The sneaky ways shirkers are avoiding the return to the office

As the tide continues to turn against remote and hybrid working, employees are resorting to increasingly crafty ways to eschew the return to the office-based nine to five.

Since the mandated times of working from home during the pandemic, many of Britain’s workers discovered the ease with which they could carry out their jobs remotely – all while putting a wash on.

For a time, employers were similarly happy with the arrangement, but home and hybrid working has since become the scapegoat for issues over falling productivity. The solution? Forcing workers back to their desks.

Almost two thirds of HR leaders say there is an increase in expectations for employees to return to the office, according to data from research firm Gartner.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s 2025 Labour Market Outlook survey found that 30pc of large private sector employers are planning to mandate more days in the office, with 17pc of employers in the public sector doing the same.

Elsewhere, 2024 LinkedIn data shows that fully remote jobs advertised by the biggest corporations had fallen 6pc year on year.

Indeed, top corporate bosses have made headlines with their increasingly strict approach to office work.

Last year, Boots executives demanded a return to full-time office work, JP Morgan has demanded that all workers return five days a week (with no managerial discretion on how this works), while Amazon has announced plans to stagger a return to full-time office work.

It’s not an easy sell. Many employees have based their lives around the assumption that their hybrid working patterns would remain.

The number of “supercommuters” with journeys of 90 minutes or more is on the rise, according to figures from People Management, with almost half of these having moved away from their offices since the pandemic.

Families have organised childcare on the basis of one or both parents being around a certain number of weekdays, and even fine-tuned their budgets that will struggle to stretch to fund more commutes.

Such are people’s attachment to flexible working that a third of young workers have said they either plan to disregard requests to return to the office, or will seek a new job if they’re forced back, according to a study from TopCV. Others are turning to methods they hope will remain below their management’s radar.

‘Sometimes I just can’t be bothered to come in’

For one, Amazon’s latest approach to managing office attendance – giving managers data on days employees attended the office but not for how long they did attend – is ripe for such disregard.

With managers not knowing how long employees have spent in the office, the retailer could see “coffee badging” – where employees show face briefly (enough time to get a hot drink) before heading home.

As Gary Cookson, the founder of Epic HR consultancy, explains, such an approach is fairly common. He says some employees are currently sidestepping in-office policies with digital attendance systems that can be gamed by swiping in, but then leaving immediately, with some even connecting to the office WiFi – to suggest they have “been in the building” – from the car park before driving off.

In his view, there’s “barely any enforcement” of hybrid attendance, perhaps because managers are not keen to crack down or, in some cases, because staff are utilising other HR policies to side-step office policies. The pattern, where employees engineer their own unofficial working pattern is often referred to as “hushed hybrid”.

“Managers and employees take advantage of other policies that allow for the flexibility that a return-to-office mandate takes away,” Cookson says, adding that many businesses changing from more flexible work structures to mandated stricter patterns are hardly likely to create “happy, engaged” people.

Paul works at a major publishing business that mandates two or three days a week in the office. But he argues that with flexible start and finish times, to allow employees to beat rush hour, as well as inconsistent management of hybrid mandates across departments, bosses struggle to track who’s adhering to the policy.

“Many employees disappear without telling anyone,” he says, attempts to enforce office attendance more strictly. “No one is properly keeping tabs on whether you’re turning up for 30 minutes, a full day, or your contractually obliged number of days in office,” he says.

He adds despite pressure from HR leadership and top bosses, nothing much is changing – and he’s concerned other work perks could be at risk if his colleagues continue to flout the rules.

“With more focus on being in for the contractually obliged number of office days from the top bosses, some [who don’t come in] could ruin the balance for all of us.”

Like Paul, Sarah’s financial services employer has mandated a specific number of days in office, but managerial ambivalence to the policy – as well as the ability to game the appearance of whole day attendance system by signing in through a hotdesk sign-in app – means it isn’t strictly enforced.

“Managers who have kids or high workloads can’t be bothered checking on your office attendance,” she says, adding that kids are often the perfect get-out-of-office excuse. “90pc of the time, saying my kids have a club or I need to do the school run is honest, but sometimes I just can’t be bothered to come in – kids are the perfect excuse.”

Similarly, others are using home-centred excuses to play hooky from the office. Danielle works for an education provision business and says she’s made up fictitious medical, delivery and at-home repair appointments to work from home.

“I say appointments are at awkward times of the day, or I’m waiting for someone to turn up and fix the boiler, or I fake an illness so I can leave the office halfway through the day and then work from home,” she says. “A big delivery is also a great excuse, as is saying I have big project work and I need quiet,” she says.

While Tim, who works for a university, says he won’t make up reasons for not coming in, he will exaggerate real events to take work-life balance back into his own hands.

“Is the boiler broken? I need some days at home to sort it out. Kid sick? I need to work from home to look after them. Employees need to get the most out of every illness and inconvenience,” he argues. “You’re not asking your employer, you’re telling, and as most companies will have policies around illness and emergencies you’re using their HR policies against them.”

In Tim’s view, this doesn’t have a downside to the company.

“If your workload is complete each week then it doesn’t matter,” he says.

How to discourage wayward workers

The clash between enforcing new working patterns and ensuring employees’ rights are kept in tact leaves HR departments in a tricky situation.

Idris Arshad, head of people at Asthma + Lung UK, understands that working structures have caused heated debates for three years, with the argument currently being won by proponents of returning to the office.

The key, he says, is making sure companies have good reasons behind these changes – and that they’re properly explained to all employees.

“But organisations have got to say why they’re [heading back to the office], why it adds value,” Arshad says, adding that any shift should give employees time to adapt, as well as “strong reasoning so employees don’t try to flout the rules”.

Arshad continues that if reasons for any change are administered and communicated effectively then the onus is on the employee to decide if they want to adhere to the new rules, or move elsewhere.

He says: “You can try your luck at evading it, or find another employer that meets your needs.”

Arshad adds that employers should understand how those who rally against in-office or hybrid mandates might rupture a sense of fairness within the business.

“There’s a sense of injustice for those following the rules if others are perceived to have the choice about their working arrangements.”

Elsewhere, Amanda Trewhella, employment director at law firm Freeths, adds that employers who don’t enforce their own rules are only going to cause more problems in the future.

“If a company has a policy with a minimum number of days but then doesn’t check whether it is being complied with, it makes it difficult for them later down the line to start being stricter,” she says, adding that, despite this issue, employers could have recourse to disciplinary action if an employee refuses contracted working patterns.

Indeed, a recent Tribunal case saw a loss whereby a flexible working request to work fully remotely was rejected by an employment judge.

Financial Conduct Authority manager, Miss Wilson, requested to work away from the office full-time, but a judge concluded that her employer was right to identify weaknesses with remote working – despite Wilson saying her performance was unaffected.

Some employees might agree with the judge. As Paul says: “I signed a contract saying I would be in at least 40pc of the time …it’s not that difficult.”

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