How has the UK ideal working week changed since 2019?

The working landscape has changed drastically since the UK went into lockdown in March. COVID-19 has impacted broader real estate strategies, as well as the way people work on a day-to-day basis. In this report, we focus on the latter. We asked over 1,000 UK office workers about their current working week, their ideal working week, their flexible working arrangements and what they have missed about their office during lockdown.

In May last year, we published a similar report showing that UK workers spent 38 hours on average in the office. Since then, a lot has changed and this has resulted in shorter working hours. The current working week now is now just 32 hours, 16% fewer than May last year. This differs by office type, with a 30 hour work week typical for those based in serviced offices and a 33 hour work week typical for those based in traditional offices.