2021

Review of the year

Pandemic

Remote working prompts

a rethink of office jobs

Many people worked from home throughout 2021 and

now we understand the pros and cons, says Alice Klein

T

HE covid-19 pandemic has forced

millions of us to participate in one

of the biggest social experiments of our

time: what would happen if office workers

largely abandoned their workplaces and

began working from home? More than

18 months in, it is time to take stock.

One thing seems clear: more people

working remotely has brought some

benefits for the environment. With less

commuter traffic, wildlife has been able

to reclaim urban spaces while people have

been tapping away at their home keyboards.

But what about the benefits to people?

The major perks of home working include

people having more flexibility to mould

jobs around their family, exercise and

leisure time, being able to wear whatever

they like, controlling their own heating

and lighting and not having to commute.

The lack of commuting may be the biggest

bonus, since surveys show that workers

Working from home

has led to rises in

productivity for some

However, the experiment hasn’t been

all positive. Many people forced to work

from home have reported feeling isolated

and finding it harder to switch off due

to the blurred boundary between work

and home life.

Many managers have also reported

declines in innovation, which is

probably because “it’s hard to get those

serendipitous conversations between

people that spark ideas” when everyone

is physically separated, says Anne Bardoel

at Swinburne University of Technology in

Melbourne, Australia.

Then there is “Zoom fatigue”, the

drained feeling that often accompanies

virtual meetings, even though they tend

to be shorter than in-person ones. This

may be because people have a stronger

sense of being on show while on screen

and feel more pressure to present well, says

Allison Gabriel at the University of Arizona.

As vaccines help to control covid-19,

many organisations are hoping to reap

the best of both worlds by letting employees

work from home on some days and travel

to the office on others. The coming months

and years will undoubtedly involve trial

and error as companies and employees

settle on the optimum mix of office and

work-from-home days. But one thing

seems certain: now that office workers

have been given a chance to really think

about how they want their work lives to

look, there is no turning back.

“It is this opportunity to reset and

rethink how we actually work, and I think

that’s a very positive thing,” says Bardoel.  ❚

typically rate their commute as the worst

part of their day, unless they walk or cycle.

Many people have also been able to

get more done while working remotely,

possibly due to fewer distractions.

A survey by Boston Consulting Group

of 1500 managers at large European

companies found that more than half

had seen productivity levels rise as their

employees shifted to remote work

during the pandemic.

“There used to be a lot of resistance

to working from home because managers

thought employees would just goof off and

watch Netflix, but there’s a lot more trust

now,” says Sue Williamson at the University

of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia.

“Surveys show that

workers typically rate

their commute as the

worst part of their day”

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28 | New Scientist | 18/25 December 2021