So will everything go back to ‘normal’ now? Will we all stand packed and maskless on the London tube? Will everyone go back to their offices? Will those ‘phone messages/excuses go?: ‘The safety of our customers and staff is our main priority, so we will not be answering your call for at least half-an-hour’ And, personal grouch, will universities and colleges return to actual and not online teaching? I really hope so. But here’s my dilemma and contradiction: I’m not sure I could do what I do now if I went back to doing it the way I did it two years ago. Perhaps there really has to be a ‘new normal’…
“The working-from-home illusion fades”
Are workers working from home more or less productive than those catching the 7.02am to London Bridge every day? ‘Probably sitting at home in their bleedin’ jim-jams’, said someone recently of a less-than-helpful call centre employee, the assumption being that, were they surrounded by colleagues and with a manager cracking the whip, he or she would have sorted his energy bill more efficiently.
