Work Clinic today comes live - if slightly frostbitten - from the wilds of Surrey. And by day two of this enforced absence from the office, I will admit to a touch of cabin fever. While a certain level of civilisation remains (Starbucks, Sainsburys and the local newsagents) and I am warm and well-fed, I cannot physically get out of the small town where I live. But I am one of the lucky ones. I can work from home. I have a laptop and a phone, and I have remote access to my e-mail.
Not so for much of the rest of the working population - Mr Work Clinic included (he is on housework duty, instead). It rather begs the question 'Why?'. Why, why, why in this day and age don't all employers make provisions for staff (at least those whose jobs allow it) to work from home? Today the roads around this town are icy and treacherous - are organisations prepared to let their staff risk their lives because they, their employers, are bizarrely reluctant to facilitate remote working?
Yesterday, when the snow here was a good foot and a half deep, I stood and watched people trying to drive, because they felt that they absolutely had to get somewhere - more than likely their place of work. Isn't there something wrong with a society where we are willing to put work before our own health and wellbeing? Not to mention that of the emergency services staff who end up rescuing these idiots.
Most of us need to work - I admit that - and a lot of us actually enjoy working. But surely not to this ridiculous extent. And if employers are worrying about time and money lost when staff can't reach the office, then it's up to them to make sure that we can work from home. It's not a lot to ask, surely?
