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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Letters

The downsides of working from home

A woman using a laptop on a dining room table set up as a remote office to work from home.
Prof Stephen Wood has conducted research on the effects of home-working during the pandemic. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

It seems that the success of home working in the pandemic is being taken for granted (Lloyds embraces hybrid working with 20% cut in office space, 24 February). My research, based on a diary study of professional workers, raises a big question about this. It shows that, in 2020, the two main factors that affected the wellbeing of home workers were loneliness and an inability to switch off from work.
Prof Stephen Wood
University of Leicester

• Re the Q&A section in Weekend (Letters, 1 March), I’ve always been uneasy with the question “What do you most dislike about your appearance?” In an age when body dysmorphia is a real issue for many people, wouldn’t it be so much better to ask “What do you most like about your appearance?”
Maggie D’Araujo
Blackpool

• Re bottled air from Cornwall (Pass notes, 1 March), in the 50s, every spring our neighbour in London would drive his old Ford saloon to Southend. There he would let the air out of his tyres and pump them up again with “fresh estuary air”. He claimed this made them last longer!
Martyn Day
Twickenham, London

• So, in these strange, restricted days, Tony Purcell sees little point in getting out of bed before 11am (Letters, 28 February). Why so early?
Steve Mason
Hornchurch, Essex

• Hanging out washing in late February (Letters, 1 March) is nothing. Our washing has been out since mid-January. With any luck it will be dry soon.
Ian Skidmore
Welwyn, Hertfordshire

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