LUKE MARSDEN: Pandemic showed us the benefits of home-working

Anyone over 50 can now have the vaccine and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time that I’ll get my letter being called for the shot.

I think back to how my life was a year ago.

We were on the precipice of Boris’s “you must stay at home” announcement.

I was commuting daily on a ram-packed, delayed Northern Rail train into Manchester, splashing sanitiser on my hands every few minutes.

Little did any of us know that our lives were about to change in a monumental way.

There are very few benefits to come out of the global pandemic but the fact the nation has adopted and embraced working from home as a real and permanent concept for many, must be a true benefit.

I visited the office for the first time in six months this week and it was surreal.

I treated it like I was going on a night out: slapped gel in my hair and even put on a few squirts of aftershave!

I love working from home.

I’ve converted my spare bedroom into an office and now my house in Whelley has allowed me to become a communications hub (albeit I’ve had quite a few battles with Sky broadband!). The soundtrack to the last year has been “Luke you’re on mute!” but if we keep going with the incredible vaccine roll-out, my friends and family will wish that I was just on Zoom rather than trying to mute me over a few drinks in our gardens.

It is time we all looked at the changes the pandemic has forced upon us and seek out the benefits, muted or not!

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