The work from home revolution is here to stay – if you’re rich, white and live in London

theguardian.com:

A few days ago, I witnessed first-hand what working from home was doing to our society. It was a normal work day, and I rushed from my home to the local tube station. As I descended the stairs, I steeled myself for the usual crush of the Central line. But when the train whooshed into the station and I boarded, something seemed odd. It was 8.50am, I was heading into the City of London, and there was a seat available. In fact, there was not just one seat – I counted about 10 free seats on my carriage. Usually you would be lucky to find standing space, so I was trying to figure out what was wrong. I soon realised that it was Friday – the most popular day for employees to work from home.

During the past few years, we have witnessed a revolution in working life. When home working became more common during the Covid pandemic, many assumed this would be a temporary change. Yet according to data released this week by the Office for National Statistics, between September 2022 and January 2023, 16% of the workforce still worked solely from home, while 28% were hybrid workers who split their time between home and the office. Even more than this – 40% – had worked from home at some point in the past seven days, compared with just 12% in 2019. This reflects global trends. A survey of employees in 27 countries found that working from home is becoming much more of a norm. Employees in this sample spent an average of 1.5 days working from home. The UK average was 2 days.

But what the data makes starkly clear is that the working from home revolution has not touched everyone’s lives equally. The ONS survey found that workers on salaries of more than £50,000, people with degrees, Londoners and white people had the highest rates of home or