Following on from the furore created by WPPs four-day return to the office announcement, former chief executive of Marks and Spencer Lord Stuart Rose set social media alight this week when he told BBC Panorama that working from home is ‘not proper work’.
Stuart Rose said: “We have regressed in this country in terms of working practices, productivity and in terms of the country’s wellbeing, I think, by 20 years in the last four.”
Here is a selection of the reactions to his comments. What would you add?
Public opinion
One poll that particularly caught my eye was posted on LinkedIn by the West Midlands Combined Authority. When asked whether they agreed with Stuart Rose’s statement about the impact of working from home on productivity and wellbeing, a resounding 88% of the 1087 voters said “no”.
The emotive topic clearly struck a chord, with many adding their comments to the thread. The majority concluded that (no disrespect) but Lord Rose’s perspective is out of touch. Others conceded that it’s possible that working from home isn’t for everyone and that fundamental to successful home working are trust, good line management and clarity about the levels of productivity that employees are required to deliver.
The head hunter’s perspective
Meanwhile, executive search consultant Sarah Murray, who in balance tended to agree with Lord Rose, shared a list of pros and cons in her LinkedIn post on the topic. She summarised these as follows:
Pros of working from home:
- Access to a wider talent pool (unsurprisingly top of the list for a head hunter)
- Facilitates deep focus work
Cons of working from home:
- Accountability issues
- Challenges with young children at home
- Loss of company culture
- Blurring work-life boundaries
- Isolation and lack of interaction
She rounds off her piece suggesting that perhaps a better way forward would be to focus not just on working from home vs. office work, but on creating a workplace culture that supports balance and wellbeing through hybrid models, promotion of work-life balance and improved childcare solutions.
As Panorama concludes, the future of working from home is far from settled.
We’ll be watching closely as the debate continues and this is one of the topics that is central to the free-to-attend content at our sister event, The Office – taking place at ExCel on 30th May and 1st June. To share ideas and experiences and work out the best way forwards for your people and your organisation, find out more about the event and register here.
You can watch the full Panorama programme on iplayer here.
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