Thoughts for the UK Covid Inquiry
Every Story Matters is your opportunity to help the UK Covid-19 Inquiry understand your experience of the pandemic. Click the link above to submit your own thoughts.
Some thoughts from me (slightly adapted for medium)
Why won’t we learn?
About your experience
I was on the shielding list, having had stage 4 cancer a few years ago.
Covid for me was an unexpectedly great time. No more having to commute long pointless distances from Edinburgh to London for a job that could easily be done online. No more 3am starts on a Monday to catch a 6am flight. No more having to spend 4 nights a week away from family and no more getting back late on a Friday on a delayed flight and having to have a lie-in on Saturday to recover. None of that utter waste. None of that environmental impact, none of that time away from family and none of that pointless cost that I would rather spend on myself and my family. What an utter waste just to fill an office and be on the phone to people in New York and Hong Kong.
This sort of thing:
So much more spare time, so much more time with family, so many more walks in the countryside (within the covid rules) rather than stuck on a tube catching every contagious illness going because people wanted to macho it out and come in when sick prior to covid.
Silent skies. Empty roads. Clean air. What’s not to like?
A complete rebalancing of values when the people on the roads were the key workers who needed to get around and of course traffic free, traffic jam free and with far less pollution too. The spaces for people though around the city were an unnecessary step backwards and utterly need to go as they are disrupting the flow of traffic including buses and look ugly.
More time for exercise too.
Post covid, it’s not only been worse, it’s been much worse. The so called “new normal” has in many regards gone backwards. The multiple whammy in the UK of the Liz Truss budget, the imposition of IR35, brexit, the pointless having to be back in an office 3 days+ a week for a job we know can successfully be done remotely and the whole cost of living crisis means that commuting is now forced back onto us, long distance travel is now forced back on us, two flights a week is now forced back on us and staying away from family is now forced back on us to go after the ever dwindling number of jobs (and of course we can’t easily work in the EU anymore, Ireland excepted).
No wonder the economy is in such a bad way. Under IR35 these travel costs are no longer reclaimable and so the effective cost has tripled. I don’t want a commute, but with limited local work the working for companies in London and elsewhere was a useful fallback option and one which during covid got me 100% work for three solid years. 2023 though with all the “back to the office” was a complete catastrophe. Will we ever learn? We’ve proven that remote working works and we’ve now got the technology and infrastructure to support it too. It’s abundantly clear that remote working isn’t for everyone but it’s a unique combination of multiple factors:
- The individual. Their mental health. Their need to be around people to feel happy and connected.
- The individual’s home environment. Their broadband. Their equipment. Their working space. The individual’s need to care for others and pay for care outside of working time and to be home to look after others.
- The individual’s commute. The length. The cost. The difficulty. The accessibility if they have a disability. The weather affecting the commute. Any strikes or disruption affecting the commute?
- The individual’s work. Is it physical or virtual? Is it office based or is it delivering goods?
- The office environment. Is it quiet? Is it suitable for neurodiversity? Are there enough meeting rooms? Can you take a break without feeling that people are tracking you? Is there a desk or do you turn up and have to hope there is a hot desk somewhere? Do you have a toxic boss who just wants to look important or their new flashy HQ to look useful? Does your back ache from all that carrying IT equipment? Does the office leadership want flexibility and inclusion to work or are they living in the past using utilisation metrics for the office?
All these vary to produce a result which can produce an inclination more towards remote, in the office or hybrid with variations depending on whether there’s a doctor’s appointment, bad weather or a sick child to consider. Once size fits all of three days “expected” in the office, whatever that means, is completely unsuitable, uninclusive and puts pressure on people to live within commute range of large cities, compounding the issues of housing costs and city pollution. I’ve written about this before. For over 30 years.
The pandemic was great for many with disabilities as we finally got the changes and adaptions to remote working that many of us had been campaigning to implement for years or even decades prior to covid. Someone the impossible suddenly became possible.
We need to learn these lessons. It is not enough just to extend flexible working to permanent employees, there are self-employed people to consider too.
Responsible companies wanting work done have environmental goals to meet. Yet these go out the door when bitcoin comes along and consumes more electricity than a country. They go out the door when AI comes along and consumes half a billion terawatts. Those environmental goals also get undermined by pointless commuting. You are actively undermining your own corporate objectives and long term climate stability. Will we ever learn?
The effect on you and people around you
I really enjoyed the fresh air, family time, having a job and being able to work for a company that otherwise I couldn’t have worked for because the commute was too complicated.
What you think could be learned
Stop listening to toxic bosses who think their their workplace is their pet empire and make remote working a right for all including the self employed and those with disabilities. Respect the self employed and specialist skills that aren’t local.
