Workers are still only going into the office an average of 1.5 days a week, says survey – with just 13% coming in on a Friday
- Of 43 offices in UK, representing 50,000 people, average attendance was 29%
- The peak was at 39% mid-week in June and July as people have enjoyed WFF
- Majority do not and before the pandemic, workers went in just 3.8 days a week
British workers are still only going into the office an average of 1.5 days a week, says survey as people increasingly enjoy ‘agile working’.
Consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates, who advises the Cabinet Office, NatWest and Network Rail, surveyed 43 UK offices in June and July and found just 13% are coming in on a Friday.
The total average attendance was 29%, with mid-week peaking at 39% among the workforce of nearly 50,000 people.
Before the pandemic, workers were going into the office around 3.8 days a week to do jobs in banking, energy, engineering, healthcare, insurance and tech.
But data published by the Office for National Statistics, in May, also found three in four adults in Britain are now travelling to work at some point during the week – up from two-thirds in April.
British workers are still only going into the office an average of 1.5 days a week, says survey as people increasingly enjoy ‘agile working’ (stock image)
Consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates surveyed 43 UK offices in June and July and found just 13% are coming in on a Friday
Some 75 per cent of adults quizzed between May 11 and 22 said they had travelled to work in the past seven days, either exclusively or while spending part of their time working at home. This is up from 66 per cent of those polled from April 13 to 24.
The proportion of people working at home at some point during the week is broadly unchanged, at 37 per cent in mid-May compared with 36 per cent in mid-April.
Meanwhile, Advanced Workplace Associates, also claimed the trend continued in the 36 offices in 12 other countries, about 27,000 people, it also surveyed.
On average, people are working 1.4 days a week, compared to 3.8 days a week pre-pandemic. There was a peak attendance of 35% mid-week and 26% on average.
Though North America still allocated the highest number of desks per person, 96. compared to the UK’s 79, it had the lowest office attendance.
The US and Canada were down to average attendance of 21%, while Latin America was on 19% and the EU on 27%.
Banking, Healthcare, and Engineering average above 50% desk usage, and have high peak usage while tech, energy and logistics have the lowest usage at around 32%.
The Conservative government has long been battling against working from home with Jacob Rees-Mogg vowing last week to crack down on ‘flexitime’ working arrangements.
Liz Truss (pictured at a Sky News debate) pledged to get more civil servants back to the office after it emerged many Whitehall desks are still empty
The minister for government efficiency demanded an official Whitehall-wide review of the arrangement, which he said is likely wasting taxpayers’ money
Rees-Mogg said there is ‘a culture of wastefulness’ in Whitehall and woke indoctrination that is ‘designed to pit people against each other or talk the country down’
This allows civil servants to work around five hours less than the national weekly average, often remotely and with full-time pay.
The minister for government efficiency demanded an official Whitehall-wide review of the arrangement, which he said is likely wasting taxpayers’ money.
Flexitime allows civil servants to dictate their own start and end times, provided they are working across core hours in the middle of the day and completing 37.5 hours of work per week, and entitles them to considerable overtime pay.
He has also hit out against working from home and going around Whitehall inspecting government offices for people that are not in the office.
Liz Truss pledged earlier this month to get more civil servants back to the office after it emerged many Whitehall desks are still empty.
She backed Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg’s efforts to curb the work from home culture in the civil service.
The Foreign Secretary, who has previously suggested flexible working should ‘become the norm’, made the vow as Cabinet Office figures showed that in the week commencing July 25, just over half of Whitehall desks were occupied.
The worst culprits were the Scotland Office on 27 per cent and Miss Truss’s own department on 34 per cent. Numbers are falling as the weeks go on.
Miss Truss said: ‘I support the work Jacob Rees-Mogg has been doing… and I will be looking at that very carefully.’
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