The Olympic Games are just hours away from starting in London, and it also marks the start of probably the largest working from home trends in history.

Workers in the UK capital are being encourage en-masse to work from home if at all possible. This is to help reduce congestion on the roads and public transport network as the city is invaded by tourists going to The Games.

It will be interesting to see the attitude to remote working after this period. Interesting because a lot of people are expecting an increase in productivity. I’m not so sure.

Normally productivity can increase when working from home due to less distractions and interruptions. But with the Olympics on, and people working in close proximity to their TVs, the temptation may be too much.

Working from home takes a fair amount of discipline, which may be somewhat lacking in this special case.

This could go either way: Companies see a great benefit, or they see none. My guess is that companies won’t see enough of a change to productivity over the 2 weeks to persuade them either way. Workers will still have to convince the powers that be that they’ll be better of working remotely once the whole circus leaves town.