British employees lead their European counterparts in terms of working from home, maintaining the trend that emerged during the pandemic, despite attempts to encourage a return to office spaces.
According to the Munich-based Ifo Institute, the typical British worker is at home for a day and a half each week. This is significantly more than the German average of one day and over twice that of France and Italy, which sit at 0.6 and 0.7 days respectively.
The United Kingdom also surpasses the United States, where the typical employee works from home for 1.4 days a week. Of the 34 nations surveyed, only Canada had a higher remote work rate than the UK, with Canadians working from home an average of 1.7 days each week.
The ideal situation for British workers, according to the survey, would involve spending nearly half the workweek, or 2.3 days, working from home. Employers, however, indicated a preference for 1.7 days, slightly more than the current average of 1.5 days.
Despite the popularity of remote work, the practice has seen a decrease from the previous year when the average Briton was found to be working from home for 2.2 days per week.
Post-pandemic pressures to return to traditional work environments have been felt by workers. Government employees have been urged by ministers to resume commuting, and even tech firms, who were at the forefront of flexible working practices, are now promoting a return to conventional office routines for a part of the week.
