The idea of getting “back to normal” after the coronavirus pandemic has eased is a misnomer. While lockdown measures may have tested UK society economically and emotionally, they have at least allowed time for reflection. And there must be a new normal now; the old one wasn’t working.
Through mass home-working, the stress and anxiety-inducing culture of presenteeism that pervaded many UK workplaces has been exposed as excessive. Jobs that employees were told would be impossible to do from home have quickly become possible to do remotely, using technologies that already existed well before social distancing was introduced.
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