Exercise or a breakfast meeting on the way in, and decompression reading a book, listening to a podcast or catching up with a friend on the way home.

Now people seem to believe they can contact you any time of the day, using any channel. It doesn’t – or shouldn’t – work that way.

Wake up and smell the energy

Creative working is tough. There is a growing stack of tools to help but it is no replacement for feeling and smelling the energy of a team. The survey by Currys cited collaboration as the biggest challenge to home working.

Tacit learning has been replaced by a cycle of meetings reporting in and out, up and down. A quick conversation over a desk is now a scheduled 30-minute call. It works but it is exhausting.

In the shift from home working, we’ve overlaid a load of process and technology to make up for the lack of direct interaction. The week is set out as a series of Zoom calls punctuated by Slack and Team messages.

The working day stretches out so that we can complete all our tasks. I used to work from home so that I could concentrate on projects such as planning and writing. Now I can’t find the time.

Life gets in the way

Difficult conversations take on a heightened level of drama when you’re working from home. There is no technology solution for comforting someone in tears on a video call. It’s a growing conversation and area of concern among mental health professionals.

It’s typical for 10-20% of a team to be facing some sort of challenge at any time that they inevitably bring to work. It’s a natural part of the ebb and flow of life.

But now almost everyone seems to be facing challenges of some sort whether it be mental health, bereavement, caring responsibilities, or relationship issues.

Then there’s home schooling. Thankfully, in the UK schools head back next week.

The office romance

Relationships have gone one way or the other.

The joke about office romances is wearing thin. There’s nothing more likely to kill romance than spending every waking hour with your partner.

To be fair, our relationship has grown much stronger. We’ve taken a hyperactive approach to the third lockdown in England.

I hired a personal trainer. The garage has been converted into a makeshift gym. We’ve bought paddleboards. The spare bedroom has been renovated to double up as an office. A new kitchen is on order. We’re privileged to be in a position to do this.

More importantly, we’ve been working on the launch of our community of interest company and setting up another new business. More on both soon.

Back to the office

Conversation about back to office is seemingly polarised and therein lies an issue. We all bring our personal bias to the discussion.

More than a quarter (28%) of workers want to work from home permanently according to Currys.

44% would like to split their time between office and home while 25% want to head back to the office fulltime.

Over 55s are the most likely to want to work from home permanently, while 16-24-year-olds favour the office the most.

I’m firmly middle of the row. I appreciate the benefits of homeworking but I can’t wait to get back into an office on a part time basis.

However, tell the younger generation. We should listen to the voice of the future workforce as we make plans for the future.