THERE has been much talk over the last year of the revolution in working habits sparked by the coronavirus pandemic - for office staff, at least.

Lockdown has forced millions of people who used to work in an office to work from home.

But is the home-working phenomenon here to stay? And if so, what will be the implications - on our health and friendships, but also for York as a city? Will we, for example, still need all the office space we have?

Dr Jane Suter, a lecturer in human resource management at the University of York, agrees that the pandemic has led to a growth in home working. Pre-pandemic, many employers only allowed senior or skilled staff to work from home. The pandemic has forced them to allow less senior staff to do so, too.

Nevertheless, the assumption that all office workers will work from home in future is too simplistic, she says.

For a start, it doesn’t suit everyone. Staff who suffer from social anxiety and who find it difficult to fit in in an office may have relished the ability to work from home. But others will miss the interaction with colleagues, and might have found themselves feeling isolated and anxious.

“There are multiple issues relating to remote working which impact mental health,” Dr Suter said. “Mental health issues might be harder to spot and support when employees are working remotely. There is also an issue around the mental health of line managers as managing teams remotely might increase their workload and stress.”

On a purely physical level, there may well be problems with home-working, too. It might suit some people who have a home study with nice views out of the window. But not everyone has this kind of space at home. “Some people are working on their sofas, or in a corner of their bedroom,” Dr Suter said.

Many, too, are working on laptops on desks that are not ergonomically designed. This in itself can take a toll. “Working hunched over isn’t like having a good office set-up where screens are the right height,” Dr Suter said. “It’s not healthy.”

She believes any long-term shift towards home-working, therefore, will have to be driven by employees. “They will have to be given the choice.” And even when staff do work from home, employers will still have a duty to ensure they can do so in a way that doesn’t damage their health - by, for example, making sure they have the right office set-up.

Dr Suter believes we may well be moving towards a flexible-working model, where staff work at home 2-3 days a week and come into the office the rest of the time. But this would mean there will still be a need for office space. And it will cause headaches of its own.

“Careful consideration would need to be given to how office space is used,” she said. “Hot-desking might be the obvious answer - but many workers dislike this. There will also be the question of how to coordinate who comes in when - if everyone comes in on a Wednesday, office space and parking becomes an issue. It is not straightforward.”