New research from the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London and King’s Business School indicates that less than half of UK workers would comply with a full-time return-to-office mandate.
Researchers found no evidence of a mass move back to offices, with working-from-home rates remaining stable since 2022.
The study analysed more than a million observations from the Labour Force Survey and 50,000 responses from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes UK, providing a comprehensive picture of remote working patterns across the UK workforce from early 2022 through to the end of 2024.
Only 42% of workers say they would comply with a five-day return-to-office requirement – down from 54% in early 2022 - while from early 2022 to the middle of 2024, the proportion of workers saying they would look for a new job with homeworking opportunities if their current employer tried to make them return to the office full-time rose from 40% to 50%.
Over the same period, the share of workers saying they would quit straight away if forced to go in five days a week doubled from 5% to 10%. Overall, 58% of workers now say they would either quit immediately (9%) or start looking for a new job (49%) if required to return full-time. Women are more likely to resist, with 64% saying they would quit straight away or seek alternative employment, compared to 51% of men.
Heejung Chung, Professor of Work and Employment and Director of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King’s College London, and lead author of the report, said: “An increasing amount of research shows that well-designed hybrid working models offer significant benefits for both employers and employees. Alongside this, there has been a marked shift in attitudes, with workers now seeing flexibility as the norm. Managers need to understand and adapt to this new reality. Rather than forcing a return to pre-pandemic working patterns, organisations should be looking to formalise hybrid models, invest in remote collaboration tools, and set up coordinated in-office days to maximise engagement.
“Where possible, workers should feel emboldened to hold their ground in the face of return-to-office mandates, as the weight of the evidence demonstrating remote working does not harm productivity is growing. In fact, many studies are finding flexible workers tend to work longer and harder compared to those who do not work flexibly, and importantly, those who are able to work remotely tend to be more loyal and committed to their jobs.”
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