The human side

•  Not spending time commuting is good, but how do we separate work and the rest of life? It hasn’t always resulted in people having more free time. Working from home should not equate to ‘always being available’, so we need to think about appropriate boundaries especially as back-2-back video meetings have proved to be so surprisingly exhausting. Policies should provide clear guidance whilst protecting staff.

• We are not all the same, and our circumstances are not the same. For some, working from home is a bonus whilst for others, it is a nightmare – we need to be sensitive. Where a lunchtime meeting or training session made perfect sense in the office, it may not be appropriate when people have to feed their family at that time. There is a risk that those who have been on furlough and not had the shared experience of lockdown that their colleagues have had, will feel isolated and need re-integration.

• We are seeing a whole new side of our colleagues and business contacts. As one client put it, “every meeting is an episode of Through the Keyhole”. Perhaps this less formal context, where we see other people’s kitchens, children and pets, allows us to develop relationships in a different way.