Around four in five civil servants believe the 60% in-office mandate has been a failure, according to a survey by the FDA union.
The union, which represents mid- and senior-level civil servants, has published a new report – The future of office work in the civil service – which is informed by its recent survey filled in by more than 7,000 members, half of whom are line managers.
The FDA said the 7,275 responses received was the highest number of any survey in the union's history, demonstrating the strong opinion about hybrid working among civil servants.
The survey found that civil servants do not oppose working in an office when it is purposeful: 69% of respondents indicated a belief that in-person working can bolster better relationship building and networking, and 59% agreed that it can help create a stronger sense of community and belonging.
But, among the 5,121 respondents who said their organisation had implemented the rule, 78% told the survey that the in-office mandate, introduced under the Rishi Sunak government in 2023, and continued under Keir Starmer’s administration, “overall has not been beneficial”. The union said this was consistent among workers across all grades.
Meanwhile, just 11% said the mandate had increased their productivity and 61% said it had made it worse.
The results also suggest that the rule has disproportionately affected disabled officials: 32% of disabled respondents said the mandate has "significantly worsened" their productivity, compared to 18% of non-disabled respondents.
The Cabinet Office has cited improved collaboration as one of the benefits of the 60% rule. However, 61% of respondents working under the mandate said they believe it has had no impact on their level of team collaboration, while only 24% felt it had “somewhat or significantly” improved their team collaboration.
The government has also spoken of the value of in-office working in enabling senior staff to mentor younger workers. However, 72% of the 3,600 line managers who responded to the survey said they don’t believe that greater office attendance enhances their management responsibility and many expressed worries about being perceived as micromanaging.
In light of the findings, the FDA has called for a comprehensive review of the 60% mandate. The union said this should be carried out “with a view to creating a more flexible approach which takes into account whether a piece of work can be best completed in person or remotely, rather than a blanket mandate”.
As part of the review, it said the government should promote “purposeful office use”, with a view to ending the “culture of presenteeism” and ensuring that when employees are in the office, it is for activities improved by in-person presence. The survey found that only 37% of respondents to the survey felt their office work is “sometimes” purposeful, while 27% said it is “rarely” purposeful.
The union said it also wants the government to introduce an equality impact assessment for under-represented civil servants. “It is imperative that all civil servants can fulfil their potential and this requires a flexible approach, not a top-down mandate,” the FDA said.
The report also warns that significant office improvements are needed to support modern ways of working. Some 47% of respondents told the survey their office environment was not conducive to collaboration and innovation. And 69% said designing quiet zones for focused individual work would improve office working.
The FDA said each department should carry out building assessments to identify which specific improvements are needed, including fully understanding the constraints of desk availability facing employees and creating more quiet rooms and meeting spaces where possible.
The report also broaches the potential for AI to support more purposeful working by enabling civil servants to focus on more strategic, in-person activities that benefit from face-to-face interaction. Some 72% of survey respondents said they had had no interaction with AI tools in the workplace.
FDA general secretary Dave Penman said the report "demonstrates that civil servants do not oppose office work – they oppose top-down blanket mandates applied to over 500,000 staff in 200 different organisations that only deliver a culture of presenteeism".
“Civil servants want effective hybrid working arrangements where the focus is on what they do, not where they do it," he added. "They do not want a policy that’s been determined by tabloid headlines."
He said the survey "should be a starting point for a meaningful, evidence-based dialogue which looks to the future of the civil service, instead of clinging to the past" and called for "serious strategic thinking" on how to best to utilise the workplace.
A government spokesperson said: “Our entire focus is on delivering our Plan for Change and supporting civil servants with the necessary tools and space they need to deliver on working people’s priorities.
"To get the full benefit of collaborative face-to-face working, most civil servants are expected to spend at least 60% of their working time at a government building or on official business."