Over three-quarters of UK civil servants say government’s office attendance mandate has failed
A poll has found that a majority of UK civil servants say the government’s efforts to get them to work in departmental offices three times a week has not been beneficial to their work.
The poll of civil servants by the FDA trade union, which represents professionals and managers in the UK government, found that a majority of respondents (69%) agreed that in-person working can bolster better relationship building and networking, and a majority (59%) also agree that it can help create a stronger sense of community and belonging.
However, a majority (78%) of the more than 7,000 respondents – half of whom were line managers – also say the government’s overall mandate that civil servants spend 60% of their working time in their offices has not been beneficial.
For full-time officials, this ususally means they will be in the office three days a week, but among respondents, only 11% feel the mandate has increased productivity; while 75% say they are spending time in the office on virtual meetings.
Based on the findings, the FDA called for a comprehensive review of the 60% mandate, which was first set out by the Conservative government in January 2024 and continues under the current Labour administration.
This review should be carried out with a view to creating a more flexible approach which takes into account whether a piece of work can be best completed in person or remotely, rather than a blanket mandate, the union said.
It also called for Equality Impact Assessments for under-represented civil servants after 32% of disabled respondents indicate that the mandate has significantly worsened their productivity, compared to 18% of non-disabled respondents. The government was also urged to promote a vision of “purposeful office use”, with a view to ensuring that when employees are in the office, it is for activities improved by in-person presence.
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Civil servants ‘oppose top-down blanket mandates’ to return to office
Launching the report, FDA general secretary Dave Penman said: “This report demonstrates that civil servants do not oppose office work – they oppose top-down blanket mandates applied to over 500,000 staff in 200 different organisations that only deliver a culture of presenteeism.”
“Civil servants want effective hybrid working arrangements where the focus is on what they do, not where they do it. They do not want a policy that’s been determined by tabloid headlines.”
The report also called for departments to undertake building assessments so departments can understand their building capacity, availability of meeting spaces and other equipment needed to support modern ways of working.
“Figuring out how best to utilise the workplace is a challenge facing many organisations. There are no easy answers,” Penman added. “Instead, this will require serious strategic thinking.
“Our survey of over 7,000 civil servants should be a starting point for a meaningful, evidence-based dialogue which looks to the future of the civil service, instead of clinging to the past.”
Read more: UK government issues AI playbook to repair ‘broken public services’
Other governments also introduce in-office mandates
Other governments around the world have also introduced mandates for staff to return to working in the office.
In Canada, a mandate requiring public servants to work in their federal office for a minimum of three days came into effect in September last year, with the aim to “maximise the benefits of on-site presence and bring greater consistency to the application of hybrid work for employees, while maintaining flexibility for employees to work remotely”.
In the United States, the Trump administration has told all heads of government departments and agencies to take “all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis” – albeit with flexibility for department and agency heads to “make exemptions they deem necessary”.
Both these moves have been met with resistance from some civil servants – and the move was highlighted in the email from the US federal government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ‘Fork in the Road’ email that offered civil servants deferred resignation terms if they wanted to leave at the start of the new administration.
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