Remote and flexible working is probably here to stay, but further changes to employee arrangements may come in 2026. Photograph: Getty Images
Remote working and its cousin, flexible working, look like they are here to stay, despite the criticism of some senior business figures such as Denis O’Brien.
The most recent Central Statistics Office figures show that almost 36 per cent of people worked at home at least some of the time around the middle of this year. This was up from 20 per cent in the same period in 2019, before the pandemic hit and upended working arrangements.
The proportion of people working from home has stayed relatively steady since 2022, when some normality returned after the pandemic. There has, however, been a bit of a fall in the numbers working from home “most of the time” in favour of those working there “some of the time”.
For some, in other words, three days a week working from home has turned into two. The 2025 survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) shows that around 15 per cent of employers intended to increase the amount of time employees should work in the office this year.
There is also a trend, the survey shows, towards greater central control in organisations of remote working policies, rather than leaving it to
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