Working from home ‘trending upwards' despite moves to bring workers back to the office

Irish Times

6 days ago

When
Allied Irish Banks tightened its working from home (WFH) rules
in July, it became the latest big company to demand staff spend more time in the office.
The bank's move seemed to confirm suspicions that large employers are gradually rolling back the WFH regimes they introduced at the height of the Covid pandemic.
But new research on technology use in Ireland suggests otherwise, with WFH 'trending upward' in the national survey and increasing numbers of staff living outside Dublin showing higher WFH rates.
'Working from home isn't going anywhere, regardless of the return to office narrative,' says
Ipsos B&A
in its annual Techscape survey.
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Working from home requires technology, but the survey also examined the use of products such as smartphones and found scepticism about
artificial intelligence
(AI) technology.
'We are living in a period where digital technology has ascended to the same level of necessity as electricity, acting as the very current that energises our modern existence,' said Luke Reaper, Ipsos B&A chief executive.
Despite some big Irish employers moving to bring more staff back to the office full-time, the survey suggests remote and hybrid working are well entrenched and, in some instances, still growing – at least for now.
A growing number of respondents said they WFH in some capacity every week, indicating that employees value the improvements in work-life balance and reduced commuting that flexible working can bring.
WFM introduced radical change in the way legions of workers earn their living. No matter what employers think, workers seem to like it that way.
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The Ipsos B&A TechScape 2025 study found that more than a quarter of all respondents were WFH for two or more days per week, an 8 per cent increase since 2024.
Of the respondents who work, 53 per cent WFH sometimes and 46 per cent said they WFH for two or more days a week.
However, that may yet change. AIB's recent move to restrict WFH and flexible work practices changes rules in force since 2022. Although bank branch staff were required to be in the workplace five days a week, the previous requirement on other staff was to attend the office on at least two days.
Last month, however, AIB told staff eligible for hybrid working they must return to offices three days a week. The plan will be phased in, with full implementation from 2026.
That change made AIB's WFH rules the tightest among Irish banks. By contrast, Bank of Ireland requires staff to attend the office for a minimum of eight days a month.
But other big employers have taken a tougher line.
Amazon
, which has more than 6,000 workers in Ireland, broke ranks with Big Tech companies last year by declaring all staff would be
required to work from
corporate offices five days a week
.
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The Ipsos B&A survey identifies WFH as a mostly middle-class phenomenon.
Among respondents with an ABC1 socio-economic background, 44 per cent reported some WFH; 39 per cent said they did so on two or more days per week. In the C2DE socio-economic group, 17 per cent reported some WFH and 15 per cent reported home working for two or more days per week.
WFH was previously Dublin-centric. However, that now appears to be changing, with Ipsos B&A finding marginally 'higher rates of more frequent work from home' in other urban areas.
About 27 per cent of Dublin respondents reported WFH for two or more days per week. In other urban areas, the comparable figure was 28 per cent. WFH for two or more days per week was lowest in rural areas, where it was cited by 24 per cent of respondents.
Looking beyond the location of where people do their work, the survey found simpler, more basic technology such as 'feature' phones and old-style record players have declined in popularity.
Only 11 per cent said they owned the latter, while 17 per cent of those surveyed said they used a basic mobile phone, down from 21 per cent in 2024. Sixty per cent of those using the phones were part of the so-called Silent Generation – those over 80 years of age. Previously, younger users were abandoning smartphones and constant notifications in favour of simpler devices.
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Meanwhile, the smartphone market appears to have reached saturation point with usage remaining steady at 93 per cent of respondents.
Nine out of 10 people go online at least once a day, with those in Dublin showing the highest usage.
The geographical divide in tech adoption that was evident in previous surveys has also largely been eroded, with the average number of devices in homes both in Dublin and around the country standing at nine apiece. The socio-economic and generational divides remain, with younger users more likely to use wearable technology and smartphones.
Meanwhile, the Silent Generation are also increasing their digital activity, embracing online shopping and keeping up with celebrities and influencers. This comes despite previous surveys highlighting a growing dissatisfaction with the impact of technology on life.
'Despite the historic rapidity of hardware innovations that visibly transformed our lives annually, this era seems to be transitioning into maturity,' said Reaper.
The survey found 58 per cent of those aged 65 and over go online more than once a day. But this age group also shows less enthusiasm for acquiring new gadgets. Six per cent of respondents never go online, a figure that held steady from last year.
AI has been dominating the headlines, but the real-world implications are much less pronounced – for the moment at least.
The survey highlighted a high level of apprehension around the new technology, with only 22 per cent of respondents saying they used tools such as ChatGPT. That figure is significantly lower than the global level. Irish people are also lagging in their understanding of AI, with 28 per cent saying they do not have a good understanding of the technology.
'AI is still in its nascent stages,' said Reaper. 'We are more concerned about the impact of AI, continue to have more faith in humans to be less discriminatory than AI, and have a lower than average ability to see the potential benefits of AI.'
More than three-quarters of respondents said AI must be regulated, while two-thirds said they were wary of ChatGPT's impact on students.
The survey was carried out in June among a representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 16 and older at 63 sampling locations around the State.