Swiss banking giant UBS has resisted following remote working hawks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, who’ve mandated a full return to office. It has, however, taken a leaf out of another rival’s approach.
In an internal memo circulated on Thursday, first reported by Finews, UBS told staff they would be required to work from the office at least three days a week. In addition, the bank told its 115,000 employees that they would no longer be able to work from home on a Friday followed by a consecutive Monday.
“Our working approach is office-centric with flexibility, and we ask our employees to be in the office at least three days a week. Spending enough time in the office with colleagues fosters innovation, collaboration, and team productivity,” a UBS spokesperson told Fortune.
The approach is similar to that of Deutsche Bank last year, which, in calling staff back to the office, drew a new line in the sand by banning remote Fridays and Mondays.
Many workers operating under a hybrid model opt to come into the office between Tuesday and Thursday, working their Mondays and Fridays remotely. Fridays in particular have proved popular among both bosses and employees as the remote day of choice.
The hawkish voices in the remote vs. in-office debate argue this trend has created a habit of lower productivity around the weekend as employees slow down into Saturday or ramp up more slowly to a Tuesday. Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe ordered his staff back to the office full-time in May last year when he realized email activity plunged on a Friday when most employees were remote.
One problem companies like UBS are more publicly happy to address is space. Many firms vacated office space during COVID-19 in order to cut costs when remote work looked like a permanent solution.
UBS is no different. In London, the company has consolidated staff at its Broadgate HQ, where it sublet space during the height of remote working, after it also chose not to renew its lease at 1 Golden Lane. During that time, the company also integrated employees from the newly acquired Credit Suisse into its offices, putting a further crunch on space. A move to choose between a Monday and Friday should regulate attendance through the week.
Companies have also been left frustrated by thousands of square meters of office space going unused on the more unpopular Mondays and Fridays.
UBS’s move to balance out office working across the week is understood to be a move to better manage its office space. Deutsche Bank gave the same reasoning last year, with CEO Christian Sewing saying the motivation was to “spread our presence more evenly across the week.”
The latest policy introduced by UBS remains much more liberal than the group’s competitors in the banking sector, most notably JPMorgan. The group mandated a full RTO mandate that began in March. Already, though, staff have complained about inadequate space, poor Wi-Fi, and unwell co-workers.
