ABSTRACT
The government tells us to work from home if at all possible, as the prime minister does at 10 Downing Street. Home working will stop us from being too close to strangers, more so as we will not be commuting. A study of European nations in 2018 found that only 15% of people worked from home, and that included freelancers. In Holland, which was one of the cradles of capitalism, some people go out the front door, leave their domestic space and walk round to their back door to enter their work space. It’s a slightly obsessive demarcation, but Holland actually home schools more of its children than any other European country. This odd routine may help by giving clear divides. The psychological lesson is to analyse what makes us irritable and how we make others irritable, since working from home means sharing the space.
