NEW WORKING ARRANGEMENTS
During the Covid pandemic, governments throughout the world introduced laws that required companies to shut their offices. As a result, hundreds of millions of office workers switched to working from home. They were generally happy with the benefits of the new arrangement: flexible working hours, and no time wasted on commuting to and from work. In fact, once offices were able to open again, many employees were reluctant to go back for the whole workweek. Instead, they asked their companies to allow them to continue working from home all the time, or at least a few days a week.(lines 1–7)
Many companies agreed to these new working arrangements – and they too have benefited from them. With fewer people going to work every day, desks can be shared so less office space is needed, and that means huge savings on rent and electricity. "There are also companies that decided to keep their offices permanently closed," says Lucy Grant, editor of Business News. "And with everyone working online from home all the time, it doesn’t matter where employees live. Consequently, workers can be recruited from anywhere in the world. That's a tremendous advantage for the companies because there's currently a global shortage of highly trained staff, especially in the USA, Germany, and Japan."(lines 8–15)
However, not everyone is pleased with having to work from home, even part of the time. Some workers complain that conditions at home are not good enough – for example, they may not have a reliable internet connection or space to set up their work desk. Many also point to the isolation they feel at home. "It's not just the opportunity to chat over a cup of coffee that they miss," says Grant. "They find that they work more efficiently when they can discuss an idea or a problem with a colleague sitting nearby. Managers too have reported that people accomplish more when the whole team is together in the same room."(lines 16–22)
Working from home has also created issues of trust. "Many companies suspect that when employees are at home, they spend less time working than they should. Therefore, these companies install special programs on their workers' home computers to find out when they take breaks," says Grant. "Obviously, people hate to be watched by their bosses in this way, and it damages working relationships." She believes that this is another reason that most staff members might eventually decide that going to the office every day is better than working from home.(lines 23–28)