People working from home spend 45 minutes fewer doing their job each day than Brits back in the office, official data suggests
- ONS figures show home workers only spend six-and-a-half hours a day on work
- People not working from home spend seven hours and 15 minutes working a day
- Government is considering giving workers right to work from home forever
People working from home spend 45 minutes fewer on their job each day, official data suggests.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures released today show home workers only spend six-and-a-half hours a day on work.
In comparison, people still commuting into an office or factory spent around seven hours and 15 minutes a day working — including half-an-hour at home.
The data was taken from a survey of thousands of Brits, who were quizzed about how they spent their time over the past year.
It comes after it was revealed that millions of office staff may get a ‘default’ right to work from home under post-pandemic plans from ministers.
The proposals would change the law to make it impossible for employers to insist on staff attending the workplace unless they can show it is essential.
No10 will consult on the plan — part of a drive to promote flexible working — over the summer, ahead of possible legislation later this year.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures released today show home workers only spend six-and-a-half hours a day on work
People working from spent 45 minutes less a day on their job than those who returned to normal working conditions
The ONS data today showed that, overall, the average amount of hours people spent working at home in the UK increased from 55 to 74 minutes a day from March and April last year to March this year.
Retirees, stay-at-home mothers and unemployed people were included in the data.
Brits have been asked to work from home wherever possible since No10 introduced the first lockdown last spring.
Data also showed that vaccinated people spent more time exercising than non-vaccinated people in March this year — 31.6 minutes compared to 28 minutes a day.
Non-vaccinated people spent more time both working from home (103 compared to 50 hours a day) and working not at home (133 compared to 74 hours a day) but this is because they were in younger age groups and therefore included less retirees.
People who had a jab spent significantly more time on socialising and entertainment — 329 compared to 258 hours a day.
And they got marginally more sleep with 541.6 compared to 528.8 hours a day.