Millions of workers who work from home warned 'you have no choice'

Millions of workers in the UK who are working from home after the Covid pandemic have been warned they may have "no choice" but to get back into the office. Asda has joined the growing number of firms demanding staff return to the workplace.

Asda is it compulsory for thousands of workers at its offices in Leeds and Leicester to spend at least three days a week at their desks from January. The change will bring the retailer “in line with our competitors and the wider market, allowing us to build high-performing teams with a collaborative culture and respond to what our business needs the most”, it says.

Its chair Stuart Rose said staff being based at home was “not a satisfactory way of working, particularly in an industry which is a fast-moving consumer goods industry. “It’s not always as efficient with those teams working together in terms of online, in terms of Zoom calls,” he said.

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Rose added that in his personal view, demand for hybrid working had swung too far in the workers’ favour. “Hybrid working wasn’t invented in the pandemic,” he said. “It has to fit the business’s needs," the chief of the retailer went on to say.

Amazon chief executive, Andy Jassy, announced in September that it was summoning its workers back to the office five days a week next year. And workers who resist have been fired a warning shot in the form of a case earlier this year.

The case, which took place earlier in 2024, resulted in the courts finding in favour of the employer. A judge ruled that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was within its rights to refuse the request of a senior manager to work from home full-time.

The judge said the organisation was “right to identify weaknesses with remote working”.