Nearly a third of office workers never want to return to the office

UK employees are expecting a more flexible way of working once the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. 45% would like to change the times that they work, including their start/finish times or working their hours across fewer days, compared with before Covid-19. UK employees are expecting to be able to make these changes, with 59% believing their employer will allow the changes they want, and 40% prepared to change jobs if not allowed. These results are from a representative survey of 1,500 adult UK residents undertaken by transport and research consultancy SYSTRA Ltd, between 4th-12th June 2020.

Key findings include:

• 29% of office workers never want to return to the office, instead wanting to work from home.
  • Of those that commute by rail or bus, this increases to 32%.
• 37% of 5-day-a-week office workers want to return to the same pattern.
• 55% of UK workers would like to work more flexibly, including changing their start/finish times or working their hours across fewer days, compared with before Covid-19.
• 59% think it is likely their employer will let them make the changes they want to their work location or working patterns.
• 40% think it is likely they will change jobs if their employer does not allow them to make the changes they want to.

Public transport operators will need to adapt and consider their ticketing products to meet new commuter behaviours, and the traditional peak/off-peak travel times may disappear. However, not everyone can or wants to adapt their working hours or location – those not office based are more likely to want to stay working at the same location, and many workers, including key workers, may have no flexibility over when or where they work.