Will this fundamentally change the way we work?

[beebijobes]

Now I know not every job can be done at home but many jobs can be & reluctant companies have now been forced to embrace this change. Im sure some of them will find it works pretty well. Once this is over do you think companies will change permanently to embrace remote working in some capacity?

DH & I feel in love with a property whilst visiting some friends in the countryside last year but the cost of rail fares & commute times just made it unrealistic. Currently DH can wfh 1 day a week max but if this was increased we could defo reconsider, he could easily do this but his company prefer to spend millions on shiny huge offices in Zone 1.

The company my DH works for has taken the decision to permanently close the office which means he has no choice but to work from home. We don't have a big house and finding space for him to work won't be easy and he'll miss the company of an office but it means he'll always be home for tea, he can have lunch with DS and me and we'll need less childcare when I go to work (I work 3-7pm so we would only need childcare from 3-4pm, I'm not expecting him to work and provide childcare!) Plus we'll save about £200 a month in fuel and can sell one of our cars so I'm quite positive about it

I think it will, plus i think that there will be a permanent awareness of social distancing, enabling flexibility for people to WFH will mean that there are less people doing the daily commute, this will be a bonus for people like myself who cannot do their jobs from home.

I think there is a strange sense of the world around us having shrunk and some people may find it quite difficult to get back to commuting or travelling for work. I think it would only take a little for this to tip over into anxiety, even once the world is supposedly back to normal.

I live in a semi-rural area and haven't commuted into London since 11th March. I now sometimes pass quite close to the railway track when I go on my walk (exercise). The other day a commuter train passed by and it seemed quite extraordinary/exotic, as if it was in a whole other life that I was taking a train on a regular basis.

I think a lot of people are discovering that wfh isn't all they imagined it to be. I'm getting a lot of feedback from people missing colleagues, finding it not as efficient if they can't have those quick, informal conversations. The point about managing with children around is a good one, that seems to be burning people out pretty fast too.

That said, i think one or two days per week is doable and beneficial, everyone wfh the whole time isn't.