What’s not to like about working from home? No commuting. More flexibility. Wear jeans. The boss can’t pester you. It’s a social revolution and it’s happening right now. Before Covid, 4.7% of employed Britons worked from home. Now, 40% say they work from home at least one day a week. Over much of clerical employment, the nine-to-five day has begun to vanish. Mind and body can work wherever and whenever they find themselves in harmony.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is determined to join the bandwagon, speaking positively about flexible work arrangements and against a “culture of presenteeism” in an interview last week. And the government is reportedly looking at strengthening working-from-home rights in its forthcoming employment bill. It may join a battery of other Labour curbs on employment, which could include day-one job security, a ban on zero-hours contracts, limits on probation and a ban on evening work calls.
