Why do conservatives dislike remote working?

Flexible working has helped women progress in the workplace. Since 2019, the share of women working fulltime in the insurance and finance sectors in the UK rose from 75% to 83%. The rate for mothers in finance rose more than ten percentage points. Overall the share of mothers in work reached a record 79% in 2023.

Now bosses want their staff back in the office, with half of companies requiring their staff to attend at least four days a week. Many women have chosen not to. The employment rate for women with dependent children has fallen from its peak, while that for men has remained steady. By the end of 2023, the difficulty of balancing work and childcare had pushed an estimated 250,000 women out of the workforce, with a worrying spike among the 35-44 year age group in many critical sectors.

Is this why conservatives are really pushing for a return to the office?

Source: The Economist, 13 March 2025.

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ninalanyon · 61-69, T

This happens partly because money is not the only thing that motivates managers. I don't know if it's true but it looks as though many in the US and UK get their biggest kicks from being in charge, being able to tell other people what to do and having a higher status because of that regardless of what effects it might have on the bottom line.

Such people exist here too but they are usually quickly taken down a peg or two because society here disapproves strongly of anyone setting themselves above others.

Remote working is a mostly a non-issue here except that production and shop workers can't do it. Salaried employees are paid for the work they do not for where they do it. Here in Norway people in positions that didn't need them to be in the office full time worked at home at least some of the time long before it was fashionable and long, long, before COVID made it necessary.

If I just didn't feel like going in to the office I could send an email to everyone who might need to know and that was that. My boss would occasionally rent a cabin for a week in the mountains so that he could do some cross country skiing but he put a full week's work in too. He was just as available there as he would have been in the office via email, phone, video call, etc.

All of which is a long winded way of say: yes sexism is quite likely a major factor.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ninalanyon I agree. I actually think it is a protest by a layer of middle management who have suddenly perceived that their positions may soon be redundant . .

It's not so bad here as it is portrayed. It's mostly just a few high profile CEOs spouting off their own opinions and the rest nodding along. But mostly we come to a reasonable compromise and I am confident that the workplace will evolve eventually for the better.

Some bright spark in my organisation signed a 10 year full repairing lease on one of the most expensive (and least accessible) office buildings in the centre of Bristol . . commencing July 2020

Much of the impetus to return to the office seems to be a tactful gesture to gloss over quite an expensive miscalculation.