Working from Home

Apparently, Washington DC is the city with, currently at least, the largest percentage of working from home business workers, in the world.

Presumably, the switch from office to home working arose largely as  result of Covid-19 sweeping the planet.

Today with the pandemic being more at rest than previously,  my view is that those who are paid by the taxpayer  or  through government borrowing, should expect to work in their normal offices with colleagues. Those in Washington DC are mostly employees, the employer of whom is the state in one form or another and thus such workers are largely funded by the taxpayer through the state. 

Working with colleagues in an office, provides opportunity for face to face, spontaneous chatting about professional ways forward or dealing with unexpected difficulties at work. There is far less chance of such occurring if most colleagues are working away from the office. Telephoning or other indirect methods of speaking with colleagues, tend to be less spontaneous than off the cuff chat, for example around the office coffee machine

In England, many civil service personnel seem to consider working from home as part of their entitlements almost irrespective of what their taxpayer  financiers might prefer. No wonder then that worker productivity in this country is  currently said to be rather lower than that of many of our  neighbours with fewer 'work from home' staff.