London More Amenable on Flexible Working Than Paris, New Bloomberg Intelligence Survey Finds

London, 28 November 2023 – New research by Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) on attitudes to flexible working in both London and Paris has found almost all central London office workers (96%) are currently permitted to work from home in some capacity. The findings put London ahead of Paris, with four fifths (80%) of Parisian office workers allowed to work from home to some degree. Fully remote jobs are also less common in the French capital, at 7% of respondents, compared to 16% in London – a figure which has shrunk from 24% in June 2022.

Despite economic uncertainty in Europe, Londoners are more likely to ask for a pay raise (34% of respondents) than Parisians (25%) if they were denied remote working days. Of those who said they would ask for a pay rise if this flexibility was denied, half (51%) of Londoners said that a pay rise of 11% or higher may make them change their minds against around a quarter (28%) of Parisians.

According to the Bloomberg Intelligence study, moving jobs to keep a work-from-home benefit was as popular in both capitals. The general trend in London is for two or three days a week at home for 61% of respondents, up from 57% since February this year, vs. 51% of those working in Paris.

Sue Munden, Senior Industry Analyst for Real Estate at Bloomberg Intelligence, said: “London and Paris employers have adapted post-Covid by offering more flexibility and employees have reacted positively to this change. However, our survey shows that the shift is more profound in London – a market, it should be noted, which has lower unemployment levels than Paris.

Looking ahead, London and Paris employees want to continue to work from home over the next two years but they want flexibility in choosing the days. In both cities, they prefer periodic flexibility i.e., remote working days allowed during specific periods of the year or the freedom to choose when they want it. Within the samples, half of Londoners selected either option, slightly more than Parisians at 45%.”

Despite the more pronounced use of work from home in London, Bloomberg Intelligence’s survey found a range of factors could be driving preferences. Londoners’ willingness to go to the office is seen by many as a cost dilemma while Parisians value the social aspect of being in the office.

Almost half (45%) of Londoners said their primary rationale for going into the office is saving on bills such as heating, while 57% stated that the high cost of transportation was a discouraging factor. Parisians’ key reasons for going into work include networking (34%) and knowledge transfer (36%), while commuting lengths and strikes were ranked as top factors not to go to the office.

Sue Munden added: “The difference between London and Paris could come from the significant difference in commuting, with three quarters (74%) of Londoners spending 31-90 mins commuting versus 71% of Parisians spending 0 to 60 mins. The cost of transportation is higher in London and regulation makes Paris employers bare 50% of that burden, though strikes are greater in Paris.

In addition, other factors such as childcare will be driving preferences. Two fifths (41%) of Parisian parents with children under 10 years old said, for instance, they prefer to work from home during holidays and across the summer, with the figure at 45% for London-based parents.”

Notes to Editors
Methodology: The Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) Surveys on London and Paris’s working patterns were performed separately in each region on November 15^th using Attest’s Survey Platform. The target audiences of 250 respondents in Paris and 500 respondents in London were selected using criteria specified by Bloomberg Intelligence. Respondents qualified if they were employees of a company with offices located in Paris or Central London. BI limited the age range of respondents to 18-65 to mimic the workforce. BI also applied an equal gender-mix quota between those identifying as male or female. We were sector agnostic as to the employer. The survey included employees resident throughout France and the UK as remote workers don’t need to be living in the capital.

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Kate Burns / Saffron Wainwright / Seb Zickus
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
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Oktavia Catsaros
Bloomberg Intelligence
ocatsaros@bloomberg.net

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