Head back to the office – it’s your patriotic duty

Give or take a few leader-writing shifts and editing projects, I’ve been working from home for the past 30 years, so it may seem hypocritical to tell anyone else to return to the office. But it’s time to bring normality back to the world of work. I believe few people are capable of higher productivity in isolation than they are amid the shared energy and competitive pressure of a physical congregation of colleagues. Employers should not be allowed to use WFH as cover for cutting office space and certainly not for cutting wages. So on this issue I’m unusually but firmly at one with Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon, who said earlier this year that remote working is ‘not a new normal, it’s an aberration’.

And restoring normality also means — yes, kids, I’m talking to you — that if you’ve been taking it easy for the summer, it’s now your patriotic duty to get a job as well as a jab.