The head of Goldman Sachs, CEO David Solomon, told a conference today that working from home won’t be an option for Goldman Sachs employees and suggested it’s “an aberration” instead of the new normal.

Mr. Solomon says that GS needs its employees at the office and that the new crop of interns expected this summer won’t be able to buy-in to the company’s corporate culture without the ‘mentoring’ of new employees.

“In particular Mr Solomon was worried about an incoming “class” of about 3,000 new recruits, who wouldn’t get the “direct mentorship” they need. “I am very focused on the fact that I don’t want another class of young people arriving at Goldman Sachs in the summer remotely,” he said.” — BBC

While some might be skeptical, I believe there are some organizations that don’t work were employees to work from home.

One example might be the military. Obviously, wars need to be fought where the war is actually occurring.

Another might be airline pilots — but hey, the future is happening every day! — and one day soon airline pilots might be flying their passengers from one end of the country to the other via their home computer, “Honey, don’t spill your Pepsi on Daddy’s keyboard, he’s busy flying his plane,” Hehehe.

In fact, the entire tourism sector would be impossible to manage using work from home employees, although certain positions might be able to be moved off-site, such as check-in staff, accounting department, and other jobs that don’t require a human to be present.

Legitimate Exceptions Aside, There’s a Huge Societal Upside to Working from Home

Let’s pretend that fully half of all UK jobs could be accomplished via work from home. That isn’t out of the realm of possibility, IMHO.

That means half as many people driving or taking the train to and from the workplace — which would cut traffic congestion in UK cities, and the trains might run on time and not be packed with (potentially) COVID-breathing human beings — all the way to the workplace and all the way home.

Office towers might become lightly populated during the week, although they might open 7-days-a-week, as opposed to Monday-Friday only.

All of which would save Britain’s NHS billions annually on account of far fewer patients catching respiratory illnesses such as, but not limited to COVID-19 and its subsequent variants, and the UK would be on track to meet its Paris Agreement CO2 reduction obligations. Both benefits are very good things for the UK.

Instead of people spending a small fortune on petrol, car insurance, train tickets, bus and/or taxi fares, not to mention all the money they usually spend on work-related clothing and fashion accessories, they’d be spending it on home improvements — like creating a decent office space in the home, or a workshop, and better internet, computer, and mobile phone connectivity.

If they spend the same amount fixing-up their home office or workshop as they used to spend to get back and forth to work — it’s likely to be a good investment as improvements to the property would be reflected in the value of the home and its final selling price should they ever decide to sell.

Time to invest in big box home improvement stores!

Written by John Brian Shannon

Digital roles top the list of jobs on the rise in 2021 (World Economic Forum)