Commuting – a cold comfort

I work from home most of the time, but when I call my lawyer clients they are almost invariably in the office. All that changed during the recent cold snap, when heavy snowfalls made travelling very hazardous. Suddenly, lawyers up and down the country were logging onto their networks from home studies, dining tables and garden sheds.

A common theme emerged when I talked to these stranded souls. Making allowances for being caught out by the speed at which winter descended, most of my colleagues enthused about how productive they were compared with their usual routines. No distractions, travel time replaced by remunerative activity, no office politics, all contributed to improvements in quality and quantity of output, greater energy and a general feeling of well being.

No need to talk about how technology makes this possible. We know that web-accessed servers and applications, email, conference calls, videoconferencing and so on are available. These thoughts are more to do with why we take advantage of these facilities only when we have to.

Do we fill roads, trains and buses twice a day, five days a week, because we want to work that way, or just because it’s conventional? The 20th century invented the office as we know it and that environment once made a lot of sense. It created and maintained the infrastructure needed to enable people to work together for a common purpose. This rationale is less compelling these days, as we prove when the snow falls.

The weather’s now warmed up again (slightly) and the big commute is back on. Will it take a new Ice Age for that to change for good?