COVID-19 THE DESTRUCTOR… of the toxic 9–5 work ethic, mad rush hour, obsolete office space & outdated urban planning.

Covid-19 can change cities, just as previous pandemics have — if not more. In fact, unlike other pandemics, the stark difference is that we are now not merely adapting to the pandemic from the perspective of urban planning, but also from the point of view of technology and its infrastructures. The pandemic has proven that a lot of jobs can be carried out remotely, potentially bringing an end to the rigid 9–5 work structure, the sufferance of rush-hours and the burgeoning need for office space. What changes could we really get out of Covid-19?

Less 9–5, More Equality

The 5-day working week and the establishment of 8-hour working days was a turning point for the many exploited workers of the 20th century. Sadly, this work ethic was designed without taking into consideration the growing number of women in the workforce. This didn’t merely create a division between the sexes, defined by today’s gender pay gap of 17.3%, but also amongst neurodiverse people that encompass conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism spectrum as well as people with physical disabilities. The pandemic has forced us to rethink and restructure our work ethic. Jobs that were previously thought impossible to carry out remotely, can now, well, be carried out remotely. This shift could lead to fairer career prospects for people with disabilities who often struggle to get into work. It also means couples can share the unpaid labour of care work that sees women complete an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes of caretaking duties a day, three times more than men. Covid-19 has already fundamentally changed the way we approach our work life, not all jobs can be carried out remotely, but a good proportion of office jobs, can.

Less Rush Hour, More Clear Air

If more people work from home, fewer people crowd public transport and far less people use their car. This would not only mark the end of the tragicomical rush hour but also greatly reduce emissions. In 2018, the UK economy lost £7.9 billion because of congestion and drivers in London, on average, spent 227 hours stuck in traffic. Since the lockdown, the notoriously congested Oxford Street has seen a reduction of emissions by a staggering 47%. Our daily commutes do have an impact on the environment and this impact can drastically be reduced by working from home. The Climate Group revealed that teleworking would have the largest impact on reducing emissions, with an estimated saving of 260 MtCO2 each year, and according to the jobs website Monster, by doubling the amount of home working in the UK, there would be 374,931 fewer cars on the road. This is not utopian, it is easily achievable. London has the fastest growing proportion of freelancers in the UK with an estimated 21% of UK freelancers, up a whopping 59% since 2008. Freelance work not only allows people to spend more time with their family, free extra space for exercise or hobbies, improving our mental wellbeing — it also significantly improves the levels of air pollution. We already have the infrastructure in place for us to drastically reduce emissions, Covid-19 has just proved so.

Less Offices, More Homes

Social distancing and smart working will result in half-empty, if not completely empty offices all over the country, but particularly in a city like London, where office spaces occupy 300 million sq ft of land. London might suffer from the worst housing crisis in the UK, but it is definitely not suffering from an office crisis, with the “construction of new offices in central London at its highest level for three years.” All of this takes place whilst more than 100,000 families have been on social housing waiting lists for over a decade, with Newham in east London seeing 25,729 households on waiting lists in 2018, with only 588 social homes available. The rise of smart working is not being matched by the rise in affordable, secure and hygienic living conditions. Victorian Londoners knew the unsanitary conditions very well, but so do Londoners now. The UK now holds the grim European record for the worst-hit country by Covid-19 with London as the main hotspots. Could the overcrowded living conditions up to 11% of Londoners endure be responsible for the spread? London should become the blueprint for a new type of living defined by a restructuring of its urban planning. If more people work from home, most offices could be reclaimed as affordable homes. We now not only have the chance to reclaim these buildings but also to improve their very structures making them environmentally friendly. But that’s not all, if we take it a step further still, we open the possibility to change the very foundations of our buildings and their very utility. Imagine if every new apartment block, other than being kitted out with a gym, a garage and a concierge hall also reserved one or two floors as working spaces? They’d operate as spaces for students to work in, meeting rooms for workers, co-working spaces for freelancers or open reading spaces outside the four walls of a home. The future home is not utopian. It is possible now.

Covid-19 has given us the opportunity to face the future eye to eye. Changing our toxic work habits, reducing our poisonous emissions and providing social housing is achievable. Let’s not return back to a past blighted by gross inequality. If there is one positive aspect of this pandemic, it is the possibility for once, to live in the future — now.