Lazy Layabout?

Not a day goes by without a mention of ‘flexible working’ or ‘home working’ in the headlines.

Last week it was Alan Sugar’s turn to weigh in on the debate, telling The Sun he was sick of working from home culture, and labelling those who work from home “lazy layabouts”.

It’s not unlike Sugar to be brash like this, but he’s certainly not the only one on that side of the debate – plenty of organisations are rowing back on their ‘home working’ policies which were originally necessitated by the pandemic.

Nationwide is one such example: originally, they said staff didn’t need to come back at all; now they’re mandating a 40% in-person attendance.

Law firm EY have done similar, and in response to a lack of compliance with their “hybrid working guidelines”, they’ve begun monitoring attendance with swipe cards.

There are plenty of similar stories, each of them pointing to the same issue: there does appear to be a disconnect here, and employers need to tread carefully if they want to stay on the right side of both history and the law.

Working with businesses in all sorts of sectors all over the country, we’re very familiar with the arguments on both side of the debate.

And let’s be clear: there’s no “one size fits all” answer here; what’s important is that whatever you do, and however you approach the home vs office debate, you think it through, and get the right advice to make sure that not only are you doing things by the book, you’re bringing your team with you too.

I’d love to know how you’re approaching it – what’s your stance?

Jacqui

Jacqui Mann, Managing Director | www.jmassociates.org