Not so long ago, the UK was told to work from home, words that changed the way millions of people worked overnight. Reshaping careers, commuting, cities and seemingly the way we approach work-life balance forever. Now, almost six years on from those lockdown mandates, it begs the question - has the work-from-home bubble finally burst?
The short answer? Not really, but it’s definitely evolving. What we’re seeing isn’t a move away from remote work entirely, but a shift in how and how much people are working outside the traditional office.
At the height of the pandemic, remote working soared as mandatory lockdowns pushed everyone out of offices. Today, that peak has passed, but the change hasn’t vanished completely.
Recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that around 40% of UK workers now work from home at least some of the time (26% in hybrid arrangements and 14% working fully remotely). Meaning remote work remains ever-present in the post-COVID world, and mixed patterns of work are the norm rather than a temporary trend.
Many experts now describe hybrid working, splitting time between home and office, as the new standard working model in the UK workforce.
A recent report found that UK employees now average roughly 1.8 days a week working remotely, higher than most countries in comparison. So while fully remote jobs have become less common compared to the early pandemic era, the flexibility to work from home in some form remains strong.
Despite talk of bosses calling staff back, worker preference has barely budged. A UK YouGov poll found that 72% of workers want to work from home at least part of the time, and 69% view remote working positively.
So why do some people feel like working from home has declined? It’s partly because employers are pushing for more office days, particularly for team culture, collaboration and training. With many hybrid roles now coming with an agreed minimum in-office requirement.
At the same time, truly full-time remote roles are less common than they were in the early pandemic years, even though working from home hasn’t gone away. Employers are balancing remote flexibility with operational needs, leading to the popular hybrid arrangements we’re familiar with today.
So, has the work-from-home bubble burst? No, but it’s definitely transformed. The dramatic spike during lockdown has settled into a more measured, hybrid approach. One that’s widely accepted, still commonly used and unlikely to disappear even as office attendance rises. What’s changed most is expectation, not that work from home is over, but that it’s now just part of a broader, more flexible world of work.
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