Martyn Oliver says less office-going since pandemic has led to a shift in attitudes among pupils in England
School attendance rates are being affected by parents working from home after the pandemic, the head of Ofsted has said.
The chief inspector of the schools watchdog in England, Martyn Oliver, told the Sunday Times that the widespread change in working habits after the pandemic had led to a shift in attitudes among pupils.
Continue reading...Annual survey finds workers have ‘multifaceted expectations’ after changes cause by Covid pandemic
Work-life balance has soared in importance for workers around the world, becoming their top motivator and pushing pay into second place, according to an annual international survey of thousands of employees.
It is the first time that finding or keeping a job that fits in with the rest of their lives has outranked salary in the 22-year history of the international recruitment company Randstad’s annual review of the world of work, highlighting the corporate revolution caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Group reviews office attendance as part of performance-related bonus targets forsenior employees
Senior bankers at Lloyds could be at risk of having their bonuses docked if they fail to follow company orders to be in the office at least two days a week.
Lloyds Banking Group – which owns the Halifax, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland brands – has confirmed it is reviewing office attendance as part of performance-related bonus targets for its most senior employees. That includes hybrid staff who, in 2023, were ordered to be in the office at least 40% of the time, which typically amounts to two days a week for those on full-time contracts.
Continue reading...One in six workers has engaged a firm to hand in notice for them, as younger workers reject traditional work ethic
Mari was just two months into her new job when she decided she had had enough. The position at an online bank in Tokyo, found through a staffing agency, had looked like a perfect fit for the 25-year-old, a member of Japan’s legions of temporary workers.
But she quickly became despondent. “On my first day they gave me a thick manual to read, and when I went to my boss with questions he said: ‘What the hell are you asking me that for?’”
Continue reading...Amazon has told staff they must return five days a week – but experts don’t all agree that flexible working cuts output
Four years ago when the world of work was upended by the Covid pandemic, confident predictions were made that a permanent shift in remote working would follow the removal of lockdown restrictions.
Much has clearly changed since. Some of the earliest preachers of the brave new teleworking world – including the US tech companies Google and Microsoft – are among the most vocal to repent.
Continue reading...About 1,000 of those affected work in London and 4,500 at the bank’s new Milton Keynes headquarters
Santander has joined the ranks of employers herding reluctant British workers back to the coalface, telling office staff they must turn up in person for at least three days a week on average.
While the bank’s back-office staff will still be able to work from home more regularly than before the pandemic, the minimum requirement now tips the balance in favour of the traditional workplace rather than home.
Continue reading...Accounting firm tells its 26,000 workers move is to ensure workers spend ‘minimum of three days a week’ in office
The consultancy PwC has told its employees it is going to begin tracking their working locations to ensure that all workers spend “a minimum of three days a week” in the office or at client sites.
In a memo sent to its 26,000 UK employees, the big four accounting firm announced that it will start monitoring how often employees work from home in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work.
Continue reading...Office attendance in UK capital similar to levels in Toronto and Sydney, thinktank finds
Workers in London have been slower to return to the office than those in other global cities such as Paris and New York, a report has found.
London was near the bottom of the pack, with office attendance similar to levels in Toronto and Sydney, according to research by the Centre for Cities thinktank, which surveyed employees and employers in six big cities.
Continue reading...Chris Ellison, of Perth-based mining firm Mineral Resources, has already banned working from home
A billionaire mining boss who has already banned home working has said he does not want staff to step out of the office for coffee either.
Chris Ellison, the managing director of Mineral Resources, said the industry could not afford to continue down the path of flexible working, and that his company was investing in amenities at the firm’s head office in Perth, Western Australia, to keep people from leaving the building.
Continue reading...Workers were sacked after review found they were ‘creating impression of active work’, says filing
The US bank Wells Fargo has fired more than a dozen workers for alleged “simulation of keyboard activity”, in an apparent attempt to fool their employer into thinking they were working.
The employees were “discharged after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating impression of active work”, according to a filing with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Continue reading...Some employers emboldened by ruling against FCA manager’s claim over working at home full-time
Lawyers and HR experts expect an increase in employment tribunal cases as companies increasingly clamp down on working from home and staff become resentful that the flexibility they have enjoyed since the pandemic is being slowly rolled back.
A number of companies are now advocating a full five-day return to the office, with others enforcing a minimum number of days in the workplace. Administrative staff at Boots, who previously worked in the office three days a week, will return to the office five days a week from September. Many US banks, such as Goldman Sachs, also expect senior staff to come in for the full week, and its chief executive, David Solomon, labelled remote working an “aberration”.
Continue reading...Opportunity to learn from home will ‘set students up for success’, principal of Chevalier College says
Parents at a regional Catholic college in New South Wales are welcoming a proposed change to the school week that would mean seniors spend Mondays at home.
Chevalier College, based in the southern highlands, has announced a proposal that would see students in years 10 to 12 learn and work from home on Mondays, a move the principal says would “set students up for success”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Transport Opinion Survey says in September workers spent 21% of their week working from home, down from 27% in March
As an increasing number of Australians favour the office over working from home, Friday has emerged as one of the most popular days to commute and be among colleagues, new research shows.
On average Australian workers spent just 21% – or between one and two days – of their work week at home during a two-week survey period in September, down from a corresponding data point of 27% in March. This is according to the latest Transport Opinion Survey conducted by the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, based on data from 1,029 respondents, who were also asked about priorities and transport attitudes.
Continue reading...Study shows widespread concern over quality of managers, with 82% of bosses deemed ‘accidental’, having had no formal training
Almost one-third of UK workers say they’ve quit a job because of a negative workplace culture, according to a new survey that underlines the risks of managers failing to rein in toxic behaviour.
Research carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) pointed to widespread concern about the quality of management, and its impact on workers’ daily lives.
Continue reading...Two-fifths of UK adults disconnected for three hours or more with one in four left without service for nearly a week
The number of Britons who have experienced their internet connection failing for at least three hours has almost doubled in the last year, with irate consumers now ranking broadband outages as a bigger frustration than roadworks or public transport delays.
In the past year, two-fifths (41%) of all UK adults – 22 million consumers – have had their internet disconnected for three or more hours, a significant increase on the 12 million who reported disruption the previous year, according to a report by the price comparison website Uswitch.
Continue reading...For many reasons it is no surprise that the office exodus is so pronounced in the historical centre of Anglo-Saxon capitalism
Working from home is a seismic shift in employment patterns that has rocked businesses, charities and public sector organisations across the world.
From Hong Kong and Singapore to London, New York and Toronto, white collar workers have changed the way they work, shop and pursue leisure, culture and recreation, shifting many local economies on their axis. For many towns and cities it’s as if the sun shines at a different point in the day, such is the transformation in how about 60% of people conduct their lives.
Continue reading...Utility’s head says demand for drinking water has risen 20% since pandemic, outpacing supply
A water company has blamed more people working from home post-pandemic for a new hosepipe ban.
South East Water, which supplies more than 2m homes and businesses, will impose the first hosepipe ban of the summer on Monday, affecting households across Kent and Sussex.
Continue reading...Thinktank warns against wholesale switch to working from home and raises fears over lost productivity in capital
Office workers in central London are spending on average 2.3 days a week in the workplace, according to a report that warns against a wholesale switch to working from home.
The thinktank Centre for Cities carried out polling of office workers in the capital and found they were spending 59% of the time in their workplace compared with pre-Covid levels.
Continue reading...BND intelligence service is finding expectations of flexible working and taking a mobile to the office are affecting recruitment
James Bond was famously given the licence to kill by MI6, as part of his role as a British secret agent.
Today’s wannabe spies are more likely to ask for something else: permission to work from home – a cultural shift that has hit recruitment figures for Germany’s intelligence service.
Continue reading...In what looks to be the new work-from-home normal, the average Australian worker spends 27% or more of their working hours at home
Transport experts believe post-pandemic work habits have finally stabilised and that the return to the office is unlikely to progress any further.
The average working Australian is spending 27% of their working hours at home, calculated across full and part-time employees.
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