Following on from Graham’s editorial on 25 March, I would just like to extol the virtues of home-working in the days and months ahead.

I practised home-working in my own legal practice in Edinburgh for 26 years from 1986 to 2012. When I started in 1986, it was viewed as a little unusual and many would ask questions such as “do you really work at home?” and “how do you work when there are other distractions at home?”

However, the reality for me was that I probably worked more hours than in a traditional office environment as it was so easy to carry on working into the evening when the phone wasn’t ringing, as the line between office life and home life was a little blurred.

But the main reason I decided to embark on home working was the wonderful opportunity it gave me to combine a professional life in the law with home life when my children were small. I could be with them when they were sick, take them to school, collect them from school and be there at mealtimes, bedtimes and story times.

So perhaps there is a possibility – post-coronavirus – that employers will view home-working more favourably in the future and recognise that their staff will work just as conscientiously at home (perhaps more so) and that some of us will experience a much better balance between work and family life than we have at present.

Patricia S. Quigley WS