‘Not for Boris Johnson to second guess’ whether office-working best for businesses
The Prime Minister has been told to leave businesses to make their own decisions on hybrid working, after saying there were “sound evolutionary reasons” for office-working.
The Institute of Directors has slammed Boris Johnson’s remarks, which he made at the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference on Monday.
Alex Hall-Chen, senior policy advisor at the Institute of Directors (IoD), said working arrangements were “a matter for individual organisations to determine.”
Hall-Chen added: “It’s a matter for individual organisations to determine their future working arrangements. Some will be strongly encouraging employees to return to the workplace.
“Others are happier with a more hybrid approach, incorporating a degree of home working. It is not for government to second guess what is appropriate for each business.
“After mixed experiences of hybrid working during the pandemic, business leaders are grappling with the best working models going forward.”
The group’s research found that a large majority of bosses were planning to introduce some form of hybrid or remote working in the long-term.
Despite beliefs that “working habits have been remade by the pandemic,” Johnson said he had his doubts about the longevity of hybrid working.
He cast doubt on the belief that “everyone will be working [from offices] only on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday in an acronym I won’t repeat.”
“It is not just that young people need to be in the office to learn, and to compete, and to pick up social capital,” the Prime Minister said. “Mother Nature does not like working from home,” he added.
“So I prophesize that people will come back, they will come to the office and they will come back on the roads and the rail. But people also want choice,” he said.