More Americans are back in the office Monday through Friday, according to a new indicator
- In-office attendance is slowly creeping back toward pre-pandemic levels.
- That's according to new data from Bevi, the maker of smart water coolers that many offices use.
Employees are slowly but surely returning to the office, new data indicates.
A report published Thursday by Bevi, the maker of smart water coolers found in many offices in the United States, finds an uptick in office attendance on every day of the week.
"In 2023 we had assumed we were finally near an equilibrium in hybrid work, with people coming to the office ~2.7 days per week, but in fact, we've seen workplace attendance increase even more in 2024, to an average of over 3.0 days per week (and still climbing)," Bevi cofounder and CEO Sean Grundy wrote in the report.
There are also signs that the 5-day-in-office lifestyle could be making a comeback — albeit gradually.
"Although hybrid work has taken root, in 2024 it is gradually resembling more and more of a 5-day work week, with attendance increasing on Mondays and Fridays relative to 2023 (though still comparatively light on those days relative to 2019)," Grundy added.
The report found increases in office attendance for every day of the work week in the first half of 2024 compared to last year. Fridays remain the least popular, while the middle three days are the most popular.
Bevi's data suggests that Tuesday is the most common day of the week for workers to come in.
Bevi expects office attendance rates to reach 69% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024.
Office attendance was up across four of the five industries Bevi tracked, with "Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation" being the only of the group to hold steady over last year's numbers. The tech industry saw the biggest increase in office attendance in the last year, up 11%.
The company also found the traditional 9-to-5 workday is changing, likely the effect of greater flexibility in how workers organize their schedules owing to remote and hybrid work.
In 2019, before the pandemic spurred remote and later hybrid work on a mass scale, Bevi saw 87% of office attendance occur in the standard 9-to-5 work hours, while 13% registered outside the traditional workday, or sometime between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m.. This year so far, 9-to-5 attendance has dropped to 80%, while off-peak attendance rose to 20%.
Looking at specific cities, Los Angeles is leading the charge in the return to the office, according to Bevi's data. One reason, of course, is California's hybrid work policy requiring state employees to come into the office two days a week at minimum.
Though office attendance is increasing, we may still be a ways from a full return to 5 days in the office. A recent report from UK-based think tank Centre for Cities found that in Paris, the financial center leading the way in RTO, workers are averaging 3.5 days a week in the office.
Some companies, in the meantime, are doubling down on their RTO policies. Dell, for example, told staff earlier this year that workers who choose to stay remote wouldn't be eligible for promotions.
Meanwhile, some workers trying to evade return-to-office mandates are turning to tactics like the "hushed hybrid" work schedule to capitalize on flexibility from middle managers who are willing to quietly let their reports continue working remotely in spite of company-wide directives.