**TL;DR - Working from home has become the new normal however many people still want to return, at least part time, to the office. A new hybrid of home and office working will be the new normal** Most of us have experienced a shift into working from home more in the last year. With the exception of doctors, teachers and bus drivers most of us have had to adjust our normal office life to home life. Many dining room tables have been filled with paperwork and laptops whilst office spaces, normally a hub of ideas and socialising, sit empty. It is not all bad though! Working from home has offered people more flexibility, time and comfortability when it comes to work. No more long commutes, delayed trains, awkward chit-chat, just a few zoom meetings and getting on with work privately! YET, with all these good things about working from home, there are some downsides. Most people don’t have the luxury of a private study or office space at home, many have had to work in places with their family existing around them. Especially with little kids, some have found this hard. In addition to this, talking over zoom or teams isn’t the same as a meeting all together in an office. Many either are too relaxed at home and not fully concentrating; wifi issues occur and talking isn’t as seamless online as it is offline. We should embrace more working from home, in my opinion, but I think it should be mixed with going into work as well. There are benefits of going to work that I think were overlooked in the excitement of working from home that are actually important.

**Reasons to embrace working from home:** - [Most](https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/study-productivity-shift-remote-work-covid-coronavirus.aspx) [studies](https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj4746/f/wfh.pdf) demonstrate that working from home has the same or higher rates of productivity as working in person - Less commute time - People can live anywhere they want, and save money by doing so - Widened talent pool from around the world - Companies can save money on office space and other work functions like outings and lunches - Less employee turnover - Fewer sick days need to be taken - Less interruptions from inclement weather **Reasons to not embrace working from home:** - Much more competition for jobs, if the talent pool becomes worldwide - Cybersecurity can be iffy, putting people and their businesses or companies at risk over sensitive information and privacy concerns - The internet could always go down, leaving people in an abrupt position that could be hard to navigate out of - Learning that takes place in person can be stunted - Missing physical information from seeing people in person can be a detriment - We could end up quite lonely! :( **A hybrid model that combines both working from home and working in person might be the best solution to achieve the benefits of both.**