Comment - Are we all about to get divorced from the office?

Homemade cakes sold for charity, bringing everyone together for a treat, a chat and a good cause.

Other times babies would be wheeled in and showed off and I’ve heard more leaving speeches than I care to remember.

The office is a place to work, a place to socialise and a place to belong.

Many people miss it - especially when compared to the same four walls of home and out-of-school kids going feral after months of lockdown.

But does it even exist any more?

Social distancing, taped-off desks, one-way systems and worries about infection mean that when workers do go back it won’t be the same - and probably won’t be every day.

Now Sheffield company The Tech Dept has shown the office doesn’t have to 'be’ at all.

It’s one of the first in the post outbreak era to ditch its physical presence and go fully WFH.

The company is handing in the keys at St James House and all 11-staff will be based at home full-time.

Boss Daniel Kirby is exhilarated by the radical move which will see them get together for quality time monthly, rather than the daily small talk and half understood discussions in the office.

Free of any physical presence they can do anything. Work from Barcelona, or Bali, and still spend less money than before.

It’s probably a bit like getting divorced, suddenly the world is your oyster, free of ties, the potential is limitless.

But that’s bound to fade and it’ll be interesting to see where they are in a year.

Working from home is bad news for city centre shops and businesses that rely on footfall and the PM knows it. Last week he said that from August 1, firms would be given more discretion on whether staff should come back to work.

Office life will be back because people need it

WFH also potentially affects developers considering their next block. In Sheffield, 4 St Pauls on Pinstone Street and Vidrio on Sheaf Street have been on the drawing board for years and could stay that way - only the Heart of the City II scheme is making any progress and only because it’s 100 per cent funded by the taxpayer.

For the rest of us, be under no illusion, your bosses will be thinking hard about the future and The Tech Dept could be a blueprint as the world goes ever more online.

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