‘It’s just not worth it’: why employers still can’t get staff back to the office

Workers commuting into London this summer: office attendance hit a high of just 31% this year. Photograph: Getty Images

‘You haven’t been in the office this week. Why?” The worker in question hadn’t expected such an email from his boss. Based in Asia but working for a large US media organisation, he had been on an overseas work trip, and his failure to swipe his pass at the building’s turnstiles while he was away had triggered an alert.

This is an extreme example of business leaders straining to reverse pandemic home working habits, but it reflects an increasingly tense battle within public and private organisations.