Home workers are not damaging Britain

‘Working from home has made Britain the lazy man of the world,’ said one recent headline.

‘Working from home is a bad habit. And it’s ruining the economy,’ said another.

‘It’s time we all went back to work to fix Britain’, is typical of the remarks condemning those who no longer travel to the office.

I just can’t understand the criticism being levelled towards homeworkers, of which I am one.

Homeworkers are saving employers’ money. Businesses don’t have to fork out huge sums to rent and heat office complexes or subsidise car parking. We are responsible for our own heating and power bills throughout winter, which for many can be funded by savings on travel. How is that a bad thing?

Those offices clearly need paying for, but where some companies leave, others will come. At the last count, in May this year, 14 per cent of people worked exclusively from home - that’s far from being everyone.

Working from home is not damaging the economy. Picture: Pixabay

It is widely assumed that people working from home never get anything done, being constantly distracted by their domestic chores.

I admit, I did stick some sheets in the washing machine this morning and turn it on, but it took all of ten seconds. I don’t think my bosses will punish me for that, nor for spending five minutes hanging it out. I’d spend far longer chatting in the tea room, were I in the office.

If anything I produce more work at home than I did in the office. Colleagues say the same. Home doesn’t have the distraction of workmates. In the office I used to take an hour’s lunch break, while at home it’s no more than 30 minutes.

Research shows that people who work from home do on average almost double the amount of unpaid overtime at six hours, compared with 3.6 hours for those who have never worked from home.

Not having to travel to and from work means you can start earlier and finish later than usual. There’s also less vehicle pollution.

People working from home have fewer sick days. According to the 2021 census the absence rate for workers doing any work from home was 0.9 per cent on average in 2020, compared with 2.2 per cent for those who never worked from home.

Since being forced to work from home during lockdown, people have found that it fits in with their lives, in particular those with young children. When my daughters were very young I worked one day a week from home. The flexibility it offered made a real difference, but I didn’t do any less work.

A lot of people are never going to ‘get’ working from home. They will never be able to rid themselves of the image of thousands of people, slouched on their sofas, one eye on their laptop, the other on Homes Under The Hammer.

Even my husband, who witnesses me working at home on a daily basis, derides my working from home as “a doss.” He recently had a day off while I was working, but, even though he saw me for hours on my laptop, he still muttered under his breath about it not being like a proper job.

It’s ridiculous. Employers wouldn’t allow us to do it if we sat twiddling our thumbs.

For younger people, I admit, working from home is not great. It can be very isolating. If it wasn’t for Teams I’d go stark raving mad.

But for many people, including me, it works. It’s ludicrous to find ourselves scapegoats for the state of the nation. Whether working from a home office, dining rooms table, sofa or even in bed, whether wearing a suit or a dressing gown, we are still cogs in the wheel that keeps Britain going.