Irish Examiner View: New work habits, new health habits

The future of the office, as a place of business or as an investment, is coming under a new kind of scrutiny, too. Picture: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

Back in March, when winter was in retreat and the cheering promise of summer called, the pandemic arrived. All but the most perceptive imagined, or at least hoped, that it would be no more than another temporary little arrangement, one that would pass in the medium term and make way for the return of something like normal. So much for wishful thinking.

One of the immediate Covid-driven changes was that tens of thousands of people had to flee crowded offices to work from home. There was, in a huge number of cases, almost an air of liberation about it. The daily grind of commuting, an increasing toll in so many lives, was gone.