Friday 27 May 2022 04:10 PM Is working from home over? How three in four UK workers are now travelling into ... trends now
Three in four adults in Britain are now travelling to work at some point during the week - up from two-thirds a month ago, an official survey suggested today.
But the data published by the Office for National Statistics also found around a third of people are continuing to spend part of their week working at home.
The figures point to a shift in certain types of public behaviour over the past two months - a period coinciding with a steady fall in Covid-19 infections.
The trend will also be welcomed by the Government which has been struggling to end the working from home culture that developed during the pandemic.
Huge numbers of civil servants are reluctant to go back to their desks, prompting fears for productivity and the survival of businesses in city centres that rely on them.
People board an Elizabeth line train in London on what was its first day of service on Tuesday
Commuters cross Waterloo Bridge in London during the morning rush hour earlier this month
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.
Christian Ulbrich
Workers should return to the office to avoid spats escalating out of control and souring staff relations, the boss of a top property firm has said.
Christian Ulbrich, chief executive of JLL, warned that conflicts were more easily resolved when staff were physically together - and that communicating virtually required far more empathy.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Mr Ulbrich told Bloomberg: ‘You get a better outcome if you are in a room together.’
It is much easier to upset people on video calls, he added.
‘Another thing I have experienced, conflicts between people are much easier resolved when people are together in an office,’ he said.
‘Whereas when you are on a video call it’s easier to miss that somebody is not happy with the way you are wording things, or behaving and in your facial expressions.
‘There is a much higher need when people work remotely to be really focused on empathy with others.’
Mr Ulbrich also accused workers of having a ‘bit of an attitude’ if they do not want to come back to the office.
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