Category Archives: Working from home

‘They refused to let me go’: Japanese workers turn to resignation agencies to quit jobs

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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?’”

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The great divide: are office workers more productive than those at home?

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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.

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Santander to insist UK workers are in office three days a week

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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.

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PwC to start tracking working locations of all UK employees

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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.

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London workers slower to return to office than New York or Paris, study says

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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.

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‘Hold them captive’: Australian billionaire boss aims to end staff going out for coffee

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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.

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US bank Wells Fargo fires employees for ‘simulating’ being at their keyboards

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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.

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Tribunal cases to rise as UK firms push back on remote working, experts say

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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”.

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NSW Catholic school sparks four-day week debate with ‘learn from home’ Mondays for senior students

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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”.

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More Australians head back to the office and most prefer Thursday or Friday, study finds

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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.

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Bad management has prompted one in three UK workers to quit, survey finds

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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.

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Number of Britons facing significant internet outages doubles in a year

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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.

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Britain has felt the shift to home working more than most countries

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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.

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South East Water blames working from home for hosepipe ban

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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.

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Staff work in central London offices for 2.3 days a week, study finds

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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.

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Germany’s would-be spies seek licence to work from home

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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.

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Australia hits peak ‘return to office’, transport experts say

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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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Schools in England seeing more pupil absences on Fridays

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Change in parents’ work patterns since Covid may have led to pupils staying home

Schools in England are seeing “a huge amount” of pupil absence on Fridays with children staying at home with their parents following a shift in attitudes post-Covid, MPs have been told.

Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, told the education committee that persistent absence from schools is “one of the issues of our age” and called for a “razor sharp focus” on the problem.

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Australia’s Covid recovery: which capital cities have bounced back best?

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Visits for retail and recreation have boosted activity in Sydney and Melbourne, but work from home preferences are keeping office trips low

Activity across Sydney and Melbourne’s central business districts is still below pre-Covid levels as work from home preferences keep office vacancies high – however, the business community is heartened by a surge in recreational visits that is expected to “rebalance” Australian cities.

Melbourne’s CBD was 33% less busy from mid-September to mid-November this year compared with the same period in 2019, with Sydney’s CBD slightly more active, down by 30% on pre-Covid levels, according to movement data drawn from anonymous mobile phone activity and analysed by research firm Roy Morgan.

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Rise in back pain and long-term sickness linked to home working – ONS

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Sharp rise in people leaving labour market in past three years could be related to home working since Covid

Back and neck injuries caused by working from home during the Covid pandemic has been identified by the UK’s official number crunchers as a possible factor contributing to a sharp rise in people leaving the labour market over the past three years.

The Office for National Statistics said there had been a marked increase in disabilities often associated by medical experts with excessive screen use, after the increase in the number of people home working while offices were shut during the pandemic.

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