Working from Home: The Lazy Flex That’s Quietly Killing Our Culture

Published 30.05.2025 - Michael A. Di Palma

WORKING FROM HOME IS THE SLOW DEATH OF EVERYTHING THAT MAKES US HUMAN.

Working from home isn’t just a lifestyle shift—it’s a cultural regression. It’s lazy. It’s isolating. And worst of all, we’re pretending it’s progress.

Sure, COVID-19 forced us to adapt. We found ways to stay productive in our pajamas. But COVID is over. The virus may have left the headlines, but the impact on how we live and work still lingers—like a bad habit we don’t want to break.

 

The Myth of Remote Productivity

We tell ourselves we’re more productive at home. But let’s be honest: we’re not. We’ve confused being busy with being effective. There’s data that backs this up:

  • A Stanford University paper shows that fully remote work results in 10% lower productivity compared to in-person work.

  • Hybrid work may be a middle ground, but full-time remote? It’s eroding efficiency, accountability, and connection.

And that’s just the measurable stuff. What about all the side conversations that spark ideas? What about spontaneous collaboration? None of that happens when you’re alone in your kitchen on Slack.

 

Britain: Europe’s Work From Home Capital — And That’s Not a Badge of Honour

According to King’s College London, British workers now average 1.8 days a week working from home—the highest in Europe and second only to Canada globally. Let that sink in. We’re leading a charge that no one should be proud of.

This isn’t innovation. It’s avoidance.

We’re normalising detachment and calling it balance. But when half your week is spent alone in your house, how balanced is that really?

 

Loneliness Is the New Office Mate

The average adult sleeps 7–8 hours a night. Then there’s the 3–4 hours of TV, social media, or just zoning out with a takeaway. Add in 2 or more days working from home? That’s half your life lived alone.

And I don’t care how introverted you are—humans need other humans. Even if they annoy you. Even if they microwave fish in the office kitchen.

This isn’t just about productivity. This is about mental health, emotional development, and the kind of rich, messy, human interaction that makes life worth living.

 

Leadership Means Showing Up

If you’re a leader—if you’re someone building a team or mentoring others—you need to show up. Full stop.

  • You don’t mentor culture from a Zoom call.

  • You don’t inspire people by sending well-written emails.

  • You don’t build a team by being invisible.

Presence matters. That’s how you build better businesses. More importantly, it’s how you build amazing people. And amazing people? They attract more amazing people. That’s how real culture spreads.

 

Economic Responsibility Means Turning Up

Let’s get real: we all praised the government’s financial support during COVID. It was generous. It kept people afloat.

But now we have a responsibility to pay it back—with effort, with action, with presence.

  • Staying at home and patting ourselves on the back for being “efficient” isn’t rebuilding the economy.

  • Culture doesn’t grow in a vacuum—it grows in kitchens, in boardrooms, in cafés, in team huddles.

We’ve had Brexit (wrong), COVID (traumatic), and now a government that’s applying duct tape to bullet wounds. The least we can do is show up and help each other rebuild.

 

Final Thought

I don’t want to live in a world where human interaction is optional.

Where mentorship is a scheduled call.

Where leadership is remote-controlled.

Where our most social moment is watching a YouTube tutorial.

We’ve got to claw our way back to connection—messy, loud, in-person connection.

You want a better world? Then stop building it in isolation.

Close the laptop. Grab a coffee. Make eye contact.

Because your life won’t be livestreamed from your spare bedroom.