The Remote Work Dilemma

I’ve been working from home for about three years now, and if you’d asked me at the start, I’d have said it was the best thing that ever happened to my career. No more crowded trains at 7am, no more expensive city centre lunches, and I could basically work in my pyjamas if I wanted to! It felt like total freedom. However, lately, the novelty has really started to wear off.

The main issue is the blurring of boundaries. Because my office is also my living room, I find it incredibly difficult to switch off at 5pm. I often find myself checking emails at nine o’clock at night just because the laptop is right there. Plus, I really miss the spontaneous chats in the office kitchen. You don’t realise how much information you pick up just by chatting with colleagues over a coffee. Zoom meetings are fine for business, but they’re quite formal and you lose that human connection. I’m actually considering asking my boss if I can go back to the office two days a week – a hybrid model seems like the most sensible compromise these days.