Thank goodness, it’s…

The pandemic touched our lives in many different ways, but one of its most enduring legacies has been the rise of the TWaTs – staff who only come into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Lockdowns gave rise to new demands for flexible working arrangements, in particular office attendance on those days in the middle of the week, while Monday and Friday were spent in the comfort of home.

These shifts in working culture, however, have had a far broader impact on society as a whole, effectively paving the way for an unofficial four-day week in which Fridays have increasingly become optional.

ABSENTEEISM ON THE RISE Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, has now raised the alarm over the situation, saying parents intent on working from home had fuelled an “unacceptable” rise in pupils skipping school on Fridays.

Since the start of 2024, the average number of students out of school without good reason has jumped by 21 per cent on Fridays compared with midweek. This equates to an additional 55,000 students absent from classrooms across England.

Including authorised absence, around one in 12 students are now out of school on any given Friday. It was one in 20 before the pandemic.

Ms Keegan is not the first person to express concern over the trend.

Last March, Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, highlighted that working patterns were playing a role in children’s absence, driven by “different attitudes” to schooling in the post-Covid world.

“Parents are at home on Fridays… We’ve had evidence from kids [who say]: ‘Well, Mum and Dad are at home – [so I] stay at home,” she told a parliamentary committee.

AND PEOPLE ARE CERTAINLY STAYING AT HOME MORE

One YouGov survey suggested that as many as 50 per cent of all workers spent at least some time away from the office, including 17 per cent who worked from home permanently.

OFFICE OCCUPANCY FALLS

Data, collated by management consultancy firm Remit Consulting, show just how skewed work-fromhome days are towards Mondays and Fridays.

In the week ending May 3, there was a 25 per cent lower occupancy rate in offices across the UK on Mondays than on Tuesdays. Attendance on Fridays was even lower, plummeting by 50 per cent in comparison.

In total, Remit Consulting estimated occupancy to be about 18 per cent on Fridays; by comparison, the rate hovered between 60 to 80 per cent pre-pandemic, with holidays, illness or external meetings affecting in-person attendance.

This work-from-home trend benefits the wealthy. Professionals were 18 times more likely to be at home or elsewhere than elementary workers, according to an Office for National Statistics survey conducted at the start of last year.

FEWER JOURNEYS

The figures are made even starker by the notable drop-off in Tube

Shifts in office culture during lockdown have led to a ‘stealth’ four-day week.

Ben Butcher reports