Home or Away?

It's amazing how quickly things change. Over the Covid19 pandemic, the UK mode of working changed (in some sectors, more than others). Hybrid working was widely-adopted, especially in areas like office work and teaching. Hybrid working has never been an option for some. It's been calculated, however, that UK office workers currently only average 1.5 days a week in their place of employment. Home working had the advantage of reducing the requirement for long commutes (UK workers, on average, travel longer distances to their place of employment than do most other folk). This cut down costs (rail is very expensive in the UK) and freed up time. It also helped with child care and other responsibilities. In spite of suspicions about likely 'skiving', hybrid working generally turned out to increase worker productivity. Jane Parry (Southampton University Business School) now wonders whether UK hybrid working will survive an energy crisis-dominated winter (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/08/working-from-home-model-survive-energy-crisis-cost-of-living ). Parry points out that some folk may wish to travel in, to an office heated at their employer's expense, rather than have to work from a cold room at home. Much depends on the relative costs of heating and travel. People who moved to remote locations to work online, will simply have to absorb the increased cost of heating. As usual, better-off folk are likely to have more real options than poorer counterparts.