Does our government have some kind of hidden agenda against office working?
We frustratingly continue to have the ‘work from home where possible’ mantra at the core of public health policy, but with what justification? Where is the evidence to back up that offices are some kind of super-spreader?
Oh sorry, I forgot that ‘evidence-based policy-making’ means selecting only the data that supports today’s flawed approach from government and ignoring anything contrary regardless of how compelling it may be.
Companies have spent millions on making workplaces safe for staff and visitors, yet still we are forced to sit at our dining tables, distant from colleagues and customers.
Perhaps the rhetoric from ministers that hybrid and home working should be widely adopted in the future is a stealth approach to achieving Low Emission Zone and other environmental goals?
If many of us never leave our homes for work ever again, presumably our personal carbon footprints reduce?
Some of what we have learned from this crazy period in history will stick, for sure, but let’s not force fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another on the back of what was purely meant as an emergency response, not some giant social experiment to unpick a largely effective modus operandi built up over decades.
In some cases, remote working can be good for employer and employee.
However, most of the feedback we get from members tells us that this is not the case and Fraser of Allander research highlighted that 60 per cent of employers reported negative impacts on productivity, innovation and collaboration.
Being remote from colleagues has made team working and building much more difficult. While on-screen meetings are functional and enable information exchange, this is flat, two dimensional.
The third dimension; the buzz of the office, face-to-face creative meetings, sharing experiences as the kettle boils, overhearing things that you can help with, on-the-job problem solving has all been badly missed.
As has our ability to build strong, long-term internal and external customer relationships and provide meaningful staff engagement and development, especially for our young people.
Offices are also a vital part of our town and city centre economies and without the return of the associated footfall, the businesses that support these workers are being placed under existential threat that already is leading to permanent closures and job losses.
In summary we need to see a clear and early end date for the current working from home requirements.
And I say again, it is not the role of Government to interfere in the relationship between employers and employees by mandating or even advising a permanent change in office working in the future.
This is a dangerous signal of an administration that is getting far too used to state intervention in things it plainly does not fully understand.
Russell Borthwick is chief executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce
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