The former boss of Marks & Spencer and Asda has said that those working from home are “not doing proper work”. Speaking to BBC Panorama, Conservative life peer Lord Stuart Rose shared his opinion that working from home was part of the UK economy’s “general decline” and that productivity amongst employees is suffering.
Lord Rose, who was chief executive of M&S and recently stepped down as the chairman of Asda, said: “We are creating a whole generation, and probably a generation beyond that, of people who are used to actually not doing what I call proper work.
“I believe that productivity is less good if you work from home. I believe that your personal development suffers, that you are not going to develop as well as you might if you’ve been in the workplace as long as I have.
“And I think lastly there is a connection – a correlation yet to be proven no doubt – between the current state of mental health, particularly young people, and the number of people who are working away from a workplace. I think it’s bad.”
Despite Lord Rose’s complaints, Stanford University economist Prof Nicholas Bloom said that while fully remote work can be “quite damaging” to some workers’ productivity, spending three days out of five in the office was as productive as fully office-based work overall.
A snapshot survey from December 2024 by the Office for National Statistics, found that 26% of people said they had been hybrid-working in the prior seven days, 13% had been fully remote and 41% had been fully office-based (the remainder were not working at the time).
Working from home is rapidly becoming a source of division in the country, and according to industry estimates vacant office space has nearly doubled since the pandemic.
Currently, the government is legislating to strengthen employees’ right across to the UK to request working from home, and says that it intends to make it harder for employers to turn down such requests. But some employers are pushing for staff to come back into the office, arguing that face-to-face interaction in the workplace is essential.
Prof Bloom said his research into working from home suggests younger employees, so those in their teens and early 20s, would seek the most benefit of being in the office at least four days a week, as it would allow them to maximise their opportunities for being mentored.
However, he said polls of tens of thousands of employees in the UK, US and Europe suggest workers valued the ability to work from home for two days a week about as much as an 8% pay rise.
Employment rights minister Justin Madders told Panorama there was a growing evidence that working from home was more productive. He also said working from home was good for growth because companies will have “a much more motivated workforce” and “if we’re able to get more people into work because flexibility is available for them, that will help us reach our growth ambitions”.
Prof Blom agreed that working from home makes the workplace more flexible, which could encourage more people to return to the workforce, such as those with caring responsibilities.
“That is a huge boost” and “kind of a win, win, win”, because people would be able to work in better conditions, contribute to tax revenue and “everyone gains”.
Panorama: ‘Should We Still Be Working From Home?’ is on BBC One at 8pm tonight