Less than half of UK staff have returned to the workplace - and even then only on a part-time basis - while a third of businesses have decided to cut their office space as bosses prepare for another Covid surge this winter.
A survey of more than 1,000 managers by the Chartered Management Institute revealed that around 44 per cent of staff are back in the workplace for only part of the week despite restrictions - including the work-from-home diktat - being eased in mid-July.
Bosses also expect numbers in the office to plateau by the end of the year, in a sign that measures adopted during the pandemic are unlikely to fully unwind before Christmas.
Cabinet Ministers have been encouraging Britons working from home to get back into offices, in a bid to kickstart the UK's wounded economy after 18 months of restrictions and begin to plug the gaping hole in the public finances increased during the pandemic.
Boris Johnson warned people that they risk being 'gossiped about' and missing out on 'stimulus and competition' unless they return to the office, while Tory chairman Oliver Dowden accused public sector workers including civil servants of preferring to use their Peloton exercise bikes than 'get back to their desks'.
However, in a round of interviews at Tory conference in Manchester, the Prime Minister appeared to undercut his own advice by indicating that the work-from-home edict could return if 'a new variant or another pandemic could always hit us'.
The survey published by the Financial Times found that nearly two-thirds of bosses polled said they were concerned the Delta variant may lead to another lockdown, with more than half saying they have made contingency plans for another Covid outbreak this winter.
And more than half of managers surveyed also said they were encouraging staff to get vaccinated before returning to the office - with a fifth of bosses asking staff to voluntarily disclose their jab status.
Less than half of UK staff have returned to the workplace - and even then only on a part-time basis - while a third of businesses have decided to cut their office space as bosses prepare for another Covid surge this winter (stock image)
Pictured: Commuters crossing London Bridge in July 2021 as Covid restrictions were eased
Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the annual Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester, October 6, 2021
Ann Francke, chief executive of the CMI, said the slow return to the office was due to a combination of factors including 'the Delta variant, fuel shortages and the implementation of hybrid practices and remote solutions'.
She added that 'most employees who can work in a hybrid way want to do so and in a tight labour market, organisations are more likely to accommodate this'.
'Managers are prepared and organisations are in a far better place now to deal with lockdowns. Managers have learnt from the events of the last two years... (most) have a plan B - or even C - in place, ready to be enacted if needed,' she also said.
And in a further embarrassment for Downing Street, Mr Johnson also admitted that not all of his own civil servants are back at their desks yet - stressing that the Cabinet Secretary had told them to return.
Some departments are thought to have as little as a tenth of staff routinely working in the office, although others are doing much better.
In August, Minister Gillian Keegan revealed that as few as a fifth of all mandarins were back in Whitehall, with plans in place for as phased return into the autumn.
The Government has also launched a consultation on baking the right to work from home at least part-time into employment law, though they stopped short of making it the default option.
Mr Johnson launched an ill-fated attempt to get office staff back to their desks last year, which was wrecked by the emergence of the second wave of Covid.
Scientific advisers have pressed him not to repeat the exercise this year because working from home is one of the most effective ways of slowing the spread of the virus. Instead the Government left it up to employers to encourage a 'gradual return to the workplace'.
A second Tory source said ministers were now hopeful they would not have to issue another work from home order this winter.
'You can never rule anything out with Covid,' the source said. 'But we are now in early October and hospitalisations are still running at manageable levels. We are not at the point of anyone thinking about Plan B.
'Even if we get to that point, it would start with things that cause relatively little disruption, such as mandatory masks and Covid certification.'
Powers to reinstate the work from home order have been kept in reserve in the Government's contingency plans for Covid this winter. But ministers believe that Britain's wall of vaccination is holding up well against the virus.
