Our Commercial Property Partner, Louise Norris and Employment Partner, Ben Doherty have observed the start of a possible trend of workers reducing homeworking, and returning to the office, due to the cost implications of staying at home.
Both agree that they have seen a shift and believe that the combination of heating the home (usually through gas) and increased electricity usage, from the laptop or kettle to that extra load of washing, is pushing people back towards an office base.
They feel smart meters are playing an important role in allowing workers across Scotland to perform a precise calculation to inform where they should base themselves.
Louise said, “There are clear signs in our client base and throughout the market that offices are filling up again.
“We will not be able to perform a full analysis on this until after the winter, but the widespread conversations we have across the sector make it clear that the biggest change to the post-Covid hybrid working assumption is being driven by the cost of staying at home.
“We may see, for some at least, coming full circle from office, to home, to hybrid, to office.”
Ben added, “There is a potential win-win here for employers and employees.
“Although it varies from industry to industry, there is no doubt that, while respecting hybrid working and seeing its upsides, in general employers want their people at the office as much as possible.
“If that allows employees to save some money at the same time, then that’s a good result all round.”
Read the full article which was published on the front page of The Herald Business HQ on Saturday 12 November 2022 here: Soaring bills forcing people back to office | HeraldScotland
This article also featured in The Scotsman online on Monday 21 November 2022 here: Could rising bills reverse the exodus from the office? - Ben Doherty & Louise Norris | The Scotsman
