Two weeks ago I asked how often people were going into the office and the results may surprise you. Here's my take:

One size fits none

The spread of responses was fairly even across the four options, but there was no runaway leader. While the '3-4 Days' option lagged behind slightly, it still received a not insubstantial 16% share of the vote. Of course no two people are alike, but what stands out is that no general consensus has yet formed. 

Less is more

The two options for fewest days in the office captured 59% of the vote, while the two options for most days only received 41% of the vote. This demonstrates a preference for remote working, but the gap is not significant, requiring less than 10% of respondents to change their working patterns to flip the trend.

Not 1.4

Unlike the research carried out by Advanced Workplace Associates, which showed UK workers average 1.4 days a week in the office, my results show 72% of respondents do more than this. While my data is a small sample size and gives no weighting for annual leave, illness or other absences, my results align closely with what I have observed coming into the office myself. 

Inverted curve 

There is a very general pattern of more senior (managers, partners, directors) and more junior (trainee, grads) staff being in the office more (especially in the '4-5 Days' category), with the mid-ranking employees making up the bulk of those in being in the office less often. I can only speculate on the causes of this trend: 

• senior staff may be in the office to lead by example, encouraging a return to the office, may feel they can manage better in person, want to get value for money from the real estate the business pays for, or perhaps are just a bit old school
• junior staff may be there because they are required to be, may feel they learn more in person, have identified greater opportunities for face to face career advancement, or just don't have a very favourable working set up at home. They are certainly bucking perception that Gen Z don't want to be in the office
• mid-ranking staff may be those who feel they require least supervision, being more self-sufficient, or may have young families at home, who they have become used to being more involved with since lockdown

What might change this

If the widely predicted recession begins to bite, employees may want to be back in the office to make sure that they are there when the best jobs are handed out and to appear busy if difficult decisions need to be made about head count.

As energy costs continue to climb, we might see people looking to cut household bills. The cost of commuting may become a "saving" if less can be spent on fuel costs. 

The return to the office - remote working - hybrid conversation will continue to evolve and I will look forward to seeing what comes next. Thanks to all those who voted.

Results

1-2 Days:  28%  31 votes

2-3 Days:  31%  34 votes

3-4 Days:  16%  18 votes

4-5 Days:  25%  27 votes