英国智库Demos指出，绝大部分人希望疫情结束后能继续远程办公，而且推行远程办公有助于较贫困地区的振兴。



Remote working should become the default in Britain, with employers legally obliged to demonstrate the need for staff to attend any particular workplace, according to the think-tank Demos. 6park.com
智库Demos表示，远程办公应该成为英国的一种默认工作方式，雇主在法律上有义务证明要求员工前往任何特定工作场所办公的必要性。 6park.com
In a report published on Monday, it makes the case for the government to pursue a move to more remote working as a means of “levelling up” poorer areas, rather than worrying about the effect of empty offices on urban centres. 6park.com
Demos在周一发布的一份报告中提出，政府应该采取措施，更多地推行远程办公，以此作为帮助较贫困地区向其他地区“看齐”的方法，而不是担心办公室空置对城市中心的影响。



The think-tank said its research had found four-fifths of the working population want to continue with some form of remote working once the pandemic is over, although not necessarily from their home. Younger people were particularly keen on having workspaces available locally. 6park.com
该智库表示，其研究发现，五分之四的劳动人口希望在疫情结束后继续从事某种形式的远程办公，即使不一定是居家办公。年轻人尤其热衷于在本地享有办公空间。 6park.com
Around half of homeworkers and a third of all respondents polled by Demos in December said they wanted to spend more money locally even after restrictions lifted — and this effect was almost as strong in rural and coastal towns as in industrial and satellite towns and more affluent places. 6park.com
在Demos于去年12月进行的民意调查中，大约一半的居家办公人员和三分之一的受访者表示，即使在解除封锁限制后，他们也希望增加在本地的消费。不管是在农村和沿海城镇，还是在工业城镇和卫星城以及更富裕的城市，当地民众的这种意愿几乎同样强烈。 6park.com
“Homeworking is a regeneration tool, spreading the spending power of the people with the most disposable income. Let’s embrace it,” said Kitty Ussher, a former Treasury minister and chief economist at Demos. 6park.com
前英国财政大臣、Demos首席经济学家基蒂•厄谢尔(Kitty Ussher)表示：“居家办公是一种地区振兴工具，可以分散那些可支配收入最高的人群的消费力。让我们采用这种方法吧。” 6park.com
Legislation making all jobs flexible by default would be one means to pursue this goal, she argued. 6park.com
她认为，通过立法，默认所有工作都采用灵活办公方式，将是实现这一目标的一种方法。 6park.com
Employees already have a legal right to request flexible working, including where they work as well as in their working time. In 2019, the government committed to a consultation on making flexible working the default position unless employers could give a good reason not to allow it. 6park.com
员工目前已经拥有要求弹性工作方式的合法权利，包括工作的地点和时间。2019年，英国政府曾承诺要就将弹性工作制作为默认工作方式——除非雇主能够给出不允许弹性工作制的充分理由——征求意见。



The need to attend the workplace could be made clear cut, the report said, in the case of key workers or customer-facing roles, but could also encompass the need for networking, teambuilding, creative collaboration or mentoring younger colleagues. 6park.com
报告称，可以明确需要上班的情况，比如关键岗位或需要面对客户的岗位，此外还包括需要建立人际关系、进行团队建设、创意协作或指导年轻同事的情况。 6park.com
Demos said that while many employers were already planning for a shift to hybrid working, their needs would not always match employees’ wishes. 6park.com
Demos表示，虽然许多雇主已经计划转向混合工作制，但他们的需求与员工的期望并不总是一致的。 6park.com
However, there was a broader public interest in promoting remote working to drive “levelling up” and help parents of young children or people with health conditions avoid long commutes. The report said it would also help “chip away at the stark choice between career and community for people whose homes are further away from economic centres”. 6park.com
然而，促进远程办公以在地区间起到“拉平作用”、以及帮助年幼子女的父母或健康状况不佳的人避免长时间通勤，符合更广泛的公共利益。该报告表示，此举还将有助于“减少那些住所离经济中心较远的人所面临的职业和社区之间的艰难选择”。



A shift to homeworking would boost affluent areas most because they have a higher share of white-collar professionals. Demos said one way to spread spending power more evenly would be to convert civic buildings in smaller, more deprived areas into remote working spaces that could be used by any civil servant. This would go further than the current policy of creating public sector “hubs” in cities such as Leeds and Darlington that were already likely to gain, Ussher said. 6park.com
转向居家办公对富裕地区的促进作用最大，因为这些地区白领专业人士的比例更高。Demos表示，要促进消费力更均衡地分布，一种方法是将较小、较贫困地区的市政建筑改造成可供任何公务人员使用的远程办公空间。厄谢尔表示，这将比现行政策更进一步，目前的做法是在利兹和达林顿等城市建设公共部门“中心”，这种做法已经有可能带来好处。 6park.com
But she added: “Remote working helps places where there are more white-collar jobs at the moment. But it’s important to say that it helps everywhere. I don’t think the fact that the positive effects are unequally distributed in the current economic structure is a reason to be against it.” 6park.com
但她补充称：“远程办公目前对白领职位较多的地区有帮助。但必须要说，它对任何地区都有益。我认为，远程办公所带来的积极效应在当前经济结构下分布不均的事实，不应该成为反对远程办公的理由。”



The report was sponsored by Legal & General, which provided forward funding for the Central Square development in Cardiff that it said could be a model for future local office space. 6park.com
Legal & General为这份报告提供了赞助。该公司为加的夫(Cardiff)的中心广场(Central Square)开发项目提供了前期资金，并称该项目可能成为未来本地办公空间的典范。