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Santander famously took a liberal approach to work-from-home compared to its peers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Spanish bank touted its flexible work<\/a> policies while the likes of JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley called their employees back into offices, saying \u201cflexibility is here to stay.\u201d Its U.K. CEO even proclaimed that he took his job because<\/a> it allowed him to live in and commute from Harrogate to the office in Milton Keynes (about 163 miles and three-and-a-half hours of travel) on select days of the week.<\/p>\n But now, Santander is walking its WFH policy back in the U.K. by requiring its staff to be in the office 12 days a month\u2014equivalent to three days a week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The bank sent a memo to roughly 10,000 office-based employees last week, as first reported by The Times<\/em><\/a>, that they had until the end of the year to comply with the new rule. The policy will affect those who work at Santander\u2019s offices, not bank branches\u2014including about 4,500 of those who work in Milton Keynes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Santander currently asks its staff to work two days a week in one of its office locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Spanish-owned bank is the latest in many companies to ramp up their return-to-office calls, although it\u2019s been relatively late joining other banks. In 2021, when concerns around contracting COVID-19 were still fairly high, banks like JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley were among the first ones to call their employees back to the office<\/a> in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Santander, one of Europe\u2019s largest banks, a champion for WFH and flexible work policies, the crackdown feels somewhat ironic. The bank set up its Milton Keynes headquarters in March 2021<\/a>, about a year after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. At the time, it also announced that it was making flexible working arrangements as people had reaped \u201csignificant benefits\u201d from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Santander\u2019s staff clearly didn\u2019t shy away from making the most of its flexibility policies, as its pre-pandemic office occupancy was at 60%\u2014much lower than what central business district offices are seeing<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In May, Mike Regnier, the bank\u2019s U.K. boss, said that he didn\u2019t see daily in-office attendance<\/a> as \u201cvital.\u201d He also emphasized the need for \u201cgood culture in the banking sector.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHad it not been for COVID, I wouldn\u2019t have accepted this job,\u201d he told the Guardian<\/em>. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have wanted to be away from home five days a week in London. That wouldn\u2019t have been good for the family or for me.\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, it still offers flexibility in how staff use their 12 in-office days.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just like other banking majors who called their employees back to work, Santander sees in-office attendance as \u201cvital in supporting and developing our people, especially those at the earlier stages of their career,\u201d according to the memo it sent out.<\/p>\n Representatives at Santander declined Fortune<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n Working from home was the norm a few years ago, but companies in<\/a> tech, accounting and more, have broken out of that bubble to redefine the extent of flexibility they would entertain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week, \u201cBig 4\u201d firm<\/a> PwC said it would track employees to make sure they were in the office or with clients just like it tracks their billable hours. British smartphone company<\/a> Nothing said it wanted its staff to be in the office five days a week after calling remote work incompatible \u201cwith a high ambition level.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As companies try to bring back the old normal, employee pushback on RTO policies has become more rampant. Still, London leads the pack among global financial capitals in the number of employees working remotely<\/a>, with just 62% of them going to the office at least thrice a week.<\/p>\n U.K.-based employees might be entitled to other forms of flexibility beyond remote work. The government is considering granting them the right to work compressed weeks, i.e., squeezing the regular number of hours into four working days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSantander\u2019s WFH policies<\/h2>\n
Is WFH ancient history?<\/h2>\n
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