Almost three-quarters of UK workers say return-to-office is about visibility, not output

The tenth annual Owl Labs State of Hybrid Work report, published on 23 September 2026, surveyed 8,025 full-time office workers across the UK, US, Germany and France, with a minimum of 2,000 respondents per market.

Seventy-three per cent of UK workers believe return-to-office policy is about leadership visibility rather than output. Thirty-one per cent said their employer changed its remote or hybrid policy in the past year, up from 24% in 2025. Fifty-nine per cent reported employer monitoring tools in use, and 82% want disclosure of monitoring made a legal requirement.

Why this matters

The visibility finding is the one to carry into a conversation with an employer. It says that when a mandate arrives without evidence attached, most people read it as being about presence rather than performance, and they are not wrong to. An employer that wants a mandate believed has to show its working.

The monitoring numbers matter separately. If 59% of workers report surveillance tools and 82% want disclosure made compulsory, the gap between what is deployed and what is disclosed is the live issue. In Spain, the new written-information duties taking effect on 5 October 2026 require employers to disclose algorithmic decision-making affecting hours, pay, progression or place of work, which is the first European instrument to put that gap into law.

Context

The survey lands the same week Barclays staff began contesting a move from two office days to three, with Unite arguing the bank “is not able to provide an evidence-based rationale” for the change.