Boris Johnson urges more people to return to office working
Boris Johnson has made a renewed call for people to return to the office, saying working from home does not work and that when he tried to do so he became distracted by making coffee and eating cheese.
The prime minister said staff were “more productive, more energetic, more full of ideas” when in the workplace with colleagues.
He said: “My experience of working from home is you spend an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and then, you know, getting up, walking very slowly to the fridge, hacking off a small piece of cheese, then walking very slowly back to your laptop and then forgetting what it was you’re doing.”
He added: “We need to get back into the habit of getting into the office. There will be lots of people who disagree with me, but I believe people are more productive, more energetic, more full of ideas, when they are surrounded by other people.”
In the latest figures released by Transport for London, usage of the London underground at the start of May was still less than 70% of levels seen in January 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced many to work from home.
Businesses in city and town centres were hit hard by the consequent collapse in footfall, which has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels despite the government telling workers they should return to offices more than three months ago, after the peak of a Covid wave caused by the Omicron variant.
“[Returning to the office] will get our city centres moving in the weekdays and it will be good for mass transit. And a lot of businesses that have been having a tough time will benefit from that,” Johnson told the Daily Mail. He is reportedly considering a campaign to try to get over-50s to return to the workplace.
The government has
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