Will Coronavirus really have a positive influence on flexible working?

Unless you've been in quarantine for the last month, you've probably heard of Coronavirus. If you haven't it's basically like the flu mixed with pneumonia, but we don't have the same immunity to it because... well... it's new. It's super-contagious, and as of yesterday there's over 88,000 cases across 67 countries.

Despite medical professionals saying it has nearly zero impact, lots of people are upping their face-mask game. The advice is really to wash your hands - a lot - and stay away from people with the virus (makes sense), and hot spots where the virus has confirmed cases (again, makes sense).

Living in such a metropolitan connected world does have its drawbacks, with the spreading of epidemic viruses being one of them. This is particularly true of London. Last week, several London offices went into shutdown as employees displayed 'flu-like symptoms' after passing through known Coronavirus areas, with employees being told to 'work from home' until further notice (probably around 14 days, which is the quarantine length of time).

The rise of working from home

Working from home is the most common type of flexible working, and it's become a staple requirement - nay, expectation - of the humble office worker. There's a tonne of benefits to working from home, so I won't cover that here. What I will cover, though, is that companies are slowly going into meltdown trying to understand whether their employees have the ability to work from home - for 14 days straight - should they need to.

Humans are, on the whole, an optimistic bunch, so it's no surprise that there's a silver lining being discussed as society starts to collapse around us: The Coronavirus is being hailed as the ultimate champion of flexible working. As cases grow in the UK, it becomes more and more likely that other companies follow suit and ask their employees to work from home. Great! What better way to promote the benefits of flexible working?

This could change the face of working from home forever... couldn't it?

Yes... and no. Now before I say what I'm about to say, know this: I'm a huge flexible working advocate. I utilise it, so do my teams, so does my boss. It's great. But one of the reasons it's great it because we're prepared.

We're not prepared for en-masse working from home

As I debated with my wife yesterday (who was thrilled by the conversation), working from home and flexible working is more than just receiving a laptop and being set free. It's a mind set. It's mutual respect. It's a culture. It's trust. It's empowerment. It can also be lonely. And hard. If large pockets of the population are expected to suddenly work from home, and are ill-equipped to do so, it could all go wrong.

'So what?', I hear you ask, 'What about those who can't work from home?'. Yep, I get it. Not all jobs allow working from home. But let's focus on the ones that do. What happens when the UK's largest flexible working experiment kicks off?

Well, exactly that. An experiment. We suddenly find ourselves in a huge test that's going to validate whether working from home works or not. Sounds sensible, aside from - as we've just discussed - some companies and their employees may not be equipped with the tools and mentality to succeed.

So what? Does any of this matter?

I'd argue yes. Once the epidemic / pandemic (depends when you're reading this) dies down, life will go back to normal. People will go back to working in offices, and working flexibly as they have done before.

But what about the companies that just tried flexible working for the first time? Who had their hand forced, without necessarily having the tools to succeed? Are they going to be as open to rolling out flexible working across their organisation long-term? I'd hazard a guess as to not. Which would be a crying shame, as that could remove options from employees that would otherwise have enriched their lives.

So look, maybe I'm having a rare moment of cynicism. And I hope I am. But let's just be wary of saying that Coronavirus will be a flag waver for flexible working. Because it might: but not for the right reasons.

Oh, and if you do find yourself suddenly working from home, check out my 3 top tips to make working from home work for you!