Study finds staff work 2.3 days a week in central London office | Work from home

office worker in the center London People are spending an average of 2.3 days a week at work, according to a report warning of a full-scale shift to working from home.

A poll of office workers in the Tokyo metropolitan area by the think tank Center for Cities found that they spend 59% of their time at work compared to their pre-coronavirus levels.

According to the survey, the most common work pattern is two days a week, accounting for 31% of respondents. But almost half of the employees were in the office more often than that, and he was 3, 4, or 5 days a week.

The survey also found that three-quarters of employers set a minimum number of days that staff must be in the office.

But the report, titled ‘Office Politics: London and the Rise of Telecommuting’, found that despite the prior benefits to employees in terms of improved work-life balance and reduced commuting, It warns that there could be long-term capital costs. Productivity is lost.

“It’s important to have high-skilled activity concentrated in the heart of the metropolis, which drives productivity,” said Paul Sweeney, lead author of the report. .

He pointed to the ability of companies to hire from a local pool of highly skilled workers, and the benefits that the creativity and on-the-job learning that come with face-to-face interactions bring within companies. among his colleagues.

“While the evidence is unclear as to whether a two-day or three-day week is more appropriate to take advantage of these benefits, we are unaware of the fact that this sort of thing can make us less productive. We need to be aware of it, not take it lightly,” he said. “We’re focused on the short term, not the long term, so we assume that everything will be fine.”

Younger employees are more likely to be in the office, and given London’s astonishing property prices, they are likely to benefit from learning and have less space at home, Swinney suggested.

The report calls for policies to encourage the return of workers, with the support of the Eastern City Business Improvement District, which includes businesses in the same area of ​​London.

This could include eliminating Friday morning peak hour fares to attract commuters and launching publicity campaigns to highlight the benefits of office life.

Professor Nick Bloom, an expert on hybrid work at Stanford University in the United States, recently found that employees rate the ability to work from home as equivalent to an 8% pay raise.

The city center also cautioned against approaches that assume current patterns are permanent, such as accelerating the conversion of commercial properties to apartments.

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“We need to be careful not to set too many policies too quickly in the short term and create problems in the long term when they are lifted,” Siwinney said.

Google data for the second half of 2022 shows London’s return to work will be slower than other big cities in the UK, with Greater Manchester’s public transport use pre-pandemic compared to 14% in the metropolitan area. It was just 7% less than the previous year.

Labor patterns have become increasingly politicized, with some right-wingers including former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg on board. Civil servants lament trend of working from home.

Prime Minister Jeremy Hunt speech At a recent meeting of the British Chamber of Commerce, he warned against missing the “cold water moments” when colleagues meet at work.

Labor, by contrast, have suggested that they may enact: Give employees the right to work from home Where feasible.

Many jobs, from hairdressers to social care, are not suitable for remote work, trade union conference warns of class divide as desk-based workers increasingly enable telecommuting are doing.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/24/workers-central-london-offices-23-days-week-study Study finds staff work 2.3 days a week in central London office | Work from home

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