Employers forcing staff to work more days in the office are making a mistake and are guilty of old-fashioned “command-and-control thinking”, one of the pioneers of more flexible working practices has said.
Mark Mullen, chief executive of Atom Bank, said the increasing number of managers enforcing presenteeism were being dogmatic and failing to see how digital technology and artificial intelligence were changing everything.
Mullen, who employs 550 people in Durham, said only about 70 to 75 of them typically came to the office on any given day, suggesting an attendance rate of 15 per cent. Some barely ever came in.
Mullen, a former HSBC banking chief, dismissed claims that workers slacked when working from home, saying: “I don’t buy it, show me the evidence.” He said “back-to-the-office diktats” would not work in improving productivity or staff morale.
https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/forcing-staff-into-the-office-is-old-fashioned-dogma-says-bank-boss-fh80wzt2q