For those whose jobs allow and homes are spacious, the working from home revolution was seen as a real benefit that came out of the pandemic and a cultural change that workers want to continue. But is the tide now turning back in favour of the office? For this week’s big story James Tapper heads to the City of London, still eerily empty on a typical Friday, to find out how employers and employees view the move to get more of us back in the office more of the time. Our US technology writer Kari Paul looks at what is happening in Silicon Valley and reports on Amazon’s move to keep tabs on the whereabouts of its employees and penalise those who spend too much time working from home. We also find out how countries around the world regulate hybrid working patterns and Phillip Inman analyses why the UK embraced working from home so fully.
One woman’s quest to find her birth family and trace how she was taken from a children’s home in Bangladesh to new parents in the Netherlands raises disquieting questions about western adoption practices. For our main feature Rosie Swash and Thaslima Begum meet Bibi Hasenaar and hear how her own story exposes a wider scandal of “lost children”, many of whom would never see their mothers again when families sought help via a Dutch NGO that was working in a country ravaged by a bitter fight for independence.
Poet Diane Mehta’s tale of how she learned to swim after the age of 50, our second feature, was read with delight by those of us in the office of similar age. Empowering, immersive and beautifully written, it is a delight to dive into and certainly inspired me to head for my nearest pool and brush up my technique.
Architecture’s attempts to get to grips with AI has produced wildly fantastical but possibly unbuildable designs, some of which illustrate Oliver Wainwright’s lead feature in the Culture section. He meets architects playing with AI possibilities and some who are fearful their profession is under threat.
Our second Culture feature is determinedly future-proofed as Michael Hann goes on the road with bands who, despite having few if any original members, still play to fans eager to hear old tracks played live.
I hope you enjoy this week’s issue.