The remote working revolution has arguably been one of the largest changes in the corporate world for decades. Yes it was forced upon us by the most dire of circumstances but employees have been singing the praises of remote working and hybrid policies over the past few years.
So it caused quite a stir when Amazon told its 1.5m staff that they all need to return to the office five days a week, starting January 2025. This is the retailer’s latest move to return to pre-2020 working habits, following the return to a three-day-in-office week back in 2023 that saw over 1,000 of its Seattle employees protest. Amazon’s CEO allegedly responded with “it’s not going to work out for you.”
Amazon isn’t alone in the move away from remote working though, with other industry goliaths, such as HSBC, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, mandating working from the office five days a week. Lord Alan Sugar went so far as to say the only people to benefit from working from home are “lazy layabouts”. Probably safe to say entrepreneurs supporting remote working won’t be winning The Apprentice any time soon.
What does the data say?
- ONS data from summer 2024 highlights that 41% of UK employees travelled to work full-time, while 24% have a hybrid set-up and just 13% have an entirely remote set-up.
- 57% of fully remote workers feel their work-life balance has improved in the last three months, compared to 44% of hybrid workers and 38% of on-site employees, according to Employment Hero.
- Despite this, KPMG data shows 83% of UK leaders expect a return to fully in-office working in the next three years, compared to 64% in 2023. 81% of those say they’ll likely reward staff for returning to the office.
- It’s estimated 98% of an employee’s carbon footprint comes from commuting and that commuter trips account for roughly 20% of all trips and distances travelled by car, highlighting the environmental impact of returning to work five days a week.
Clearly, it’s a divisive topic and one that will rumble on over the coming months and years. It’ll be interesting to see the progress of the Employment Rights Bill, which is set to make flexible working the default in the UK. While discussing the upcoming legislation, the UK’s business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, explained that flexible working has a key role to play in reducing the UK’s “significant” regional inequality. At present, London’s economic productivity is 170% higher than the national average.
As someone in his mid-30s who’s worked in tech PR for more than a decade, I’ve experienced working in offices full-time, entirely remote work and hybrid set-ups. Personally, the latter feels the most beneficial, allowing a healthy work-life balance and removing the stress of daily commutes.
This is also very much the Antidote way, which isn’t surprising when you consider we’re a comms tech agency with national and international clients working in different time zones. Flexibility is key. The focus here is on treating the team like adults and providing the environment needed to do the best job possible, ensuring regular opportunities for collaboration and in-house mentoring and training, rather than mandating when and where that job should be done.
Come back for next week’s Your Weekly Antidote, another dose of data-driven news analysis on one of the biggest stories of the week from your favourite comms tech agency.
