Remote working

The inspiration for this video can be distilled into one question: give me one good reason we should go back to the office.

Despite the explosion of back-to-the-office mandates in recent years – including that old chestnut of mandating '50%' and knowing full well that means three days in practice – this video explores some of the reasons we've been given for being hauled back. And some of the real reasons we haven't been told.

But I keep coming back to my original question – and the absence of a good answer. A good answer to justify the sheer toll that a commute takes on the average worker – hours of our lives spent on packed trains or in traffic jams, rushing to our desk to sit down, log on and complete the same tasks we could've completed 2 hours ago at home. The new normal of row after row of white-collar workers hunched over filthy hot desks, taking video calls with headphones on, is dystopian. And hardly evidence that any of this was ever about in-person interaction.

Of course, the absence of an answer is the answer. It's: fuck you. Because we can. Because for all the pretence of dialogue, employers don't actually need to convince you. The wrenching of people from their desk at home to their desk at work – for sheer corporate voyeurism – is the clearest illustration of this power dynamic, and how little it's shifted since the pandemic.