Home, hybrid or office workspaces?

As of July 19, white-collar workers across the UK were no longer subject to government restrictions. Anyone working in an office could return to their dusty desk and enjoy another degree of normality.

But there hasn’t been a stampede to the office that many may have expected. Freespace data states that 25% of offices were open worldwide in June, but only 0.5% reached 50% capacity, suggesting that the future of office work may be at home or a combination of home and office.

What’s the reason for the hesitancy? Do we enjoy working in our slippers that much – or is there more to it?  

Why is there hesitancy to return?

Evidence of a hesitancy to return to the office in droves has been easy to identify, especially in London. JPMorgan will continue operating an office schedule and will enforce facemasks in the office. Bank of America Corp will permit just a few hundred out of over 4,000 staff to come into the office in the immediate future. And this is a familiar story across different industries spanning the whole of the UK.

The hesitancy to return to complete normal may be down to a combination of factors. One of which is undoubtedly the safety of staff and company-wide outbreaks. Moreover, when given the option to return or stay home, many employees are choosing the latter out of fear they will be pinged by the NHS app and told they must self-isolate, putting their rediscovered social lives back on hold. Just recently, over 600,000 people were told to self-isolate by the app in a single week.

And there is also the possibility that a large percentage of businesses and employees find working from home mutually beneficial.

Continuing work flexibility

Some office workers should not be expecting a five-day office week again. Even from the beginning of the pandemic, global tech firms like Twitter, Google and Facebook already declared they would be continuing remote working for the long term.

Continued remote working is now being adopted by other businesses, and some firms like Revolut Ltd based in Canary Wharf have repurposed their existing office into a collaboration space. They have overhauled their office to accommodate more of a hybrid working life between office and home. And this isn’t an isolated example; Standard Chartered PLC and engineering business Arcadis NV have also made office changes to support a new home-and-office working week. If others take this approach, it could have consequences on the commercial property market.

Celebrating the end of restrictions

The bells at St Paul’s Cathedral and 24 other churches will chime on July 31 to celebrate the end of restrictions. It’s quite fitting then that the chimes won’t be heard by office commuters.

July 31 just happens to be a Saturday.

August 2021