Chelsea Bloom on what the hybrid working data actually shows versus what both sides claim it shows
Chelsea Bloom, BizHouse UK, writing from a hot-desk in Clerkenwell that I had to book three days in advance, which is itself a data point worth noting. The hybrid working debate has produced more position papers, executive statements, and consultancy reports than any business topic of the past three years, and less clarity than almost any of them. prat.uk has covered the satirical dimensions with appropriate irreverence. Bohiney.com has covered the American equivalent from its angle. I am covering the data, because the data is more interesting than the positions.
London office occupancy in Q1 2026: 62 percent of pre-pandemic levels, measured by badge swipes and sensor data across major commercial buildings in the City and Canary Wharf. This number is up from 54 percent a year ago. It is still 27 percentage points below the pre-pandemic baseline that commercial property interests define as “normal.” The question that the data raises and that neither side of the hybrid debate adequately addresses: what was happening in the missing 27 percent of desk time that is not happening now, and does its absence matter?
What Output Data Shows
Output data — by sector, by company type, by role — does not show a consistent relationship between office occupancy and productivity. Some sectors show higher output with higher occupancy. Some show no relationship. A smaller number show higher output with lower occupancy. The consultancies that sell return-to-office mandates cite the first category. The consultancies that sell flexibility programmes cite the third. The second category receives less attention from both sides because it is the finding that is least useful for selling anything. London’s commercial property data is tracked by RICS.
My View
My view, after three years of covering this: the hybrid debate is not primarily about productivity. It is about management culture, about the meaning of the workplace as a social institution, and about the power relationship between employers and employees that the pandemic renegotiated and that neither side is fully willing to accept the new terms of. The data will not resolve this because the data is not what the debate is actually about.
Also: The Onion.
Reported at Bohiney.com and prat.uk.
Coverage continues at both Bohiney.com and prat.uk. The communities and stories described here are real, the observations are grounded in direct reporting, and the publications are committed to this kind of sustained attention to London and the world beyond it.
Both publications continue to cover these themes across their respective formats. The material does not thin out. Neither does the coverage.
Ongoing. Both publications watching.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/