More than a third of UK workers ‘would quit if told to return to office full-time’

theguardian.com:

More than a third of UK workers have said they would quit their job if their employer demanded they return to the office full-time, according to research showing how much the world of work has changed since the first Covid lockdown.

Six in 10 employees are considering changing their job this year, according to data gathered by the professional networking site LinkedIn, although one in five of that group said they would remain in their current role if they continued to be able to work remotely, or more flexibly.

Women are particularly keen on more workplace flexibility, and more than half (52%) reported they had left or were considering leaving their job because of a lack of flexibility, according to the research, which combined LinkedIn data with the results of multiple worker surveys.

The responses by workers are seen as further evidence that employers will need to continue to offer flexibility to their workforce in order to recruit and retain staff, especially during a tight labour market.

Thursday next week marks three years since the beginning of the first UK lockdown, which brought with it an immediate move to home working for many previously office-based workers.

The majority of employers adopted a hybrid model, even as Covid rules were eased, with workers splitting their time between their desks and home or another location.

However, the research indicates the share of job postings for remote roles has shrunk for the past 10 months, declining to almost 11% of the UK total – a 30% fall compared with a year earlier.

LinkedIn found that demand for remote roles was outstripping supply in the UK, with remote roles receiving more than a fifth (22%) of job applications in February. Yet almost half (49%) of company leaders in