Saira Khan has blamed the working from home culture for a serious back injury, saying she developed a slipped disc after replacing her commute with long hours seated at a computer.
The 56-year-old, who appeared in the first series of the BBC’s The Apprentice, said the shift away from office-based work had affected both people’s health and their motivation.
“I got a slipped disc because I went from going to an office and doing that little commute, to sitting at home in front of a computer,” the businesswoman said at the Employee Network Awards 2026 at the InterContinental London hotel in Mayfair.
Ms Khan added: “I’m sick of Zoom meetings, I’m sick of not seeing people. It’s making us all unhealthy. You can spend hours without realising and your discs compress.”
She warned that prolonged home working could lead to what she described as “real ailments”, including poor posture, deteriorating eyesight and isolation.
Working from home became widespread during the Covid lockdowns. Earlier this month, Barclays employees reacted angrily after the bank increased its expectation for office attendance from two days a week to at least three.
Ms Khan, a former Loose Women panellist and founder of skincare brand Saira, said she believed office life was particularly important for younger workers.
“I learned all my skills in an office,” she said. “If you’re a young person working from home, what do you know apart from what you’re seeing of your colleagues?”
She said she missed the opportunity to bring colleagues together and concluded: “We should be going back to the office.”
