Working from home has made a comeback in the Civil Service since Keir Starmer’s Labour came to power, with attendance at 13 Government departments falling while the private sector goes in the opposite direction, according to analysis by the Telegraph.
Attendance at 13 Government departments has fallen from the levels recorded in the days after Sir Keir Starmer won the election, official figures show.
The Treasury, Housing and Justice departments were among those with fewer staff at their desks after just three months of Labour Government.
At the same time, the private sector is increasing the amount of time it expects employees to spend in the office.
A Telegraph analysis of 50 of Britain’s biggest companies with work-from-home policies shows staff are being told to spend 50% more time in the office on average in the past year.
It comes despite the fact that shortly after coming to power, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, signed off on inflation-busting pay rises of up to 6% for millions of public sector workers at a cost of £10 billion.
In contrast, average wage rises for employees in the private sector for 2024-25 were 4.7%. …
Richard Tice, the Reform Deputy Leader, who has run several property businesses, said: “We have the worst nightmare in Whitehall. Public sector spending is rising, their attendance at work is falling, and productivity is collapsing.
“This leads to a vicious circle where the Government says we need a bigger public sector. This will destroy growth and if we carry on like this, bankruptcy awaits.”
A Government spokesman pointed out that occupancy levels were higher this July to September than in the same period last year under the Conservatives.
The average attendance rate across departments from July to September last year was 57%, while this year it is 69%.
However, while Civil Service attendance has not dropped back to the lows seen during Covid, The Telegraph’s analysis suggests that the trend of returning to the office is already waning under Sir Keir.
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Great photo well done. When I work from home, that is often myself with my cat at least for a few hours. We are mandated to be in the office 2 days a week (IT large bank). Many of us go 3 times or more occasionally.
There is absolutely no doubt from own experience that you are far more productive in an office. I don’t buy the WFH productivity bullshit. The only savings is travel- time to travel and related costs which are significant.
I would be in the office 4-5 days/wk (1 hr 15 min public transport commute), bar the very significant transport costs (often unpaid by firms). This is maybe the excuse used by the uncivil serpents.
Totally agree. I found the train journey good for reading or having a snooze but it would depend on how reliable your service is. I had to laugh when I read this morning that nationalising the rail companies was to focus on delivering for the passengers when there was me thinking the railways are run for the benefit of the unions overpaid and underworked members. I worked for London councils as a direct and indirect employee and both provided a season ticket purchase service so the annual cost was spread over the year.
I am way more productive at home for various reasons
Our firm ranges from 100% home to 100% office and all shades in between and I have noticed no pattern to how productive people are based on where they work
I too am more productive WFH because I’m not being constantly interrupted by others needing to access the single computer owned by the garage for which I do bookkeeping. I go in as they close on a Saturday, take a back up, bring it home, do my work and return a fresh back up before they open on Monday morning. Better than freezing to death, exhaust fumes, interruptions by mechanics who need to access data and those pesky customers!!!!
Indeed. Our office is too noisy for me but suits others.
Every business should choose what works best, but I do feel that insisting people go to offices is partly motivated by bored bosses, partly by a desire to fill expensive office space, and lazy managers and lazy thinking that says if you are at a desk in an office you are producing something. I would much rather see a focus on productivity from each individual, not on where they happen to do their work.
It depends on your role. My son is a software developer and he could concentrate on his work better at home rather than with colleagues interrupting him. Yes, he took time out to do the school run but he more than made up for that at other times of the day. Now he’s moved into management, obviously he has to go to the office more often
I manage people remotely and it seems to work – a manager should be looking at work produced, not presence at a desk. Of course if personal, in-person interactions are very important to a role then that is what should be done.
There needs to be a culture of ‘getting the job done’ for the employer to get the benefit of working from home. Some organisations have it – many do not.
I feel that “working from home” (i.e. doing some work in between all the distractions of home life) leads to lower productivity. As a self-employed freelance translator, I’m familiar with all the things that can tempt you away from your desk, but I also know that I have to be self-disciplined if I want to earn money. If I were on a fixed salary, that incentive would not be there.
I would normally deplore that loss of productivity in the public sector, but I’m actually quite cheered by the drop in productivity of the Net Zero crowd. The less they do to mess up life for the rest of us, the happier we’ll be.
I don’t know why this would surprise anyone, especially if you are a sad person like me who enjoys watching property programmes. During the COVID fiasco, they were full of London and other large town based civil servants who were moving out of the cities for a new life, because they were able to work from home now. These included local authority employees who, it seemed, were able to relocate hundreds of miles away from their employing council. None of these can want to return to their offices having spent so much to get away from them and they can’t have been isolated cases the TV production crews stumbled across.
Don’t judge others by your low standards. Some people enjoy the satisfaction of getting the job done free from distractions from colleagues just wanting to chat and endless unproductive meetings