There's a feeling of inevitability stirring amongst the working from home community at the moment - that, sooner or later, we're going to have to return to the office - and our old lives and schedules.
It started when Boris Johnson announced that from August 1 the government would drop their advice to work from home where possible. The feeling got stronger last week, when front pages announced that the government are starting a marketing campaign for the office return, and even suggesting that those who work from home are more likely to be made redundant.
There was understandable fury at this aggressive messaging. But many will also have felt stings of sadness that the flexibility in their lives is slipping away and feel worried that a return to ‘normal’ isn’t really what they’re after.
Maybe they’ve snuck an exercise routine in the gaping hole where a commute used to hungrily eat up two hours a day. A free or cheap one not dictated by which expensive gym is closest. Maybe they’ve started to welcome a ‘Northern Teatime’ (an early dinner) into their lives. Maybe they’ve finally figured out how to make coffee half the price and twice the strength as their Starbucks. Started to enjoy lunchtime walks. Being able to watch Loose Women. Or been able to see (at a social distance) friends in the park when work hours and locations didn’t previously allow. Or maybe, for the first time in years, they’ve been home in time not to just shout, ‘Ok, bathtime kids’ in a flap while pulling off their coat, or to kiss their child on the head sadly, because you didn’t make it home for bedtime again.
Suddenly, that could all be gone, and you could find yourself back to the old grind. Just at a social distance and with a lot more hand sanitiser.
Ok, so there’s some rose-tinted glasses going on here for sure. Firstly, a lot of us have struggled with time alone, or without friends, or the office or being able to go about our lives at all. And the government says part of their campaign is about protecting lonely workers' mental health.
And when it comes to spending more time with the children… while some people have found it a blessing, it’s fair to say for others it’s been a horrendously difficult time having to balance working from home with full-time childcare – or having to go out to work, when there was no childcare to be found.
Boris Johnson has said he wants to allow people to ‘get back to something close to normal life’ by returning to the office. And many of us have said we're longing for a time when we can ‘get back to normal’. But when we say that, is what we want a return to a 9 to 5 grind, complete with commute, snatched lunch hours and kitchen small talk? Probably not.
We’ve had the Big Bang in our working lives, now is the time to embrace some of the good it’s brought us.
Even those of us who are looking forward to going back to the office I’m sure would like to retain some flexibility. Perhaps some days at work, some from home. Late starts to allow for exercise we've found betters our mental health. Or, if we’ve moulded our hours better around nursery pick-ups, shorter days, with employers understanding that most of us are adult enough to make up the hours at home… without the world ending.
For years, social media stars and women in the pages of magazines like Grazia have been telling us about flexibility and working from home - working to live, not living to work. It’s been easy to think, ‘That wouldn’t work for me though’. Now, for lots of us (of course, it’s important to acknowledge WFH has been a privilege not allowed everybody) we’ve realised it can work for us.
For the majority of my life I’ve been on a staff, which means 9.30-6 – and the rest of the emails and commitments that having a workload (not just clocking on and off) brings. But in the months before the pandemic, I was struggling. That feeling of constantly running and being late plagued me. I ran to nursery drop-off, and onto the train, before running to work. I ran out of the office and back onto the train, running home, often in time to say only goodnight to my son. After a year’s maternity leave, five days a week with less than an hour a day with him seemed… brutal. And to be honest, the knowledge that that’s just how life was for most mums – and was unlikely to change without a financial hit (or a big win, lottery perhaps?) – was no comfort, just more distressing.
The two hours a day I spent commuting was just dead time. I knew that then, but I feel it so strongly now. Sometimes it was podcast time, or reading time, sure. But that wasn’t on my terms. Parenting through the pandemic has been incredibly hard for millions of people, but, anecdotally, many have said on balance they've enjoyed the extra time they’ve had with their children. Do they wish they had it without homeschooling and maybe a few hours childcare or help from grandparents a day - or the mental health issues of six months off school? Absolutely. But to go from feast to total famine when it comes to time with our children doesn’t seem like the answer.
Socialising came at pace, not appreciated in the way I now know I will. And as for exercise and eating healthily, was that something I could fit in when my spare hours were 8pm until as long as I could stay awake? Well, yes, I know it’s something I could fit in, but was I able, or doing it? No. With new time suddenly released magically from what was a locked equation, it’s possible (though, not always, if I’m honest tempting).
It’s not been all good. Obviously. Many of us have found ourselves working late into the night – either making up time around childcare, because we’re working around different people’s schedules, compensating for furloughed colleagues, or just busying ourselves because our laptop is in the room and we have no boundaries.
But change takes evolution. We’ve had the Big Bang in our working lives, now is the time to embrace some of the good it’s brought us and work out how to change the bad.
When it comes to returning to ‘normal’, let’s hope most companies don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Most of us have enjoyed being there to watch it fill up, and enjoy some playtime instead.
READ MORE::a[As Boris Johnson Urges People To Go Back To The Office, What Are My Rights If My Employer Is Making Me Go Back To Work And I Want To Work From Home?]{href='https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/in-the-news/coronavirus-rights-made-to-work/' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}
READ MORE: When Did ‘Save The NHS’, Get Overtaken By ‘Save Pret’?