For large numbers of businesses, closure and lockdown measures
have meant that the only way of keeping trading and staying afloat
has been to ask staff to work from home. But are there risks? And,
if so, what precautions should be taken?
Disappearance of obstacles to working from home
In these days of effortless remote connectivity, many practical
obstacles which restricted working from home in the past no longer
exist. While, twenty years ago, employers occasionally allowed
staff to work from home, this rarely worked very well: only
"back office" employees could effectively do their jobs
from somewhere other than their usual workplace.
Even where it was feasible to work from home – say for
someone whose job it was to keep books of account – this
would usually require that files or similar materials had to be
taken home; and this, even if practicable, might have posed a risk
to the security of those records.
