It’s back to the office for some of us … or is it?
Last week, Boris Johnson clambered out from wherever he’s been hiding to chide the nation’s workers for not racing back to their offices quicker now that lockdown restrictions have been eased. “People are going back to the office in huge numbers across our country, and quite right too”, said Mr Johnson. “Of course we know that there is still going to be more of this disease, this wretched Covid still to come and we know there will be more outbreaks and we are absolutely confident that we are going to be able to deal with those outbreaks.”
In a flash, his wagging porcine finger shattered what for many has been a late summer of semi-normalcy. During which, for the first time in months, people were doing what they usually would be given the time of year: taking a holiday.
This debate heralds the end of all that and the start of another wearisome battle in the coronavirus theatre of the never-ending culture war. Perhaps surprisingly, this skirmish involves the Conservative government facing off against big business.
The prime minister’s rebuke follows a BBC survey which found at least half of Britain’s 50 biggest employers have made no plans for an end to remote working. In fact, some companies have gone even further by declaring that most of their employees will never return to full-time office work again.
Such decrees, from big names including PwC and Facebook, have been labelled as selfish by those pushing for an end to remote working, most notably Julian Metcalfe, founder of fast-food joints Pret A Manger and Itsu, who has been on TV and radio making panicked pleas for workers to flock back to cold sushi and normality.
It’s not surprising, given this, and the possible occurrence of a second wave of Covid-19, that many office workers are uneasy about a return. What is surprising is that big corporations, usually the beneficiaries of a “business as normal” approach, are leading the move towards radical change.
What is surprising is that big corporations, usually the beneficiaries of a “business as normal” approach, are leading the move towards radical change.
Or perhaps it isn’t. It is our misfortune to be led by politicians who are so often outflanked by their private sector equivalents. While both claim to have virtuous motives, we should be under no illusion that business leaders are only really concerned about their bottom line.
The unviability of social distancing in tall buildings with limited elevator space is compounded by a desire to avoid bad publicity that would come with any outbreak precipitated by a forced return. Moreover, many companies are finding that commuting long hours and taking part in endless meetings might actually hinder productivity.
Their embrace of shorter commutes, fewer hours and more leisure time is undoubtedly a good thing. Nonetheless, if office working does become the exception rather than the rule, job losses and economic hardship will follow as thousands of small businesses reliant on the concentration of workers in specific areas go under.
Rather than see this as conflagration, it should be welcomed as the stubble-burning required to build a healthy post-pandemic economy. While their fate might have been sealed regardless, workers in those industries servicing large business districts should continue to receive government help during this realignment.
Of course, many will still crave the congeniality of office working. But, instead of paying millions of pounds in rent to base their employees in the middle of cities, companies might favour smaller offices or shared working spaces. Both will revitalise regional economies and save employers money on London wages. In this brave new world, the capital won’t be the parasitic entity it is today, sucking all the talent and money away from other regions and cities while pricing out locals. Consequently, areas of London that on the weekend are empty (unlovely places in the City but also historic neighbourhoods like Farringdon and Clerkenwell) could be reborn as office space reverts back to residential.
Their embrace of shorter commutes, fewer hours and more leisure time is undoubtedly a good thing.
Time spent commuting will be given over to personal pursuits whose salutary benefits might help assuage the mental health crisis. And, perhaps most importantly, the environment will be spared the daily onslaught caused by mass commuting.
This would not spell the end of the economy’s golden calf, the City of London. In the early days of lockdown, when the possibility that this crisis might not last very long was still a considered part of the narrative, I remember reading a piece in the Financial Times about high-end financiers working from home. Accompanying the article were images of luxurious domestic spaces in The Hamptons and Cotswolds.
But all was not well among the deep-pile and mahogany. Despite the fact these interviewees were no longer waking at dawn to schlep for hours on commuter trains, nearly all of them said that they’d be returning to them eagerly as soon as they could. The general consensus was that in the world of finance, personal interaction was essential to success.
I didn’t doubt the sincerity of those white-collars and, in fact, I believe that four months later, their faith in the power of face-to-face working is probably even more strident. However, for most office workers, the past four months have revealed the opposite, while providing the pretext for a serious revaluation of our economy.
The quote, “never waste a good crisis,” has been attributed to a few people during the pandemic. More serious than that, its sentiment has been oft misconstrued to imply that we have a choice about whether or not to enact epochal change. We don’t. We must.
Alexis Self is a writer from London, who is currently reconsidering things.
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