Working from home – the politics and the tradition

‘If the best performance indicator you can think of is whether an employee is at their desk, it’s no wonder your business isn’t doing as well as it should.’ Photograph: Guerilla/Alamy

I was surprised to read such a partisan argument on working from home by Polly Toynbee, whose articles I often appreciate (Labour has been sucked into the WFH culture war. It should know better, 14 January). Yes, there are certainly advantages – mitigating the environmental effects of commuter travel, flexibility of hours particularly for working parents, and so on.

But it is a far more complex picture. For many people – particularly for young or single people – the workplace is an important place of social connection. It also makes possible informal connections that can enhance creativity, mitigate tensions that can arise through email communication, make possible the creation of new networks, and countless other benefits.