Summary
Nearly half of UK professionals would consider quitting if forced to return to the office full time, with 58% of women and 42% of men saying they’d consider leaving.
A poll by Hays found hybrid work remains dominant, with 77% of professionals following a mixed model.
Commuting costs were the top concern for 73% of workers, and 66% of employers feared backlash over stricter mandates.
While some firms push for more in-office time, only 8% plan to enforce full returns. Many employers recognize hybrid work’s benefits for productivity and retention.
I thought we already proved multiple times that work from home clearly increased productivity across the board and reduced costs for the employ and employer.
The push to go back to an office is more about control. Not in a “I need to get my money out of you and make sure you’re ‘working’” but in a “I would rather spend more money to remind my workers that if they work for me—they are owned.”
It feels more like an issue with worker flexibility than worker productivity. Workers having a life and workers being happy means that they will eventually want other things. And usually those “other things” eventually lead to the owners losing a grip on societal and economic power.
Better to have workers not be people. People are unpredictable and profits need to predictably rise forever.
I didn’t mean to imply they weren’t already more productive than in-office workers.
I’m saying that the effort taking away support from remote workers should instead be going toward supporting them.