Offices to stay open as bosses challenge Boris Johnson’s home working plea
SIMON FOY DECEMBER 09, 2021
Major employers have vowed to keep their offices open to staff and continue with face to face meetings as a City backlash mounts against Boris Johnson’s work from home guidance.
PwC, KPMG, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank are among businesses that do not intend to close their buildings down, despite the Prime Minister’s recommendation that staff should work remotely where possible to limit the spread of the omicron Covid variant.
Kevin Ellis, the chairman of PwC, said the benefits of in-person meetings cannot be replicated at home, particularly at what is a busy time for deals.
Meanwhile lawyers said they had been inundated with requests for guidance from companies seeking to work around the rules, and corporate lobby groups used a call with Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, to demand clarity over how long restrictions are to last.
A source close to PwC, which employs about 22,000 people in the UK, said its premises will remain open for “essential purposes”. Managers are asking employees to use “personal judgment” as some work is more effective in the office. Staff will have to liaise with their team leaders to determine what activities are deemed essential, the source added.
Mr Ellis said: “As always we will follow government guidelines, but there’s no denying this will be a challenge for some sectors.
“The majority of our people had returned to the office two to three days a week. It’s the busy season for audit and there’s also lots of deal activity that benefits from some in-person meetings.
“We’ve successfully run our businesses through previous restrictions and our offices will remain open for our people who have a business or personal need to use them.”
The rhetoric is a marked contrast with how many businesses responded to restrictions a year ago. At the time, swathes of offices were shut completely or open to only the most essential staff.
The new plan B measures in England
The approach this time is likely to have been partly triggered by much softer language from ministers on remote working.
The Government’s guidance to “work from home, if you can” is significantly more vague than last year’s message of “everyone must work from home unless they are unable to do so”, and has left bosses unsure about whether they can keep some staff on-site.
The latest advice states that anyone who cannot work from home should continue to go in, and adds: “In-person working will be necessary in some cases to continue the effective and accessible delivery of some public services and private industries.”
It says that workers who must go to the office should “consider taking lateral flow tests regularly”, but this is not a requirement. The guidance will take effect on Monday.
Kathleen Healy, an employment partner at the magic circle law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said: “There is quite a bit of resistance to the idea of having to go back to where we were before restrictions were previously lifted.”
She added that more than a dozen clients contacted Freshfields on Thursday enquiring about how they should interpret the new rules.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan has told UK-based employees that its buildings “will continue to be accessible to all employees who need to come in”.
In a memo to staff, the Wall Street investment bank said that while it expects a reduction in the number of people coming into its offices, some departments will continue to operate as they have been in recent months.
It said: “For those of you working any part of your week in the office, please be assured that the measures we have mandated in our buildings to protect you will remain in place, including enhanced daily cleaning.”
How many cases of omicron could we see by Christmas?
Deutsche Bank will also keep traders working at its London headquarters, while KPMG said staff can still speak to clients in person for “business-critical meetings”.
In a sign that bosses are growing tired of a high degree of flexible working, KPMG told its auditors recently that they will be back in the office four days a week in the future. The firm was contacted for comment on its response to the new restrictions.
EY said its UK offices will remain open “for those who need them”, adding: “We have issued guidance to advise our people to work from home where possible.”
The law firms Freshfields and Slaughter and May are advising staff to work from home from Monday, but will both keep their offices open for essential purposes.
Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan were among the first employers in the City to tell staff to return to their desks during the summer.
David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman, has argued that remote working is an “aberration” and not the “new normal”.
Goldman and Morgan Stanley are understood to have not yet finalised plans around how the new guidelines will change their working arrangements.
The guidance is likely to compound problems for businesses in city centres, which have struggled to recover since restrictions were lifted as many Britons continued to work from home.
On Thursday, Mr Kwarteng held an hour-long Zoom call with a raft of business groups which warned that companies facing ruined Christmas trading must prove their case for extra financial help following the move to “Plan B”.
Despite Boris Johnson saying on Wednesday that Christmas parties should go ahead, KPMG, Deloitte and Freshfields have decided to scrap them.
My workplace was just beginning to get workers back into the office at a very gentle pace when this all kicked off again so they’ve completely backed out of it until the new year.
So glad our management is being sensible.
Not that I would possibly suggest a newspaper would have an agenda to push around defying covid restrictions, but while the Telegraph is claiming
>PwC, KPMG, […] are among businesses that do not intend to close their buildings down, despite the Prime Minister’s recommendation that staff should work remotely where possible to limit the spread of the omicron Covid variant.
> The accountancy firm PwC […] are among the large businesses that will allow workers to continue to travel to the office if they have mental health needs, or if they are unable to work from home, as well as for business-critical reasons.
along with
>KPMG, another large accountant, said it had told workers that only business-critical meetings should take place in person, and only at “Covid-secure KPMG offices or client sites”.
None of that sounds like PwC or KPMG are “challenging Johnson’s home working plea” to me. They are sticking with the advice of “work from home, _if you can_”
u/idanthology please, please keep the paragraphs when posting, don’t turn it into such an annoying wall of text with no breaks as it’s a pain in the arse to read, paragraphs are designed for a reason.
I refuse to read this simply because of how it’s posted
Be interested which of “PwC, KPMG, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank” actually owned their offices and had investments and interests in city commercial property.
Amongst big companies it was very uncommon for offices to be outright closed. Many of them were open as normal for the skeleton crew who needed, or in some cases wanted as a one-off, to be there.
People usually interpret “work from home” as “go to the pub” in my experience.
Im working from home, not stopped in 89 weeks. Worked whole pandemic, no forlough etc.
However i think this directive is not quite an full order, but a strong suggestion. Peivate company are free to choose. Its probably a good idea if yiu can but i understand not every job can be done from your home, and thats just got to be factored in.
Ive been told to basically carry on until told otherwise personally.
Though even we have mantained a essential skeleton crew to keep key departments working.
Yep. The firm I work for (for now) sent an email yesterday saying that it’s business as usual and we’re still in the office.
The fact that throughout lockdown(s) we all worked from home successfully, and the company actually grew is proof that we can “work from home if possible”, so this is a blatant ignoring of the rules.
For what reason? I have no clue, as it benefits both parties.
At the same time, there’s posters on walls and email footers in management emails claiming that “your wellbeing is our upmost priority”, and “mental health issues? We’re here for you” and all kinds of other nausea inducing, soundbite-like crap where they pretend to care about the health of the people making a handful of people richer.
I doubt it. A lot of people will be gagging to start their Christmas holiday early.
10 comments
Offices to stay open as bosses challenge Boris Johnson’s home working plea
SIMON FOY DECEMBER 09, 2021
Major employers have vowed to keep their offices open to staff and continue with face to face meetings as a City backlash mounts against Boris Johnson’s work from home guidance.
PwC, KPMG, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank are among businesses that do not intend to close their buildings down, despite the Prime Minister’s recommendation that staff should work remotely where possible to limit the spread of the omicron Covid variant.
Kevin Ellis, the chairman of PwC, said the benefits of in-person meetings cannot be replicated at home, particularly at what is a busy time for deals.
Meanwhile lawyers said they had been inundated with requests for guidance from companies seeking to work around the rules, and corporate lobby groups used a call with Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, to demand clarity over how long restrictions are to last.
A source close to PwC, which employs about 22,000 people in the UK, said its premises will remain open for “essential purposes”. Managers are asking employees to use “personal judgment” as some work is more effective in the office. Staff will have to liaise with their team leaders to determine what activities are deemed essential, the source added.
Mr Ellis said: “As always we will follow government guidelines, but there’s no denying this will be a challenge for some sectors.
“The majority of our people had returned to the office two to three days a week. It’s the busy season for audit and there’s also lots of deal activity that benefits from some in-person meetings.
“We’ve successfully run our businesses through previous restrictions and our offices will remain open for our people who have a business or personal need to use them.”
The rhetoric is a marked contrast with how many businesses responded to restrictions a year ago. At the time, swathes of offices were shut completely or open to only the most essential staff.
The new plan B measures in England
The approach this time is likely to have been partly triggered by much softer language from ministers on remote working.
The Government’s guidance to “work from home, if you can” is significantly more vague than last year’s message of “everyone must work from home unless they are unable to do so”, and has left bosses unsure about whether they can keep some staff on-site.
The latest advice states that anyone who cannot work from home should continue to go in, and adds: “In-person working will be necessary in some cases to continue the effective and accessible delivery of some public services and private industries.”
It says that workers who must go to the office should “consider taking lateral flow tests regularly”, but this is not a requirement. The guidance will take effect on Monday.
Kathleen Healy, an employment partner at the magic circle law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said: “There is quite a bit of resistance to the idea of having to go back to where we were before restrictions were previously lifted.”
She added that more than a dozen clients contacted Freshfields on Thursday enquiring about how they should interpret the new rules.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan has told UK-based employees that its buildings “will continue to be accessible to all employees who need to come in”.
In a memo to staff, the Wall Street investment bank said that while it expects a reduction in the number of people coming into its offices, some departments will continue to operate as they have been in recent months.
It said: “For those of you working any part of your week in the office, please be assured that the measures we have mandated in our buildings to protect you will remain in place, including enhanced daily cleaning.”
How many cases of omicron could we see by Christmas?
Deutsche Bank will also keep traders working at its London headquarters, while KPMG said staff can still speak to clients in person for “business-critical meetings”.
In a sign that bosses are growing tired of a high degree of flexible working, KPMG told its auditors recently that they will be back in the office four days a week in the future. The firm was contacted for comment on its response to the new restrictions.
EY said its UK offices will remain open “for those who need them”, adding: “We have issued guidance to advise our people to work from home where possible.”
The law firms Freshfields and Slaughter and May are advising staff to work from home from Monday, but will both keep their offices open for essential purposes.
Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan were among the first employers in the City to tell staff to return to their desks during the summer.
David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman, has argued that remote working is an “aberration” and not the “new normal”.
Goldman and Morgan Stanley are understood to have not yet finalised plans around how the new guidelines will change their working arrangements.
The guidance is likely to compound problems for businesses in city centres, which have struggled to recover since restrictions were lifted as many Britons continued to work from home.
On Thursday, Mr Kwarteng held an hour-long Zoom call with a raft of business groups which warned that companies facing ruined Christmas trading must prove their case for extra financial help following the move to “Plan B”.
Despite Boris Johnson saying on Wednesday that Christmas parties should go ahead, KPMG, Deloitte and Freshfields have decided to scrap them.
My workplace was just beginning to get workers back into the office at a very gentle pace when this all kicked off again so they’ve completely backed out of it until the new year.
So glad our management is being sensible.
Not that I would possibly suggest a newspaper would have an agenda to push around defying covid restrictions, but while the Telegraph is claiming
>PwC, KPMG, […] are among businesses that do not intend to close their buildings down, despite the Prime Minister’s recommendation that staff should work remotely where possible to limit the spread of the omicron Covid variant.
[the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/09/some-firms-allow-work-from-office-if-needed-for-mental-health) presents it rather differently
> The accountancy firm PwC […] are among the large businesses that will allow workers to continue to travel to the office if they have mental health needs, or if they are unable to work from home, as well as for business-critical reasons.
along with
>KPMG, another large accountant, said it had told workers that only business-critical meetings should take place in person, and only at “Covid-secure KPMG offices or client sites”.
None of that sounds like PwC or KPMG are “challenging Johnson’s home working plea” to me. They are sticking with the advice of “work from home, _if you can_”
u/idanthology please, please keep the paragraphs when posting, don’t turn it into such an annoying wall of text with no breaks as it’s a pain in the arse to read, paragraphs are designed for a reason.
I refuse to read this simply because of how it’s posted
Be interested which of “PwC, KPMG, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank” actually owned their offices and had investments and interests in city commercial property.
Amongst big companies it was very uncommon for offices to be outright closed. Many of them were open as normal for the skeleton crew who needed, or in some cases wanted as a one-off, to be there.
People usually interpret “work from home” as “go to the pub” in my experience.
Im working from home, not stopped in 89 weeks. Worked whole pandemic, no forlough etc.
However i think this directive is not quite an full order, but a strong suggestion. Peivate company are free to choose. Its probably a good idea if yiu can but i understand not every job can be done from your home, and thats just got to be factored in.
Ive been told to basically carry on until told otherwise personally.
Though even we have mantained a essential skeleton crew to keep key departments working.
Yep. The firm I work for (for now) sent an email yesterday saying that it’s business as usual and we’re still in the office.
The fact that throughout lockdown(s) we all worked from home successfully, and the company actually grew is proof that we can “work from home if possible”, so this is a blatant ignoring of the rules.
For what reason? I have no clue, as it benefits both parties.
At the same time, there’s posters on walls and email footers in management emails claiming that “your wellbeing is our upmost priority”, and “mental health issues? We’re here for you” and all kinds of other nausea inducing, soundbite-like crap where they pretend to care about the health of the people making a handful of people richer.
I doubt it. A lot of people will be gagging to start their Christmas holiday early.