Companies that let people work from home are failing their younger employers, an HR expert has argued. 

Yesterday, businessman and billionaire Dennis O’Brien denounced the phenomenon as a “mistake” and argued that the country is "grinding to a halt" as a result of hybrid working arrangements. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Futurewise Managing Director Peter Cosgrove described remote working as “the biggest experiment in 200 years”.  

“It’s going to take us a while to get our head around it,” he argued. 

“But there is no doubt that some of the comments around the fact that you’ve less interactions with other people, things do slow down. 

“A lot of people listening today will know how efficient their online and Teams meetings are, so they might argue that they get more time back because they don’t have to travel into work. 

“But actually, it’s very hard to measure how much you’re missing out on building relationships and trust with people if you’re not seeing them in person.” 

A young woman working from home. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Mr Cosgrove conceded that some people “definitely do” work very well at home. 

However, he added that does not mean remote working is positive overall for companies. 

“The problem is, you’re part of a collective if you work for an organisation,” he said. 

“You probably wouldn’t have wanted when you started to have nobody helping you and mentoring you. 

“Most of us who are a bit older did have that. 

“So, if we’re now letting people who are in their 20s work from home five days a week and never meet anyone, they’re missing out.” 

A woman taking notes while sitting in front her laptop. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Mr Cosgrove argued that interpersonal skills are impossible to learn if you spend a lifetime working from your kitchen table. 

“All those messy conversations, all the kind of awkwardness that you have to go through to understand how things work,” he said. 

“Bumping into different colleagues, accidentally being stuck in the lift with the CEO and wondering what to say. 

“All of those things are real life situations which don’t happen if the next generation aren’t having those in person conversations.” 

Main image: A young man WFH. Picture by: Alamy.com.