New research reveals that less than half of UK workers would comply with a full-time return-to-office mandate, with women and some parents showing the strongest resistance to employer demands for in-person attendance.

Despite high-profile CEO announcements and media reports suggesting a “great return” to workplaces, researchers found no evidence of a mass move back to offices, with working-from-home rates remaining stable since 2022.

The study, by researchers at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London and King’s Business School, analysed over 1 million observations from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and 50,000 responses from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes UK (SWAA), providing a comprehensive picture of remote working patterns across the UK workforce from early 2022 through to the end of 2024.

The research shows growing worker resistance to rigid office mandates:

Parents have particularly shown growing opposition to full-time office requirements:

Despite a widespread “return to office” narrative, the data shows hybrid working has become established in the UK labour market:

The researchers warn that rigid return-to-office policies risk creating a two-tier workforce and undermining diversity:

• Organisations implementing inflexible mandates risk significant recruitment, skills and retention challenges.

The study recommends that organisations frame flexibility as a long-term business strategy rather than a temporary perk, emphasising that hybrid and remote working have become baseline expectations in the modern labour market.

, Professor of Work and Employment and Director of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King’s College London, and lead author of the report, said:

“An increasing amount of research shows that well-designed hybrid working models offer significant benefits for both employers and employees. Alongside this, there has been a marked shift in attitudes, with workers now seeing flexibility as the norm. Managers need to understand and adapt to this new reality. Rather than forcing a return to pre-pandemic working patterns, organisations should be looking to formalise hybrid models, invest in remote collaboration tools, and set up coordinated in-office days to maximise engagement.

“Where possible, workers should feel emboldened to hold their ground in the face of return-to-office mandates, as the weight of the evidence demonstrating remote working does not harm productivity is growing. In fact, many studies are finding flexible workers tend to work longer and harder compared to those who do not work flexibly – and importantly, those who are able to work remotely tend to be more loyal and committed to their jobs.”