Heroes Not Zombies

I took this photo of an office block in Malmo about three years ago. I liked the green colour of the office reflected in front of this one, and the green exit sign in the bottom left hand corner just seemed so right for the whole image.

When I look at it again now, in the light of the pandemic, it’s got a whole other level of meaning.

One of the things which happened in many countries as authorities tried to control the spread of the virus was not simply asking people to stay at home as much as possible, but to work from home if they could. Millions did so. Possibly millions are still doing so as I write this at the beginning of September. In the UK the Tory government, is applying an increasing amount of pressure on people to stop working from home and get back to the office. They are concerned about the economic impacts of less workers travelling, buying their lunch in the city and town centres, using taxis and so on. In other words, it’s not just offices which are pretty empty, it’s the streets and businesses in the environments of those offices. Turns out everything is connected after all!

But a lot of workers are finding they are much happier without a couple of hours of commuting on overcrowded Public transport, or sitting in long queues of traffic on the roads. They are happier sharing their meals with their families and they are discovering that the localities around their homes have lots of small businesses, shops, cafes and so on where they can spend their time and money instead of in the big city. They are enjoying cleaner air to breathe, enjoying the sound of birds which have replaced the sounds of traffic and building works. In other words, they are finding that their quality of life is just better.

Many are now thinking of moving out of cities altogether and finding somewhere to live in smaller towns a little further away, looking for homes with some outside space or a small garden, and a fast internet connection so they can continue to tele-work.

The world is changing. Funny how we don’t control as much as we think we do. Funny how life will get on and adapt even without any central planning from politicians and managers.

Well, folks, you know my favourite phrase “And not or” …….. At one point in this pandemic it looked like the big new thing would be “blended education” with some delivered face to face as before, but more delivered online. That’s faded a bit since schools started to re-open but I think we are a long way from seeing the full changes in that area. Maybe what there wasn’t so much talk about was “blended working” but that seems to be what a lot of businesses are moving towards – having their staff work from home as much as possible, and getting them together for face to face meetings, or events which are better face to face, only as they need to. There are more and more stories of companies reassessing their need for large amounts of expensive city centre office spaces.

Change is happening already.

It seems the question of “to office or not to office” is already being answered with “and not or”!