Out of office? How working from home divided Britain

Julie has been working 'crunching numbers' for the government from home for most of the pandemic, before recently returning to her office in Whitehall two days a week. The civil servant, in her late 20s, says she enjoyed "the camaraderie of going back to work with colleagues." But then she discovered that a message had been left on her desk while she was in a meeting with her bosses.

"Sorry, you were away during my visit,” read the note on the left by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Effectiveness. “I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon. With best wishes.”

Over an after-work grapefruit gin and tonic at Two Chairmen, a A Westminster pub popular with civil servants, she says receiving the note from Rees-Mogg made her reconsider her dream of a long career in public service. "I would love to tell her where to push her good wishes," says "We've all worked hard throughout the pandemic and now he's leaving notes implying that we're not working if we're not at our desks.

"And, this is from the multi-millionaire MP who [apparently] dozed off in parliament," says Julie (pseudonym) with the agreement of her colleagues. They are drinking outside the pub on a recent Wednesday evening - which is became the new night for after-work drinks with so many people only in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (which sparked the acronym Twats).

Battles similar to the one between Rees-Mogg and officials are unfolding in offices across the country. While many employees are happy to return to the office, some company managers try to cajole or pressure employees to return to their desks full-time.

It's now been four months since Boris Johnson told officials they 'must show a lead and make sure...everyone gets back to work'. But more than a third of the office workforce in the UK is still working from home (at least for some of the time), according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Less than one in 10 say they want to return to their office five days a week. Hybrid is officially the new normal, according to government statisticians.

The ONS said the most common reason given for working from home was that it had become "part of the normal routine of workers". suggesting they "have embraced working from home for the long term".

Returning to the office is less popular in the UK than in Europe, according to travel figures compiled by Google. Mobility report. It showed that last week commuting in the UK was down 22% from pre-pandemic levels, while nearly all Europeans appear to be back at their office, commuting to work in Spain and France fell by 9%, Germany by 7% and Italy by 6%.

London workers seem to be the slowest to to return. South Western Railway, which operates heavy commuter trains from Surrey and Hampshire to London Waterloo, the UK's busiest station, says peak hour arrivals have recovered to just 50% of the number before the pandemic. Tube passenger numbers remain at 70% of pre-Covid levels, according to figures from Transport for London. Nationwide, rail passenger numbers are back to around three-quarters of pre-coronavirus levels, according to the latest data from the Department of Transport.

Even Rail industry bosses are still working from home. The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) is the industry body “encouraging businesses and commuters to get on the train and get the country back on track”. Yet as of June 1, on its website, it continued to tell its own staff: “All we ask is that you work at least two days a week in the office; the rest of your time can be working from home.

A recent newspaper report said RDG chief executive Jacqueline Starr took the train to the body's headquarters in London. only twice a week on average, spending most of his time working from home in Somerset. The DGR disputes this. A spokesperson said "some weeks [Starr] works from the office three, four or even five days a week".

Bosses say they want staff come back into sight because they're more productive in the office and it's harder to collaborate and be creative with co-workers on endless video calls. Many workers, however, say they get...