Working from the office should be the “default” for employees, chancellor Jeremy Hunt told business leaders on Wednesday as he claimed that logging on from home could stifle creativity.
He told the British Chambers of Commerce conference he believes the shift to home working during the Covid-19 pandemic is being reversed by firms.
His comments came after Elon Musk said working from home was not only bad for productivity but “morally wrong”.
The Tesla and Twitter billionaire was discussing return-to-office imperatives that have caused significant concern among tech workers in Silicon Valley.
Bosses at many US firms, such as Amazon and Salesforce, have demanded employees return to offices amid concern from investors over productivity.
Musk referred to tech workers as “laptop classes living in la-la-land,” telling CNBC in an interview that it was hypocritical to work from home while expecting service workers to continue to commute and turn up in person.
“People should get off the goddamn moral high horse with the work-from-home bulls***,” he said. “It’s not just a productivity thing. I think it’s morally wrong.”
However, the tight labour market means firms are struggling to impose return-to-office policies.
Comprehensive post-Covid research by management consultants McKinsey has shown that workplace flexibility is now a top reason why employees accept new jobs. In deciding between jobs with similar pay or benefits, the opportunity to work flexibly can become the deciding factor, it said.
Mr Hunt said workers would return to offices unless they had a “good reason not to.”
“I think it’s something for businesses to find their own way through,” he said. Home working technology has helped with childcare and those with mobility issues.
But, he added: “On the other hand, there is nothing like sitting around the table, seeing people face-to-face, developing team spirit – and I worry about the loss of creativity when people are permanently working from home and not having those water cooler moments where they bounce ideas off each other. Not every great business idea happens in a structured, formal meeting.”
He said businesses were now calling for staff to come in, adding: “I think the default will be ‘you work in the office unless there’s a good reason not to be in the office’ and gradually we are getting there.”
A recent survey of 500 London workers with offices in central London, conducted by Bloomberg Intelligence, found that nearly three-quarters (73%) would leave their job if they were no longer able to work from home for some of the week, and only a significant pay rise would change their minds.
