This week, we heard that Scotland’s public services are underperforming, that the Scottish Government sickness rates are higher than other UK government departments, and that civil servants are refusing to come to the office. Andy Maciver argues that we need to go back to the future by getting back to the office.

Thomas Jefferson said that he was a great believer in luck, and that the harder he worked, the luckier he got. He worked hard, for sure; the third President of the United States of America spoke five languages and managed to ply his trade as an architect and an inventor while drafting the Declaration of Independence, completing the Louisiana Purchase and founding the University of Virginia. He died on July 4th, precisely 50 years after the Declaration of Independence which, as deaths go, was indeed fairly fortunate.

Perhaps we don’t all have to work quite as hard as President Jefferson, and I remain to be convinced that the outcome of hard work is good luck; I am convinced, though, of the many other positive outcomes which derive from being a worker. Work is good for our health, physical and mental. The basic exercise involved in leaving the house to go to a job, the fresh air enroute or on the job in some cases, the food routines created by a working day - all of this encourages a higher residual level of physical health.

More widespread, though, are the benefits for our mental health. From camaraderie and social interaction, to intellectual challenge and a sense of accomplishment, work is good for our heads as well as our bodies. 

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