So we need to get back to offices according to the government. Putting aside the risk of the virus and minor practical issues about childcare - the simple question arises. Why?

I understand the jobs that are linked to big offices and our cities. Transport, coffee shops, cleaners, security and so many more. But commutes are often long, stressful, experience and reduce life satisfaction. They get in the way of family time.

Offices themselves aren’t great either. They are distraction factories that assume one way of working fits all. Traditional working practices built around the 9-5 office are infected with inefficiency and bureaucracy. They were also built around men and their needs.

Sometimes stuff moves on because it no longer works, we outgrow the need or we have found something better. See VHS, cassette tapes, typewriter, fax machines, the Argos catalogs. Etc etc etc.

Is the office dead? It’s too early to say. The gravitational pull of the familiar may still draw us back. Or maybe we will define it. But the answer is not to all file back unthinking. Without learning. It is now clear people want change in the way they work.

My own research suggests a period of reflection. Of changing personal motivation. Of crucial life experience. A desire to work differently is one outcome of this. If it’s time for something new so be it. We cannot, must not, return to old because it’s what we have always done.

And if the old style office is dead let’s bury it and move on.