Working from home may be more productive – but nothing beats the conversations we used to have in person

Working with sustained concentration for longer stretches is easier now, yet there is a downside to missing out on the chance interactions I’d have with other journalists every day, writes John Rentoul

Flying solo: emails and messages just aren’t the same (Getty/iStockphoto)

My favourite American economist, Tyler Cowen, has dug out a research paper from six years ago about the benefits of working from home. The study found that home working led to a significant improvement in performance, as well as higher worker satisfaction and therefore lower staff turnover – but that home workers were less likely to be promoted.

Many of us are now in the middle of a larger experiment, and it will be interesting to see if those results, from a Chinese travel agency call centre, will be replicated, and if so, how much of a permanent increase in home working there will be when the coronavirus pandemic has receded.

I suppose it is different for different personalities and for different jobs, and my experience is hardly typical. But I can report that I am more productive, in that I work longer hours, mainly because my government-approved exercise takes less time than my commuting used to.

I am also able to read more, and to work with sustained concentration for longer stretches, which might conceivably have raised the quality of my typing.

But there is a downside to working from home, which is not just that I miss the quizzes (especially the music quizzes) with my colleagues in Westminster and at Independent HQ. I miss the chance conversations with them, and with other journalists in parliament.

Obviously, I miss the opportunity to bump into MPs in the Palace of Westminster, which is often a good way of getting into a conversation that will lead to a comment article. But it is other journalists I miss most.

Donald Macintyre, who was The Independent’s political editor when I joined the newspaper, once said: “Your best sources are other journalists.” It is true, and they are also the best inspiration for political commentary. What seems like idle chat about the Labour reshuffle or Rishi Sunak’s chances of becoming prime minister often provides a rich seam of creative ways of thinking about politics.

We can talk by email and messaging, but it’s not the same. Hope to see you all in person again soon.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator