Business Bartleby
From BC to AD Working life has entered a new era
On March 16th Bartleby left the offices of The Economist to head home. That was the last
day when all editorial staff assembled in our London redoubt.
And, at the time of writing, no date for a return to the office is in sight. It is remarkable how
quickly we have adapted.
The newspaper has been written, edited and produced from couches and kitchen
tables. January and February seem like an ancient era-the BC (before coronavirus) to the new
AD (after domestication).
The shift may rival great workplace transformations in the 19th and 20th centuries. Twitter
has already said that all its employees will be allowed to work from home permanently and
Facebook expects half its staff to do so within a decade.
It bas been a much more sudden transition than occurred with factories. Steam power meant
they were designed around one great power system, complete with belts and pulleys that
snaked through the building.
A failure at some point in the system meant the whole thing might grind to a
halt. Then electrification allowed individual machines to have their own power source.
But it took half a century from the introduction of electricity in the 1880s before factories
were reconfigured to take advantage of the new power source. The current, rapid shift to AD
was enabled by preconditions.
First, broadband services are today quick enough to allow for document downloads and
videoconferencing. Second, advanced economies revolve around services, not
manufacturing.
Back in the 1970s, when Britain adopted a three-day week (to combat a miners' strike), there
were power cuts and TV stations had to close down early. In other words, home life was
severely affected as well.
The pandemic has not turned the lights off. Not only that, it has made remote work seem
both normal and acceptable.
In the past employees who stayed home had to overcome the suspicion that they were
bunking off. Now those who insist on being at the office sound self-important.
Things are missing, of course. Video calls lack the spontaneity of a normal meeting; no
off-the-cuff remarks to lighten the mood.
Distance makes it difficult to generate camaraderie. Creativity is probably harder to foster.
Octavius Black of Mindgym, a consultancy, says new ideas come from weak links in
networks--ie, people you meet occasionally. Such "casual collisions" have become rarer.