Good morning—Orianna Rosa Royle in London here, standing in for Peter.
The office is a “much more fun and inspiring place” with everyone in attendance, Boots’ CEO Sebastian James told his workforce last week as he demanded they return to the old ways of working starting in September; they’ll be required to work five days a week at an office desk, up from the current three.
At the same time, the British retail chain boasted that it was celebrating “everyday extraordinary team members” for International Women’s Day.
Reams of research tell us that the two initiatives are at odds with one another. A fifth of women say that flexibility has helped them keep their roles or avoid reducing their hours, according to an analysis by McKinsey. King’s College London similarly found that mothers who work flexibly report greater career progression than those who do not.
Women’s caregiving duties and the extraordinary cost of childcare combined with the nagging gender pay gap all factor into women’s desire for more flexible work. (Male Boots employees earn an hourly pay that’s 18.2% higher than women’s on average, according to its Gender Pay Gap report.)
About a quarter of a million mothers in Britain have left their jobs in recent years because of the difficulty of juggling a career and childcare, according to the Fawcett Society. Meanwhile, over 40% of the mothers surveyed had turned down a promotion or career development opportunity because they worried it would not fit with childcare arrangements.
It’s why Boots may lose many of the “extraordinary” employees it sought to celebrate on IWD as a result of its toughened return-to-work stance.
In fact, there are reportedly signs that that’s already happening. Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO of the flexible working platform Flexa, posted on LinkedIn that thousands of Boots workers had identified themselves as #opentowork on the networking site since the company’s return-to-office announcement. (LinkedIn declined to comment.)
“We really value the team spirit that comes with being together in person,” a Boots spokesperson told Fortune. “There will of course still be times when working from home is necessary for either personal or business reasons.”
While many businesses have been encouraging workers back to their desks, hybrid working is still popular. Around half of job ads on LinkedIn in the U.K. are listed as hybrid, a figure that’s increased every month. As a result, women in the U.K. are putting in more time at work than ever.
If James is really seeking an “inspiring” workplace—not to mention a productive one—he may want to reconsider the toll the new return-to-office policy will have on Boots’ majority female workforce.
More news below.
Orianna Rosa Royle
@oriannarosa
orianna.royle@fortune.com
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This edition of CEO Weekly Europe was curated by Aslesha Mehta.
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