Millions of people's jobs can't be done from home

[Annoyance]

I'm getting so fed up with all of this "working from home is the future" stuff, which seems to me to be extremely privileged.

What is going to happen to your support staff like receptionists and admin/filing people, most of whom cannot do their job from home?

What about all the people working in the cafes near your office? The venues nearby you sometimes hire out? The retail staff?

Do you not realise that for every office worker who starts to permanently work from home, someone else loses their job because of it?

It seems like a very privileged point of view to think oh surely everyone can work from home these days. I realise the possibility is there, but I'm getting sick of the way people are talking about it as if it's a given fact. Just stop and think about it please.

Whilst not all jobs will move to WFH, it's fair to assume that some will. Senior teams previously opposed to it will be seeing the benefits and it'll generally be less taboo.

If this is likely to impact on you, it might be a good time to look at broadening skill sets. The govt has made available free training to help. link here to govt portal

That might work in the short term but companies are obliged to look after the health and safety of permanent home workers the same as office workers and if they want to avoid their employees developing bad backs, RSI, eyestrain etc they will have to do display screen risk assessments which would preclude working on sofas, beds etc.

A friend of mine works for a large IT company. She said there are many millennials trapped in their bedroom in rented houses, working all day on their bed on a computer. It’s not good for their physical or mental health
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On the other hand, DH works in IT for a large university, he’s excited about the idea that he can work from home probably about 80% of the time in the future. We have an office for him to work in so his back is protected and we are saving money from him not travelling. It’s not as simple as one rule fits all and everyone deserves a decent, comfortable and well paid job.
I do think that the corona crisis has hurt some people so badly and will make their lives worse in the future. It’s pretty much a class division. It scares me.

Of course, but surely, if going forward those who practically can do, less populated working environments will be safer for those who can’t. Isn’t that desirable?

"Law firms, numerous other professional services. Signed documents are needed and computers are not failsafe."

I'm a lawyer and hardly anything is done in hard copy any more and the move to digital has been accelerated by current circumstances. Electronic filing, digital signatures, soft copy court bundles are just the norm now.