Barclays tightens working-from-home rules

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Barclays has tightened its working-from-home requirements, making it the latest company to rethink its hybrid working policy since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UK-based bank announced more stringent hybrid working requirements and asked most of its 85,000 employees to come into the office for an additional day a week, according to a memo sent to staff on Tuesday.

As part of the change, the bank has raised its minimum office attendance requirement to three days a week, up from two days a week, according to people familiar with the memo. Some employees will be expected to work more than the minimum in the office.

Most of the bank’s client-facing employees, including investment bankers, had already been coming in for five a days a week, one of the people said.

A spokesperson for Barclays said: “At Barclays, we recognise the benefits of balancing flexibility for colleagues with the importance of working together to collaborate in our physical locations. Our minimum time in office requirements vary between business areas depending on the nature of work and needs of the business.”

The move by Barclays comes after JPMorgan told staff earlier this year that they would be required to return to the office five days a week starting in March.

European banks have generally been more relaxed about hybrid working than their US peers but they have in recent months been rethinking their policies. Wall Street chief executives have been among the most critical of staff working outside the office, with Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon once calling working from home “an aberration” and JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon describing himself as a “sceptic”.

Lloyds Banking Group said earlier this year that it would take into account the office attendance of senior executives when awarding their bonuses as it sought to encourage them to set an example for junior staff.

British advertising group WPP also told its more than 100,000-person workforce this month that they will need to return to work in an office at least four days a week. Other UK companies that are tightening rules around working from home include PwC, Santander and Asda.