“One of The Most Significant Struggles Faced by Modern Man…”

To Work From Home or Not?

"The challenge of work-life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man."

It’s a 21st Century dilemma, summed up succinctly by American educator and businessman Stephen Covey.

Who Decides?

One of the ways we could collectively manage the future of work is to individualise choice – but not according to Amazon’s US-based boss, who has just messaged all staff to tell them they can no longer work from home.

As you guessed, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is not a fan of remote working. In his recent message to company employees, he highlights the importance of strengthening their? “unique” culture: “We want to operate like the world’s largest startup.”

For Amazon this means fewer managers, less bureaucracy, and back to the office full time for better collaboration, learning and connection.

The move, which is echoed by several other global companies such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Tesla, comes as the UK government is promising flexible working as the default position from ‘day 1’ rather than it being dependent on employer agreement.

A Good Balance

Here in the UK we seem to be getting it right, with more of us finding a better balance.

Hybrid work is becoming generally more popular in Britain, with employees increasingly prioritising greater flexibility when they apply for jobs.

The latest Statista data shows around 23-30% are mixing it up this year between home and office compared to 13% working exclusively from home.

The ability to work flexibly, with home working part of the mix, provides an attractive proposition for many.

Adam’s a senior developer working in fintech. Married with three children and two dogs, family life in South East London is hectic. Having worked from home full time since the pandemic, Adam has recently been ordered back into City headquarters 3 days a week.

“Working from home since Covid struck has been really convenient, and I didn’t miss the daily commute,” he admits. “But we’ve definitely lost a bit of the spark and connection that you get when you’re working in a busy office together. Three days back feels like a good balance.”

Hybrid working, where it’s feasible, seems a practical solution for today’s workplace – providing any potential challenges are properly addressed and supported.

A wider recruitment pool helps tackle some of the inequalities that prevent people from remaining in employment; teams benefit from in-person collaboration for part of the week while being able to focus more productively on individual work tasks at home; and staff have more autonomy for that precious work/life balance.

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