女性は「キャリアの機会を逃す」リスクがあります’ WFHによる, 女性の上司に警告

Women across Britain could miss out on promotions and opportunities in their companies because they are less likely to want to return to the office after the working from home (WFH) guidance was lifted, experts said today.

Surveys carried out in recent months have found more men than women in ロンドン never want to WFH once the pandemic ends, while only one in ten women across the UK who are WFH plan to return to the office.

And today one of Britain’s top female bosses, Aviva chief executive Amanda Blanc, said she feared that if women continue to stay at home it would mean they are ‘not around when some of the conversations are being had’.

Ms Blanc, who is the Government’s Women in Finance champion and was in the top 30 of Forbes’ 100 most powerful women last year, said she wanted to ‘create the right environment for women to flourish’ in the sector.

She added that it was complex for the insurance giant’s 20,000 employees to come back into the office ‘because they’ve got to plan their lives around how they’re going to work, so the changing back and forth makes it difficult’.

Meanwhile psychology expert Sir Cary Cooper told MailOnline that he was concerned that women were less likely than men to go back into the office because being at home made family life and childcare more straightforward.

Working from home guidance was lifted on Wednesday last week having been in place since December 13 last year as part of Boris Johnson’s Plan B measures to help fight the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

It comes as a tax break allowing anyone WFH to claim for extra costs is set to be closed by HM Revenue and Customs after the benefit reportedly cost the Treasury nearly £500million during the pandemic.

HMRC is said to be reviewing the scheme, which allows anyone who has worked just one day at home in a year to claim an annual sum of up to £125. いくつか 4.9million successful claims have been made since March 2020.

Talking about how women are being impacted differently by being brought back into the office, Ms Blanc told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme 今朝: ‘I do think that we need to think about what happens.

‘Because if what you see is that all the men come back into the office and the women don’t, then obviously the women are not around when some of the conversations are being had and they could miss out on opportunities and so that’s what I’m calling out, 本当に, that I don’t want to happen.

‘We know that the progression of women in the financial services is just simply not good enough. We’re not moving women into more senior roles quickly enough – and I think it’s my role as the Government’s Women in Finance champion but also as a woman leading an organisation to make sure that we create the right environment for women to flourish and for women to be given the same opportunities as men.

‘So we just need to make sure that in the way that we work, we don’t jeopardise women’s opportunities.’

Speaking about the return to work of Aviva employees, 彼女は付け加えた: ‘My view is that we would like people to be in the office around three days a week. There’s going to be big flexibility around that.

‘I’m really keen that we do have some physical presence in the office, even though I think the way that we’ll work in the office will be different to pre-Covid.’

Meanwhile Sir Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Manchester Business School, told MailOnline this morning that women were more likely to work at home because it was ‘easier for them’ if they have children.

彼は言った: ‘Men are more into their careers and getting ahead and play organisational politics more than women.

‘My real worry is that men will go back into the office and women, because they have the primary care responsibility still, won’t go back into the office as much because it’s easier for them, they can do the school run, and that by not going in as often – they will go in two or three days a week in hybrid working, which is what I think will happen with a lot of people, men will go in more than women – and it will disadvantage women because if you’re there, just showing facetime, men are still in the senior roles still, this will disadvantage your career.

‘Unfortunately I think that will happen, unless men during this two-year period have understood the value of children and understood the nature of their role in the family and got some benefit from being with kids – other than home schooling because no one liked that, it’s hard, it’s really hard work and should make us appreciate teachers more – but if men did, and there will be some who did, there would have been some men who were full time in the office but didn’t take up flexible working options, even then it was women who took it and men didn’t.

‘The reason was they thought it would adversely affect their career. Now it won’t but they’re still very ambitious on balance, their identity comes from work, and they understand the significance of organisational politics.

‘I’m just hoping that men learn something during this period of time and develop much more of a role within the family and their kids.’

Asked whether he thought the return to the office would be better for men or women, Sir Cary added: ‘I think it will be more of a boost to men, because showing facetime, being there, has benefits no matter what you do, no matter how productive you are – that’s the irony.

‘The evidence pre-Covid was both men and women wanting more flexible working, but men on balance did not take it anywhere near the rate that women did because women thought they were the primary carers of kids, even though they knew it would damage their career.

‘I personally think what we’re going to see is a return – I think that men will go in much significantly more than women. Maybe men will take a day, maximum two days working from home – and that women will be two or three days at home. That’s what i think will happen, but we don’t know how men have been affected by these two years in terms of their role in the family and their relationships.’

It comes after a YouGov poll found last week that more men than women in London never want to WFH once the pandemic has ended – with the survey also discovering that pre-Covid around half of working men and six in ten working women in in the capital had never WFH.

いくつか 31 per cent of male working men said their preference after the pandemic would be ‘never working from home’, but this dropped to 21 per cent for female workers.

加えて, there has been a rise in the proportion of women who wish to WFH some of the time – から 25 per cent before to 50 per cent wanting to do so in the future. And for those WFH all the time, the figure is up from 12 パーセントから 23 パーセント.

For men, 41 per cent want to WFH some of the time, 日曜日に英国健康安全保障局によって報告された症例率は 31 per cent – and the figure for all the time has gone up from 13 パーセントから 23 パーセント.

The poll, revealed in the イブニングスタンダード 先週, also found that 35 per cent of workers in London were WFH all the time, 27 per cent some of the time and 32 per cent not at all.

And a survey of women home workers for the デイリーテレグラフ last November by FindOutNow found that only one in 10 WFH women plan to return to the office.

The study also found that just 6 per cent thought they were missing out on opportunities because they were not in the office, に比べ 9 男性のパーセント.

One of Britain’s leading female economists Catherine Mann, who is on the Bank of England ‘s Monetary Policy Committee, warned last November that women who continue to WFH risk hurting their careers.

The former Citigroup global chief economist said a hybrid form of working could open ‘two tracks’ and widen the gender gap – and warned that a disparity between the number of men and women returning to the workplace is emerging due to difficulties accessing childcare and disruptions to schooling related to Covid.

This means more men have been returning to offices while women continue working from home or taking a hybrid approach.

She told a Financial News virtual event for women in finance last November: ‘Virtual platforms are way better than they were even five years ago. But the extemporaneous, spontaneity – those are hard to replicate in a virtual setting,’.

Ms Mann added: ‘There is the potential for two tracks. There’s the people who are on the virtual track and people who are on a physical track. I do worry that we will see those two tracks develop, and we will pretty much know who’s going to be on which track, unfortunately.’