Time for Young Professionals to Reclaim the Office Experience

Lord Alan Sugar has emerged as the most recent prominent business figure to criticize remote working, asserting that young individuals “simply want to remain at home” and must return their “rear ends back into the office.”

In an interview with the BBC, the 77-year-old business magnate and host of The Apprentice remarked that workplace culture has declined since hybrid and flexible arrangements were implemented during the pandemic.

“I am a strong supporter of getting them back into the workplace,” Sugar stated. “The only way an apprentice will gain knowledge is from their peers. It’s the little things, like interactions with your more experienced colleagues, that will instruct you on how to handle various tasks. That is missing in this work-from-home, Zoom era.”

Sugar, whose real estate company Amsprop possesses a substantial portfolio of central London office properties, acknowledged that some positions could be exceptions. “Software developers who rise at three in the morning with some sort of inspiration,” he noted, might be more productive at home, along with individuals with disabilities.

His remarks come as the conversation surrounding the future of work continues to split corporate Britain. Official statistics from the Office for National Statistics indicate that as of October, 28 percent of the workforce is hybrid – dividing their time between home and the office. An additional 44 percent travel daily, while 13 percent operate fully remotely. Numerous participants in the ONS survey indicated that hybrid work enhanced their rest, exercise, and overall wellbeing.

The Labour government is gearing up to enact legislation making hybrid working a right for employees unless their employer can prove it is unreasonable. The Employment Rights Bill aims to widen flexible working opportunities across the sector, although many of Britain’s largest corporations are already heading in the opposite direction. Amazon, JP Morgan, and others have mandated that employees return to the office full-time, contending that in-person interactions enhance collaboration and efficiency.

Property owners have cautioned that the hybrid trend has rendered commercial properties more challenging to lease and less profitable. Sugar’s statements emphasize the worries of those invested in Britain’s office market.

His comments follow those of fellow business veteran Lord Stuart Rose, the former chairman of Marks & Spencer and Asda, who earlier this year proclaimed that working from home is not “genuine work” and has set the nation back “20 years” in productivity and wellbeing.

For Sugar, the issue is most pressing for younger employees and apprentices, who he asserts risk forgoing informal learning opportunities. “They’ve got to get their rear ends back into the office,” he reiterated, warning that Britain’s work culture could be at risk of enduring transformation if remote working becomes the standard.