Insight 45 - Magazine - Page 37
UK WORKERS INCREASINGLY REJECTING
RETURN-TO-OFFICE MANDATES, STUDY FINDS
N
ew research reveals that less
than half of UK workers would
comply with a full-time returnto-office mandate, with women and some
parents showing the strongest resistance
to employer demands for in-person
attendance.
Despite high-profile CEO announcements
and media reports suggesting a “great
return” to workplaces, researchers found
no evidence of a mass move back to
offices, with working-from-home rates
remaining stable since 2022.
The study, by researchers at the Global
Institute for Women’s Leadership at
King’s College London and King’s
Business School, analysed over 1 million
observations from the Labour Force
Survey (LFS) and 50,000 responses from
the Survey of Working Arrangements
and Attitudes UK (SWAA), providing a
comprehensive picture of remote working
patterns across the UK workforce from
early 2022 through to the end of 2024.
WORKERS INCREASINGLY WILLING TO
QUIT OVER FLEXIBILITY
The research shows growing worker
resistance to rigid office mandates:
• 42% of workers say they would
comply with a five-day return-to-office
requirement – down from 54% in early
2022.
• From early 2022 to the second quarter
of 2024, the proportion of workers
saying they would look for a new job
with homeworking opportunities if their
current employer tried to make them
return to the office full-time rose from
40% to 50%.
• Similarly, over the same period, the
share of workers saying they would quit
straight away if forced to go in five days a
week doubled from 5% to 10%.
• Overall, 58% of workers now say they
would either quit immediately (9%)
or start looking for a new job (49%) if
required to return full-time.
• Women are more likely to resist, with
64% saying they would quit straight
away or seek alternative employment,
compared to 51% of men.
Some parents are increasingly resistant to
office mandates
Parents have particularly shown
growing opposition to full-time office
requirements:
• In early 2022, 38% of fathers with
school-age children (aged six to 17) said
they would quit or look for a new job in
response to such a mandate – but by the
end of 2024 this had risen to 53%.
• Just one in three (33%) mothers with
young children say they would comply
with full-time office mandates.
• Meanwhile, Black and minority ethnic
workers show higher rates of compliance
with full-time return-to-office mandates,
possibly reflecting job insecurity and
workplace discrimination
Hybrid working becoming the norm
Despite a widespread “return to office”
narrative, the data shows hybrid working
has become established in the UK labour
market:
• Employer policies have not shifted
significantly towards eliminating remote
work: based on the LFS dataset analysed,
a stable 26-27% of women said their
home was their main place of work
between the first quarter of 2022 and the
fourth quarter of 2024. Similarly, for men,
the rate has remained at around 27-30%,
although a slight decrease of around 1-2
percentage points is observable in the
most recent data.
• If anything, there has been a slow
increase in average permitted work-fromhome days – from less than one day per
week in 2022 to about 1.3 days in 2024.
• However, there is also evidence to show
that employers are less likely to allow
fully remote working, with a slight
increase in the number of homeworking
policies that permit staff to only work
from home one to two days per week.
• According to the SWAA dataset, one
in four (25%) workers report working
remotely at least three or more days
a week, while two in five (40%) work
remotely at least once weekly.
Implications for businesses and diversity
The researchers warn that rigid returnto-office policies risk creating a two-tier
workforce and undermining diversity:
• Women and parents who cannot comply
with full-time office requirements due
to caregiving and other household
responsibilities may be forced out.
• Remote workers are likely to face a
greater flexibility stigma and potential
career penalties, especially when it is
generally parents or mothers who work
from home.
• Organisations implementing inflexible
mandates risk significant recruitment,
skills and retention challenges.
The study recommends that organisations
frame flexibility as a long-term business
strategy rather than a temporary
perk, emphasising that hybrid and
remote working have become baseline
expectations in the modern labour market.
Heejung Chung, Professor of Work and
Employment and Director of the Global
Institute for Women's Leadership at King’s
College London, and lead author of the
report, said:
“An increasing amount of research shows
that well-designed hybrid working
models offer significant benefits for both
employers and employees. Alongside this,
there has been a marked shift in attitudes,
with workers now seeing flexibility as
the norm. Managers need to understand
and adapt to this new reality. Rather than
forcing a return to pre-pandemic working
patterns, organisations should be looking
to formalise hybrid models, invest in
remote collaboration tools, and set up
coordinated in-office days to maximise
engagement.
“Where possible, workers should feel
emboldened to hold their ground in the
face of return-to-office mandates, as the
weight of the evidence demonstrating
remote working does not harm
productivity is growing. In fact, many
studies are finding flexible workers tend
to work longer and harder compared
to those who do not work flexibly – and
importantly, those who are able to work
remotely tend to be more loyal and
committed to their jobs.”
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