, Columnist
Why Londoners Are Refusing to Return to the Office
With the City of London a ghost town, the pressure on employers to nudge workers back into the office this autumn is going to increase.
Lonely in the City of London.
Photographer: Luke MacGregor/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Britons are lagging Europe in the march back to the office, but the U.K.’s status as the standard-bearer for WFH could be hard to sustain.
Only 34% of U.K. office workers are working in their normal location, according to a recent survey by analysts at Morgan Stanley. In France, Germany, Italy and Spain the figure ranges from 70% to 83%. In London, nearly half of office staff are working from home five days a week, compared with just 20%-33% for peers in the financial hubs of greater Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid.