Critics of remote working make the office sound like a veritable utopia, where boundless collaboration is a daily delight, and teams interact seamlessly to produce awesome results, all bound together by intimate vicinity.
A far cry from the open plan offices of our reality, stuffed with rows upon rows of workers, forced into silence, nose to the grindstone, staring at screens, occasionally upset by a colleague hammering, clatter-clatter, on their keyboard, or annoyed that a visitor walked in to speak freely about something, or ask a question uninvited.
There is, of course, a middle ground between these extremes. If you are fortunate enough to have your own office at work, or share one only with your immediate team, then I can imagine it is sheer joy. But for the hot desker, forever a stranger, the promise of the office is a chimera.
We all really just seek a better way to work, be that a home or in an office block somewhere.
Last modified: 20 March 2021
