Persuading staff back to the office on Fridays is a ‘lost cause’, according to the chairman of Lloyd’s of London.
The insurance market is one of a number of businesses that have been trying to lure employees back into the workplace.
The rise of remote working since Covid has sparked a culture war in the City as many bosses have said skills and productivity are being lost by the lack of face-to-face contact.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said the default place for workers should be in the office.
But while companies have made progress persuading staff – known as Twats because they will return on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays only – the latest comments from Lloyd’s leader Bruce Carnegie-Brown suggest that going back to a full Monday to Friday working week in the office may never be achieved.
Home comforts: Bruce Carnegie-Brown suggests that going back to a full Monday to Friday working week in the office may never be achieved
Lloyd’s said last year that it wanted to ‘get Monday back’ and is starting to see that happen at its City of London headquarters.
But Carnegie-Brown said Fridays had already been a ‘pretty low attendance’ day before Covid lockdowns. ‘I’d love to recover a bit more of Friday but I think it’s a lost cause,’ he said.
Carnegie-Brown said he did not ‘mind too much’ if the situation does not entirely return to pre-pandemic norms, partly because some work can be done digitally and remotely. On some occasions the work involves simply renewing ‘pretty standard’ insurance cover, Carnegie-Brown said.
‘But there’s also a complex aspect to insurance and a big part of what we do are hurricanes and earthquakes, large energy projects and shipping,’ he added. These require ‘bespoke’ solutions that are better hammered out in person, he said.
Transport for London data obtained by the Centre for Cities, a think-tank, bears out the Lloyd’s chairman’s observations about the Square Mile emptying at the end of the week – with notably fewer journeys through stations in the district on Fridays.
In the middle of the week, journeys are at around 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels, but barely half as many make it in on Fridays.
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