I READ an article in the Sunday National a couple of weeks ago by Lauryn Mwale, a student at Edinburgh University, and the last section really struck a chord for me.

In this section she refers to the ‘individual burden’ being placed on students to deal with remote learning; endless Teams calls; the difficulty of solo learning and isolation.

My student days are now long behind me and I’ve been working for several years in the public sector in an office-based role. Like a large proportion of the office based workforce, I’ve been working from home for the best part of a year with very limited physical interaction with colleagues.

Whilst this undoubtedly has, and continues to be, a vital part of the effort to combat the risk of Covid-19 and stop the spread, my employer seems to be using the crisis situation to push through a longer term agenda of remote working to enable office closures.

This move, at a time when staff are working under a whole host of pressures, feels opportunistic. It’s a move which I’ve no doubt will be being replicated by other public and private sector employers.

Employers are realising they can save money in property and running costs and relieve themselves of responsibilities to provide suitable workplace conditions. The burden of this responsibility is being shifted to the individual employee in their own home.

Whilst there are a number of benefits to flexible working and for some, working from home will provide opportunities to enter the workforce which otherwise they might not have, I find this wholescale shift to home working very concerning with a number of mental and physical health implications which seem to be getting shrugged off.

The endless and relentless online meetings; the isolation from colleagues and loss of the informal interactions and social connections which develop in a workplace environment; the sense of collectiveness gained from working alongside people.

There is an assumption (or expectation even) that the individual employee can create a suitable workplace environment in their home, when the reality is that many people are working from the end of a kitchen table, in their bedrooms or in a child’s bedroom.

Whilst this can be tolerated during a health crisis, it is surely not acceptable in the long term. There needs to be a healthy balance between flexible home working and access to a workplace to meet the needs of employees and provide suitable working conditions.

It feels like there’s a real danger of employers exploiting the current situation to push forward an agenda which is not motivated by providing employees with a healthy work/life balance but by saving money and reducing their responsibilities to employees.

There has been a lot of focus on the mental health impacts of remote learning on children and students, and rightly so. A section of the working population are similarly at risk of a mental health crisis from increased isolation and individual burdens, however this seems to be getting little attention.

Kirsty
Glasgow