Working from home - A positive step forward? 

Between 2020 and 2022, working from home (WFH) boomed in popularity due to COVID-related restrictions. Data from ACAS shows that between 2019 and 2022 there was a 17% point increase in the number of employees who WFH (from 5% to 22%).  

However, recently there has been an increasing amount of criticism towards WFH. In May 2023 Elon Musk chided the ‘laptop class’ for benefitting from WFH whilst blue collar workers worked on-site. In the UK, Lord Rose, former Chief Executive of M&S and former Chair of Asda, accused people who work from home of damaging the UK’s productivity.  

This desire to reduce remote working is concerning. Here at DSC, we all WFH (except in cases where our trainers deliver in-house training). Check out this article by Ben Wittenberg, our Director of Development, for further information about how we made our decision to go remote. 

The benefits of WFH for DSC 

Every year, DSC’s wellbeing team conducts an internal wellbeing survey. In 2024, the survey found that 90% of respondents had a positive experience of WFH. Respondents described what they felt were the positive aspects of working from home.  

Our colleagues welcome the flexibility that WFH offers. Our personal lives are as important as our professional ones. This is especially relevant to individuals with caring responsibilities, such as childcare, who are often ciswomen. One respondent said that WFH means that they ‘can accommodate [the] school run’; likewise, another colleague said that they were able to have ‘extra time […] with my family’. If we don’t make space for individuals’ personal responsibilities, we will be excluding them from their work. 

Related to this, colleagues noted a reduction in commuting. WFH liberates us from traffic jams, expensive fuel and packed train carriages. Overall, hours that would be spent travelling to the office are saved; instead, they can be transferred to our personal lives. In 2024, colleagues noted that ‘no commuting’ meant ‘zero travel expenditure’ and ‘zero travel time’. One could also argue that this may have a positive impact on the environment. 

Furthermore, WFH contests its most common accusation that it damages productivity. Research from the CIPD has found that employees who WFH report feeling more productive at work. Similarly, at DSC one respondent said that they felt “more focused and productive” thanks to remotely working in 2024. This echoes similar responses from the 2023 survey, in which one colleague said that WFH means ‘less distractions than in an office’, and another said that they were able to ‘work in an way that suits my preferred […] style’. It could be that poor management is responsible in cases where WFH has caused a drop in productivity, rather than WFH itself. 

Overall, only 15% of respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that WFH was difficult. This further suggests that the majority of DSC staff enjoy WFH.  

Practical steps we’ve taken to deal with the negatives of WFH 

Despite the above-mentioned benefits, we must discuss the negatives of WFH because no approach to work is perfect. If we fail to understand these issues we cannot solve them. Thus, our survey asked colleagues to highlight any issues related to WFH that they experienced. 

Many respondents reported a risk of becoming isolated and/or lonely. They commented on the ‘lack of interaction with colleagues’, which made it ‘too easy to detach from things’. In response, managers are encouraged to remind staff that 1-1s can be conducted face-to-face at a convenient time and location, and every year we have an in-person staff day. Furthermore, virtual meetings or socials can help reduce the sense of loneliness. Every week, we have a 30-minute social catch up via Zoom, and we also do daily check ins before we start the workday. 

Respondents also commented on a decrease in physical activity as a result of WFH. For example, one respondent said that in the past year it was ‘easy to forget to get up and stretch your legs regularly’. In response, DSC’s internal Wellbeing Team introduced the photo challenge initiative to encourage staff to get outside during the workday to take photos to fit the bi-monthly photo theme. The 2024 survey showed that this initiative helped contribute to positive morale. 

A couple of colleagues suggested that WFH could be more difficult if colleagues do not have access to personal office space, such as in cases of living in shared houses. DSC has a budget for colleagues to request co-working or hot-desking spaces so that colleagues can access office space. 

Of course, any approach to work has its positives and negatives. How we work also depends on the type of work that we do so we recognise that some roles, such as front-line service delivery, may only be feasible in-person. However, to absolutely rule out WFH would erode the progress we have made towards a more adaptive work culture. Here at DSC, we will proudly keep working remotely because we know that our colleagues overwhelmingly enjoy the flexibility and freedom it brings. The charity sector helps others, so it is important to look after ourselves! 

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