IT SOUNDS mad but I have the office to thank for my family.

My two daughters may not have come into being had I not met my husband in the space we shared at work. We often sat side-by-side at the market research firm, ploughing our way through countless surveys on everything from political persuasions to quirky statistics for popular TV game shows.

It was great fun - if I am honest the most fun job I have ever had. There was no water cooler to gather around chatting on our breaks, but as time went on, I began to go for lunchtime walks with him and another colleague.

My office romance lead to a relationship that, though it has had its ups and downs, has lasted almost 40 years.

The office romance may be the butt of jokes, but it’s responsible for many a union. YouGov research published shortly before the first lockdown shows that almost a fifth of Brits met their current partner or most recent partner at work. That’s surely a better success rate than Tinder.

I can’t think how I would have otherwise met anyone to share my life with. I often went pubbing, clubbing and partying with my friends, but you don’t get to know someone as well as in a shared work space, day after day. And, being stone cold sober, you can see what they’re really like.

I know many people who met their partners at work or through work. This is one of the reasons I am with Rishi Sunak all the way as he calls on Britain’s employers to end working from home and allow staff back in the office.

Looking beyond the pandemic, the chancellor says working in an office is crucial for young people to get to know colleagues and seek out mentors to help their career.

“I’m probably in the camp of saying that it’s good that people are in offices together,” he said, as he appealed to bosses to start investing and hiring when coronavirus lockdown rules are lifted.

I couldn’t agree more. For young people, or indeed anyone starting a new job, interaction with fellow workers is vital. Getting to know people, finding out where the toilets and tea room are, and, perhaps most importantly, having a laugh, are all part of helping you settle. It must be difficult, and strange, to start a job without a workplace.

You can’t underestimate the value of office banter. Small gatherings at the photocopier, in the tea room, or as you pass on the stairs, are great for discussing office politics and for raising morale.

In an office you can also bounce ideas off one another. Only the other day I laboured over something I was doing at work, succumbing to temporary writer’s block as I fretted over it. Had I been in the office I would have leaned over to my colleague who would have cast a fresh eye over it and offered up his thoughts, almost certainly solving the problem.

Not that I can’t seek help under the current remote working regime. I do, and am eternally grateful to my immediate boss for her help over the phone and on Microsoft Teams, but it’s so much easier and simpler in the office, where you often get ten responses for the price of one.

Working from home has its advantages. I love the convenience - who misses commuting? But the social aspect of work can’t be underestimated in its contribution to our lives.

I always looked forward to going to the office. Often, I’d have a baked potato with my friend at lunchtime, and we’d have a good old natter.

I don’t know how my working world will work post-pandemic, but I hope it includes the office.