I did my bit to pioneer working from home. More than 20 years ago, when I was production editor responsible for PA’s newswire output, we had a sub who found it more difficult than others to get into our central London office.
Mike Dodd, who went on to be a co-editor of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists, suffered from the aftereffects of childhood polio, and we took a huge leap, allowing him to work – and transmit direct to the PA wire – from his home. It was revolutionary, but it worked. Before long, other subs had started working from their own homes and stories were going straight to the wire from spare rooms and dining tables all over the country.
Years later, Covid lockdowns made working from home almost universal. The BJR published accounts at the time of new working conditions that dramatically altered the way newspapers were produced. Readers noticed no difference, but it was a massive change for journalists. Some of them returned to their offices after the lockdowns, some did not, but five years on, WFH is still a hot topic.
I thought working from home was a great idea, but now I’m having second thoughts. Not because I agree with former Asda and M&S boss Stuart Rose, who thinks people who work from home “are not doing proper work”. Rather, my concern is for young people entering the workforce.
Working from home is fine for me, or for you, or for any of the people I have ever worked with. We can use our experience to recreate the office in our heads. We know what offices are like: the relationships, the interactions, the motivations. But we knew nothing of that before we started our first jobs.
It’s not just journalists. My daughter has just graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10KSB business growth programme and was impressed by a lecture from Tracey Camilleri, associate fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, who has strong feelings about working from home. Camilleri said in an interview with the Vivaldi business consultancy: “We’re doing some research on Gen Z – the ones who’ve just transitioned into work. They were hit particularly hard socially and educationally by Covid-19 and now the nature of work is being renegotiated on their watch. On the other side, I spoke to a group of entrepreneurs recently and I got a bit of pushback from them – saying actually we’re finding it really hard to motivate our youngest employees, they are kind of ‘quiet quitting’, they’re out there somewhere behind the screen, but we don’t quite know what they’re doing.”
The advantages of working from home are obvious. Employers save on expensive office space and can recruit from a pool of talent that is not geographically limited. Workers, similarly, can apply for jobs that might otherwise have been physically out of reach, as well as saving money and time on commuting, and simplifying childcare arrangements.
Media consultant and former editor Neil Benson recognised those two-way advantages early on: “Many years ago at Trinity Mirror, we found we were losing subs – predominantly women with children – who couldn’t balance work with their childcare needs. We piloted a work-from-home scheme, which proved very successful. The subs were given the flexibility they needed (and were extremely productive) and we retained good employees we would otherwise have lost.”
During the pandemic, however, he saw a more worrying aspect of working from home: “Generally speaking, the younger reporters, usually living alone in a small flat or in a house-share, struggled with the isolation and the lack of a guiding hand. Many developed bad habits, for the lack of input from the seniors.”
Journalism trainer Peter Sands agrees: “It is beyond doubt that home-working is here and that it works… to a point. Whether it is desirable, for creativity or for health and well-being, is a lot less certain.
“Overall, the benefit for trainees of being in the office, seeing how it operates, meeting their colleagues and getting instant feedback is colossal. Some have found working from home to be very isolating.”
One journalist on a regional paper where staff are still encouraged to come into the office as much as possible told me: “During the pandemic, it must have been difficult for people on work experience or new starters who were never able to come in the office because the experience is just so different, and you don’t get the same support or advice from the team.
“We still have a newsroom, and journalists can have those invaluable face-to-face conversations and are able to discuss stories or brainstorm ideas. People who do work experience at our newsroom come into the office: being able to ask for advice in person and witness how senior journalists handle stories is really important.
“I think that visible presence, especially when you’re new, is key. If a work experience is in the office, a news editor might suggest they join a senior reporter as they head out to a crime scene or an interview. And I think you feel more invested in your job if you see your colleagues face to face.”
Yet some newspapers have done away with newsrooms altogether, meaning student journalists on work experience attachments might never meet any of their colleagues.
Camilleri would hate this: “We are relational creatures… if you’re just head down, getting through the tasks, possibly working from home is more productive. But how do you think coherently together? How do you learn from each other? How do you build trust? Make friends?”
One aggressive night editor I once worked for said we don’t go to work to make friends. Maybe, but we all work better if we know and trust one another.