ONS - Home Working Statistics

[Horizon22]

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published some interesting data on home-working characteristics.

Characteristics of homeworkers, Great Britain - Office for National Statistics

Analysis of homeworkers, including prevalence of hybrid working, and breakdowns by personal characteristics. Data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN).

www.ons.gov.uk

Some headline figures below:

• Among working adults who have worked in the last seven days, 16% reported working from home only and 28% reported both working from home and travelling to work over the period September 2022 to January 2023.
• Workers in the highest income band, those who were educated to degree level or above, and those in professional occupations were most likely to report home only or hybrid working.
• Self-employed workers were twice as likely to work from home only (32%) compared with employees (14%).
• London residents reported the highest levels of hybrid working across Great Britain, with 4 in 10 workers both working from home and travelling to work.
• Throughout 2022 the percentage of working adults reporting having worked from home has varied between 25% and 40%, without a clear upward or downward trend, indicating that homeworking is resilient to pressures such as the end of restrictions and increases in the cost of living.

 

[Markdvdman]

I had to work from for 13 weeks at the start of lockdown. That was awful. Now, I only work from home if there is a rail strike or if there is a rare reason I can do more at home instead of wasting near 3 hours of commuting. Not a lover of working from home to be honest! Interesting stats though!

 

[dk1]

The peak GA trains into Stratford & Liverpool Street are becoming increasingly very busy again as is car parking at stations right along the main line out as far as Diss & this has been the case on a Mondays recently & on Friday of last it was surprisingly noticeable for some reason. I can’t speak for West Anglia except for Cambridge North & Cambridge, the car parks at both being well used again.

 

[Birkonian]

My daughter lives in Clapham. She only goes to the office in Shoreditch on Thursdays. She is not influenced in the slightest by the fact that Thursday is the 'Pub after work' day . Hardly anyone goes into her office on Fridays so they can start the weekend earlier from their home addresses.

 

[ainsworth74]

This:

• London residents reported the highest levels of hybrid working across Great Britain, with 4 in 10 workers both working from home and travelling to work.

Probably goes someway to explain why there's still a black hole in the industries finances. I would gamble that that's a lot of annual seasons which haven't been bought!

 

[Rockhopper]

We worked at home for just over two years. Loved it! We now have hybrid working with an expectation of being in the office two days a week. Its clear when i walk around the building that the vast majority make full use of that as its mostly fairly empty. I tend to work in the office as its only ten minutes from home, and its free heating in the winter and AC in the summer We are currently designed an office move and the new place will have far fewer desks than we have now so more people will be expected to WHF.

 

[ar10642]

My office (Cambridge) has a policy of each team coming in once a week. There is no longer enough space for everyone to come in every day even if they wanted to.

 

[MikeWM]

The peak GA trains into Stratford & Liverpool Street are becoming increasingly very busy again as is car parking at stations right along the main line out as far as Diss & this has been the case on a Mondays recently & on Friday of last it was surprisingly noticeable for some reason. I can’t speak for West Anglia except for Cambridge North & Cambridge, the car parks at both being well used again.

Ely is similar, car park occupancy looks pretty indistinguishable from 2019 now most days. Mondays were probably the last to fill up but they too seem almost there now.

We're supposed to be in the office at least 3 days a week, which happily seems to be a sweet spot for me. I wouldn't want to go back to working from home *or* working in the office 5 days a week.

 

[ASharpe]

I hated working from home, and exclusively work in the office now. Even taken days holiday to cover train strikes.

I have no idea how people manage to do it nearly every day.

 

[Tezza1978]

My daughter lives in Clapham. She only goes to the office in Shoreditch on Thursdays. She is not influenced in the slightest by the fact that Thursday is the 'Pub after work' day . Hardly anyone goes into her office on Fridays so they can start the weekend earlier from their home addresses.

Think there is a lot of variation by business and business type though despite there clearly being more homeworking. I was in Shoreditch Friday just gone for meetings and both the City in general and the bars/restaurants were as busy with workers as I have seen them for a long time! As busy if not more so than Thursdays (which were clearly busier than Fridays last summer/last autumn). One of the companies I met with said their workers are back in the office now almost full time with just odd work from home days here and there - and this was by choice of the workers.

I think in many sectors the idea of permanent 5 day a week home working is completely dead and buried no matter what a small minority of people may want! Hybrid is the way forward and I think for younger people in particular 3 or 4 days in the office is likely to be the most popular.

 

[Thirteen]

TBH I never thought everyone working from home was ever going to be permanent even during the depths of the pandemic. Humans need interactions with other and you can't be productive on a video call.

I would say that I've had a couple of interviews for jobs in the last few months and I always ask if there is a WFH option if needed, not because I want to work from home because I don't but having the option for whenever there are transport strikes or closures is very useful.

My friend who works in the media is the opposite of me in that she embraced WFH and only does 2-3 days in the office.

 

[route101]

I thought it all gone Hybrid. I enjoy Hybrid though my current workplace is not too keen on homeworking. I had an interview on teams few weeks back and WFH has its benefit there, I had make an excuse up to not come into the office in the morning so I could do that interview.

 

[dk1]

As a train driver I obviously can’t do much from home. During the pandemic however we did do team brief/safety updates from home over TEAMS & I hated it. Like many others I refused to put my camera on as don’t do FaceTime or anything like that anyway. Thankfully everything training or meeting wise is 100% back in the office.

 

[WatcherZero]

This:



Probably goes someway to explain why there's still a black hole in the industries finances. I would gamble that that's a lot of annual seasons which haven't been bought!

Look at the most recent thread on ONS statistics, indeed the case that long distance commuting into London has barely recovered and season ticket sales have crashed to a fraction pre-pandemic. The glint of light is short hop leisure is doing marginally better than pre-pandemic.

 

[NorthOxonian]

This:



Probably goes someway to explain why there's still a black hole in the industries finances. I would gamble that that's a lot of annual seasons which haven't been bought!

The census figures go into even more detail on this - they were captured in 2021 so are a little out of date but the general trends won't have changed too much (notably, the overall figures aren't that different so more local ones should be fairly static too). Some of the rates of working from home along the SWR lines were particularly exceptional - 57% in Wandsworth, 59% in Richmond, 54% in Elmbridge (Esher and surrounds), 51% in Wokingham. It's not just a London thing either - the plush commuter belt around Wilmslow was also above 50%, and figures were only slightly lower around Ilkley, Formby, and other towns which would have had big peak time flows towards nearby cities. It really does seem to have hit the rail commuter market very hard.

 

[43066]

This:



Probably goes someway to explain why there's still a black hole in the industries finances. I would gamble that that's a lot of annual seasons which haven't been bought!

I had understood intra-London commuting specifically had bounced back pretty well, but longer distance Home Counties less so, which is the real issue in terms of revenue.

During the pandemic however we did do team brief/safety updates from home over TEAMS & I hated it.

MS Teams as a train driver. Seriously? Honestly, the more I hear about your TOC, the more glad I am I don’t work there!

We were given a few briefs online, but just a question of logging on and completing them, thankfully no teams awkwardness!

 

[Freightmaster]

...Some of the rates of working from home along the SWR lines were particularly exceptional - 57% in Wandsworth, 59% in Richmond, 54% in Elmbridge (Esher and surrounds), 51% in Wokingham. It's not just a London thing either - the plush commuter belt around Wilmslow was also above 50%, and figures were only slightly lower around Ilkley, Formby, and other towns...

So mostly high CoL/high wage localities where many people live in generously proportioned
3/4 bed houses (families) or large flats/townhouses (couples) with ample room for a dedicated
home office?


What about the vast majority of office workers who don't live in such posh areas?




MARK

 

[dk1]

MS Teams as a train driver. Seriously? Honestly, the more I hear about your TOC, the more glad I am I don’t work there!

We were given a few briefs online, but just a question of logging on and completing them, thankfully no teams awkwardness!

Don’t get me started lol. Oh & guess what? I got picked up on a OTMR download for being consistently 1 second short on my horn blowing again. Things like that aside though it’s not that bad. During the pandemic we did at least roar ahead with training & bubbles etc which is why we are in the fine state we are today establishment wise.

 

[Thirteen]

Wandsworth and Richmond don't surprise me that WFH is so high as they are affluent areas.

It does surprise me that season tickets are still a thing especially in London with weekly capping on Oyster and contactless.

 

[Roast Veg]

I changed careers in June 2020, and in the two years I worked that job I spent 6 days in the office, which was 200 miles away. Now my office is a mere 170 miles away, and in the past 8 months I've been there for 4 days total. There's no chance of me moving closer to the office while my partner works in-person locally up here, so home working it is for the foreseeable.

 

[Bletchleyite]

TBH I never thought everyone working from home was ever going to be permanent even during the depths of the pandemic. Humans need interactions with other and you can't be productive on a video call.

The latter is simply not true.

So mostly high CoL/high wage localities where many people live in generously proportioned
3/4 bed houses (families) or large flats/townhouses (couples) with ample room for a dedicated
home office?


What about the vast majority of office workers who don't live in such posh areas?

A friend who lives in a one bed flat has a desk in the corner of the bedroom. I used to have one in the corner of the lounge. It is not insurmountable.

Meanwhile I have a decent setup at home with a good monitor, stands and keyboard and trackball. Match that in the office and I might be more inclined...

Decent kit and I would happily do two days a week in. I would never return to daily London commuting, it nearly drove me to a breakdown, mostly due to lost sleep. With decent desk kit and a 30 minute cycle or walking commute I might be swayed to 3 or 4 but definitely still Fridays from home.

 

[Jimini]

The latter is simply not true.

Agreed. I’ve worked from home for eight years now without any problems (the occasional trip to an office of course but maybe twice a month on average at the most). Never had any issues here.

 

[philosopher]

Wandsworth and Richmond don't surprise me that WFH is so high as they are affluent areas.

It does surprise me that season tickets are still a thing especially in London with weekly capping on Oyster and contactless.

The yearly London travel cards are not great value even if do commute to work five days a week. When I had one, I had to make a fair few leisure trips for it to be saving me money, even though I was going into work every weekday.

For anyone working from home, even just one day a week, the travel cards are very likely not going to be worth it.

 

[Starmill]

Meanwhile I have a decent setup at home with a good monitor, stands and keyboard and trackball. Match that in the office and I might be more inclined...

There's a definite tendency towards the "posh office" end of things in the corporate world I think. Office space historically was pretty dull and didn't offer much variety or space to do anything other than stare at your workstation. But now it's much more common to be finding spaces with a good proportion of height-adjustable desks (i.e. you can turn them into a standing desk if you like), more communal areas with comfy sofas or a few posh armchairs, sound-proofed one person conference booths, meeting rooms with fancy cameras and two screens, bigger kitchens, more indoor plants, more natural light, and nicer carpets and walls with a variety of different colour schemes in different areas. Free fruit or cereal bars in addition to free tea and coffee is also clearly quite a popular concept. I'm a spoilt thing now and can't use an office desk that doesn't have two monitors These kind of things are sustainable too for most businesses if they have a positive outlook about their workforce, unlike some of the perks initially offered by banks to tempt people back like free parking or free lunch every day.

 

[VauxhallandI]

Trust me, if you are a consistent WFHer and there are a lot of your team in the office then your stock will be low in their eyes.

One may not care but there is a danger it could count against you.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There's a definite tendency towards the "posh office" end of things in the corporate world I think. Office space historically was pretty dull and didn't offer much variety or space to do anything other than stare at your workstation. But now it's much more common to be finding spaces with a good proportion of height-adjustable desks (i.e. you can turn them into a standing desk if you like), more communal areas with comfy sofas or a few posh armchairs, sound-proofed one person conference booths, meeting rooms with fancy cameras and two screens, bigger kitchens, more indoor plants, more natural light, and nicer carpets and walls with a variety of different colour schemes in different areas. Free fruit or cereal bars in addition to free tea and coffee is also clearly quite a popular concept. I'm a spoilt thing now and can't use an office desk that doesn't have two monitors These kind of things are sustainable too for most businesses if they have a positive outlook about their workforce, unlike some of the perks initially offered by banks to tempt people back like free parking or free lunch every day.

I don't overly care for most of the gimmickry there, but a good start would be a 32" 4K monitor, laptop stands and good quality separate keyboard and mouse, as well as a premium chair. Our office has old, cheap analogue monitors, no stands and no external input devices. Good chairs though.

Agree on conference booths, offices are often too noisy. And on height adjustable desks, I am tall.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

WFH has definitely open up more opportunities for me living in Norwich.. my office is in Milton Keynes so a daily commute isn't practical but there is now some pressure for hybrid working. I think hybrid working is here to stay but as others have said, the long distance commute has become rare.

Going forward I accept visits to the office will become regular as with everyone who has been WFH but it will mean TOCs will have to be more creative with season tickets

 

[Starmill]

I don't overly care for most of the gimmickry there, but a good start would be a 32" 4K monitor, laptop stands and good quality separate keyboard and mouse, as well as a premium chair. Our office has old, cheap analogue monitors, no stands and no external input devices. Good chairs though.

Agree on conference booths, offices are often too noisy. And on height adjustable desks, I am tall.

I agree lots of it is gimmicky, but not having a good quality USB C docking station and keyboards and mice that are looked after and comfortable to use seems to me to be a total waste of time. Why bother having an office at all if you can't do those right? Yes a free banana, coffee syrup or oat milk for your tea are gimmicks, but I'll happily take them!

 

[Ken H]

I habe WFH since May 2018. I needed to WFH as I recovered from a nasty appedicitis case. Client was glad for me to slowly ramp up hours to help keep a project on track.
Then they had a problem in the office with the plumbing and evefyone WFH'ed for about a month. The rot set in as people stayed WFH when the offices has been fixed.
So the infrastucture was there for WFH before COVID.
But I work on project where team members are in 2 UK locations and 3 in Europe. So its all teams.
I dont show my face cos I dont want to and by rural broadband is rubbish. But most of the time someone is sharing a screen.
My desk was 3 hrs away so that was 3 nights in a hotel and a lot of driving. So the cost saving is significant.
I would not take a job now unless it was WFH.
Local garage must be suffering. WFH is common in my village now. Lot less miles being driven so less servicing.

 

[Horizon22]

This:



Probably goes someway to explain why there's still a black hole in the industries finances. I would gamble that that's a lot of annual seasons which haven't been bought!

I also thought it noticeable that there was clear evidence of what many - including myself - have long suspected that the “home countries, white collar workers” have remained at home whilst more functional jobs (trades, health, “key workers”) who tend to live closer to their employment have continued to commute for necessities.