What: international survey shows the advantages of remote work.

Why it is important: most department stores have instituted forms of remote work for a least some of their staff during lockdowns. We will perhaps choose to maintain some people on remote work (or at least a hybrid version) for longer than the pandemic if, as it would appear, there are many advantages to doing so.

According to an article in The Economist and an international survey by Slack (messaging company), flexible working including working from home was viewed very positively, improving both people’s work-life balance and their productivity. One of the main points is that remote working allows greater time flexibility, liberating workers from the “tyranny of the clock”.

As mentioned by the IADS Academy in their recent presentation, certain functions may not need to be present in a headquarters office for 8 hours a day every day. Evidence suggests that, for some, remote work increases productivity. We should perhaps be looking at least at hybrid solutions mixing remote and office-based work.

Countering the tyranny of the clock

Moving beyond remote: Workplace transformation in the wake of Covid-19