For many white-collar workers around the world, the recent widespread disease has meant having to work from home. Their usual office location has been out of bounds. This means different working practices, which have advantages and disadvantages for employers. But the big question is will they ever see their offices again?

Home working has made people realize what tasks they can perform at home, rather than going resularly to the office to do the same thing. It has given them more time with the family; they’ve been sleeping better and have saved money by no travelling or buying lunches on the go. And recent evidence suggests the majority of people working from home do as well and achieve as much as before.

For some people, this could be a permanent arrangement. In the UK, fifty of the biggest employers questioned by the BBC, have said they have no plans to return all staff to the office fulltime in the near future. Of course one main reason that fire couldn’t see a way of accommodating large numbers of staff while social distancing regulations were still in place. But the BBC also heard that some smaller businesses are deciding to abandon their offices altogether.

Other bigger companies are also looking at winding up offices to save money as many jobs can be performed remotely. Peter Cheese, head of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, told the BRC: “We are at a moment of real change in the world of work, driven by big existential crises.”

But this isn’t great news for everyone. Some employees can feel lonely at home, and there’s less opportunity to network or learn from other people, especially if they’re a new worker. Also, city centers may suffer most from a change in working habits. Shops and cafes rely on the footfall of office workers, and without them, they face closure. The future is still uncertain, which is why it may be too early to say where our desks will be permanently located. But the office of the future may be your home.

Imagine if your journey to work was from your bedroom to your living room. More and more people in the UK are doing their jobs at home.

Baz works as an engineer in a West London factory. He’s been an engineer since he left school - but he’s not very optimistic about his future. Heavy industry in the UK has almost disappeared. More people work in Indian restaurants than in steel, coal and shipbuilding put together! Baz also often gets tired of his long journey to work. Whether he travels by car or by public transport, it can take up to two hours a day.

His sister, Liz, lives in the north of England. She’s an Information Technology (IT) trainer at a college. Once every four weeks, she meets her trainees in person, but most of her training is done through IT.

Baz’s wife, Helen, seldom travels to work at all. She’s a graphic designer for a London advertising company. Once she’s got the children off to school, she starts work in front of her computer screen. She’s currently designing publicity material for a major London festival. When she’s finished her designs, she sends them electronically to her director. He works from home too - occasionally they meet up for a coffee.

Most people in the UK, like Baz, spend hours travelling to work - and complain about it, too. But an increasing number of people work as telecommuters, like Helen or Liz. Almost all of their work is done online or by phone. There are a million telecommuters in the UK, about 10 percent of the workforce.

Your colleague is the first one in and the last one to leave. They volunteer to take on every additional task that comes your team’s way and they respond to emails within minutes. They’re working all the time, whether from the office or from home. 【小题1】

Dealing with a workaholic colleague can be challenging, but there are steps you can take to ease the negative effects of their behavior on yourself and your team.

Depersonalize their actions.

While it’s tempting to assume that your colleague is overworking in an attempt to outshine you, this is a classic example of a cognitive bias (偏差). In social psychology, this refers to the tendency humans have to owe another person’s actions to their character or personality, while crediting our own behavior to external or situational factors that are outside our control. 【小题2】 Debias (消除偏见) your thinking by considering other reasons for their behavior.

Resist peer pressure.

【小题3】 You may start comparing your capacity and output to theirs and wonder, “Am I really working hard enough?” Before you begin overextending yourself in an effort to “catch up”, mind your mindset and be aware of extremist thinking. Taking time off for self-care isn’t indulgent (纵容的), rather it’s a precondition for your performance.

【小题4】

Workaholics tend to have few boundaries. You’ll need to play defense by managing their expectations around your response times and availability. Let’s say your colleague asks you to turn around a project brief in less than 24 hours. You can push back and explain, “That’s not possible. If you have this sort of task in the future, I’ll need at least a three day’s notice to work it into my schedule.” You might also advocate for better systems and processes that remove the need for excess effort.

Finally, remember to adjust your perspective on productivity. While it may be tempting to evaluate your daily success based on the number of hours you work, it’s the quality of work you deliver that matters most. 【小题5】