The Surprising History of Remote Working
Most of us assume that remote working became popularised with the dawn of the Covid-19 pandemic, a few years ago. Confined to our homes, jobs became virtual, and employers realised that workers could operate just as effectively outside of a physical office. After the pandemic most workplaces adopted a hybrid work policy with very few people going back to five days in office.
Recently, there has been a growing resistance to the work from home culture which the pandemic popularised. Especially loud amongst government officials; conservative peer Lord Stuart Rose described remote working as ‘not doing proper work’, complaining that ‘we’ve gone backwards. A generation of people are working three days a week and calling it full-time’, whilst fellow conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg said that ‘people working from home are not working as hard as they would be if they were in office’.
(The irony is that, for many office workers, as popular sitcoms like the Office satirised, being in an office five days a week doesn’t automatically equate to hard work and productivity).
The impression created by these government officials is one of remote working taking our society backwards, opposing progress. We must return to good, old-fashioned, in-person hard work. That is the more natural way, the better way, and working from home was just a blip in history, popularised because of the pandemic, and we aught to return to normal now.
Is this true? History tells us otherwise.
A Timeline of Remote Working
Prehistoric and Early Human Societies (up to 3000 BCE)
Employment meant survival-based tasks. Days would be spent hunting, gathering and making tools. Work would be done either at or near the home, at campfires, caves or open planes, and there was no seperation between work and daily life.
Agrarian & Early Urban Civilisations (3000 BCE — 500 CE)
Work continued to be embedded into daily life and not seen as separate from it. Economic production was decentralised, flexible and family based. The vast majority of people lived in self-sustaining, agrarian households. Work, whether farming, crafting, or food preparation, was typically conducted in or around the home, often involving the entire family.
Medieval Artisan Period (500–1600 CE):
Home and employment continued to blend. Most workshops were part of a family’s dwelling, often located on the ground floor, whilst the family lived above or behind the workplace. Artisans, like blacksmiths, weavers, coopers, cobblers, brewers and stonemasons worked from or near their homes. Work was collaborative and multigenerational. Children helped out, spouses partipated, apprentices joined and typically lived on site.
Cottage Industry/ “Putting-Out System” (1600–1800)
Traders would deliver raw materials to rural households, who would then process or manufacture goods (e.g. yarn, cloth, buttons or tools) at home, and then return the final products to the merchant. This system operated without centralised factories, relying instead on a network of independent home-based workers. The whole family, including the children, would often participate in this work.
Industrial Revolution (late 1700s-early 1900s)
This period marked a dramatic break from centuries of home-based work and introduced the physical seperation of ‘home’ and ‘work’ for the majority of people. Mass production, mechanisation and factory systems centralised labour in urban areas. This period saw the emergence of ideas about productivity, professionalism and employer control which persist until today. Time discipline emerged with the “clock-in, clock-out” model replacing more flexible rhythms of working.
Post-War Era (1945–1970s)
This period saw the rise of office culture, with an explosion of white-collar jobs in administration, finance, marketing and tech.
Internet Age (1990s-2010)
The first waves of digital remote work took hold as emails and laptops enabled more flexibility. The term ‘digital nomad’ emerged, a romantic ideal of a remote freelancer who was able to work from anywhere in the world.
Covid-19 pandemic
Overnight millions of people shifted to fully remote work. In many roles, employers saw productivity maintained or improved, which triggered a mass re-evaluation of ideas around workplace productivity, commuting and the necessity of being in an office.
Post-pandemic era (2021-present)
Hybrid working with some days in office and some days at home has now become the norm for most desk-based jobs.
Conclusion
It’s clear that throughout most of human history, work was closer to remote home-based working than in-office, with employment being integrated into daily life, as opposed to being a separate concept. The “clock-in, clock-out” time system wherein employers are treated as cogs in a machine can be traced back to the industrial revolution. The idea that humans need to be sat in an office for eight hours a day doesn’t hold up in the light of history; office work is not “natural”.
On the flip side of this though, examining human employment through the ages shows us that for most of history, humans have always worked together. Work was social, communal.
Whilst office working is not inherently right or “natural”, it also isn’t natural for a human to be sat alone for many hours everyday staring at their laptop screen.
The pandemic disrupted the illusion that work and life had to be two separate things, by fusing together work and home life in a way that was the norm for centuries before the industrial revolution. But it also gave rise to social isolation.
The way forward is for us to take advantage of the free time provided by hybrid and remote working to connect with other humans and communities again, which will result in better wellbeing overall.
