2023-09-06 17:19:27
In the banking world in the UK, there is increasing pressure on employees to work more in the office and less in the home office. During the Corona period, working in your own four walls had almost become the norm for many. Now Lloyds Banking Group has instructed its employees to be at the company’s offices at least two days a week.
Lloyds CEO Charlie Nunn justified this with competitive pressure and higher productivity. You can only be competitive “if we work together effectively”. But that doesn’t work if people from the teams are constantly missing or important contacts aren’t available, according to the head of the major bank, which employs around 58,000 people. In future, the norm will also be checked at least two days a week in the office.
Colleagues who are often absent are threatened with sanctions
The major American bank Citigroup has also instructed its employees in Great Britain to appear in the office at least three days a week. The bank, which employs more than 12,000 people in London, Edinburgh and Belfast, wants to review this in the future. “Swipe (card) once per person per day per location,” reads an internal memo. Employees who fail to show up frequently face disciplinary proceedings. Indirectly, Citi even threatened to remove bonus payments.
The new office requirement is unpopular among many employees, who prefer to work from home. At Lloyds Banking Group, the Unite union collected several thousand signatures against the new regulation. In order to make the trip to the office more palatable for bankers, the bank wants to offer them more comfort. Among other things, there should be free food.
Still, the staff grumbles. Human Resources Director Sharon Doherty emphasized that Lloyds allows a great deal of flexibility. Lloyd’s main retail banking competitor, the Natwest Group, still allows some of its employees to show up in the office only twice a month.
American banks are putting particular pressure on
In many banks, however, the screws are being pulled. HSBC, for example, is requiring its 18,500 British employees to be present in bank offices or with customers at least three days a week from October. A little over half of the week office duty has leveled off in the Canary Wharf financial district as an average. The last state corona restrictions fell in England eighteen months ago.
Some American banks are putting particular pressure on. The head of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, basically described home office as a mistake and an “aberration”. The Wall Street bank recently reminded all employees of the five-day attendance requirement. JP Morgan has advised senior bankers on full office attendance. The asset management giant Blackrock reduced the allowed home office from two to one day a week.
Patricia Andreae Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 5 Nadine Bös and Benjamin Fischer Published/Updated: , A comment by Mark Fehr Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 26
In London, the head of the insurance exchange Lloyd’s of London has appealed to employees to return to the office on Monday. You have to get away from “Tue-Mi-Thu” work. In the British banking metropolis, the free business newspaper “City AM” coined the term “TWaT” (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) for this. The term has vulgar meanings. The most harmless is stupid. “Don’t be a TWaT!” is now the motto in the financial world.
The bank employees in London are reluctant to return to the office regularly, above all because of the often very long commute times to the city. Some employers try to attract employees with flexible working models.
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