‘Back to office’: Firm’s big crackdown on working from home

One of the world’s biggest professional services firms has announced it will start cracking down on workers not attending the office.

One of the biggest professional services firms is cracking down on workers shirking the office — and it has come up with a unique way of doing so.

PwC UK has ordered its workers to come into the office at least three days a week, or 60 per cent of their time.

That’s up from the two days a week that staff were previously expected to spend in the office or with clients.

PwC UK told its workers they are expected to attend the office three days a week. Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images

It’s part of a shift from hybrid working towards a more “in-person work”, according to a press release issued by Laura Hinton, Managing Partner at PwC UK.

Three days a week is standard at many firms across the Western world, including in the UK and Australia.

But it is how PwC will police the new policy that has raised eyebrows.

According to an internal memo, the firm will actively track location data to keep tabs on its workers.

“... we will start sharing your individual working location data with you on a monthly basis from January as we do with other data such as chargeable hours. This will help to ensure that the new policy is being fairly and consistently applied across our business,” the firm told workers, according to CNN.

That data will also be shared with career coaches at PwC.

Workers who don’t follow the new policy will be asked to provide an explanation, and then potentially disciplined.

PwC UK employs about 26,000 people.

The 'Big Four' accounting firms, which are Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young (EY) and KPMG audit the large majority of the UK's largest listed companies. Picture: Getty Images

Ms Hinton said: “Face-to-face working is hugely important to a people business like ours, and the new policy tips the balance of our working week into being located alongside clients and colleagues. This feels right for our business and right for our people, given our focus on client service, coaching, and learning and development. At the same time, we continue to offer flexibility through hybrid working.

“PwC people have been notified today about the new policy, which takes effect from January to give people time to plan for these arrangements.”

Businesses have been struggling to find the best work-from-home policies to keep their workers happy while maintaining productivity after millions of people were forced out of the office during the Covid-19 pandemic, changing the remote work paradigm.

Some bosses suspect workers slack off while working from home and recent headlines haven’t helped.

In July a major American bank sacked employees, accusing them of simulating “keyboard activity” to create the impression they were actively working.

EY, another of the so-called “Big Four” professional services firms, started monitoring how often its staff attend the office by reviewing swipe-card data earlier this year.

PwC Australia, which is separate to PwC UK, has been under a cloud since 2022 when it was alleged that it used confidential information to market tax avoidance strategies to firms around the world, “putting at risk $180 million per year of tax to be paid in Australia”.

The Senate’s Finance and Public Administration References Committee wrote in a report last year that “PwC engaged in a deliberate strategy over many years to cover up the breach of confidentiality and the plan by PwC personnel to monetise it.”