Coronavirus: Boris Johnson wants UK workers back in the office, but many prefer home
- Many offices in London still empty as companies extend work-from-home arrangements
- UK PM Boris Johnson wants to send signal to private sector by asking civil servants to return to their offices
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson marked his first day back in the House of Commons last week by telling his Cabinet: “People are going back to the office in huge numbers across our country, and quite right too”.
He then realised the government’s own workers – almost half a million civil servants – were still working from home as he gave orders for the majority of them to be back at their desks by October.
Six months after the coronavirus pandemic first hit its shores, British white-collar workers are showing more reluctance to return to the office than their colleagues in Europe. The concern was with city centres empty, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the sectors that serve office workers such as bars and restaurants could be lost.
“It is the government’s view that on the whole there are significant benefits to be gained from working collaboratively in an office environment” wrote the government two top senior servants, Mark Sedwill and Alex Chisholm said in a letter to all Whitehall ministries.
The letter immediately sparked indignation from the civil service union representatives who accused the government of using them to send a signal to the private sector to also send workers back in a bid to boost local food and retail outfits.
