The older I get the more I seem to be liking sheds.
There I've said it.
I never thought I would become that particular cliché but I now positively revel in being a Dad and his shed.
So much so that I googled them the other day, sheds that is not Dads and my oh my there are some beauties out there that put my modest and moderately fusty structure to shame.
What I hadn't realised though was that garden sheds have less and less to do with gardening and everything to do with the flexible working revolution. More and more people it seems are commuting to the back fence on a daily basis as the home office becomes less of a futuristic pipe dream and more of a day to day reality for many.
Driven in part by the huge leap forwards in video call technology, with most of us carrying the capability in our pockets to do what only James Bond had a crack at twenty years ago, working from home really has been transformed from a lame excuse for a duvet day into a genuine business strategy.
On top of the tech that no longer makes being there necessarily dependant on actually being there, it doesn't matter if your office is a shed, a loft or a desk in the corner of the bedroom, the work from home shift, much like its very close cousin the job share explosion, has also been born out of the rising number of families with two parents at work.
The amount of parents at the school gate deep in conversation on their mobile or firing off email after email is definitely on the rise. Not ideal perhaps, but needs must.
As well as the obvious benefit, both in terms of time, money and stress of avoiding a lengthy commute there's also the fact that with the global market comes global time zones and if you are going to be on a call to the other side of the world at 9pmyou might as well do it in your own home while wearing tracksuit bottoms.
There was a time, on the clothes front when the perceived wisdom was that in order to feel like you were at work you should dress like you were at work.
It's safe to say that rule has long since been debunked and anyone who has been on a Skype or Facetime meeting call with a home worker will know the notion that while the top half may be clothed, the bottom half my not is avert hard one to shake once it's taken hold.
There's still businesses out there for whom working from home will forever be viewed as a shirkers charter, just as there are those who only pay lip service to flexible working and job share requests - but as every day goes by more and more firms see the light.
Shed loads of them in fact.
