‘A whole generation are used to not doing proper work’: Ex-supermarket boss denounces remote work culture

The former head of supermarkets Asda, Ocado and Marks and Spencer says remote working is “not proper work” and may be contributing to both poorer personal development and mental health.

Lord Rose told BBC’s Panorama programme that the nation had “regressed” by several years in working practice terms because of embracing hybrid and remote working following the pandemic.

Several companies, particularly those in technology and finance, have ordered staff back into the office full time or more regularly recently, with Lloyds Bank going a step further to announce end of year bonuses would be partly factored by office attendance.

Asked whether the nation could continue working jobs remotely to thrive, Lord Rose explained why his own generation had been better off in workplace terms, for productivity as well as development.

“I don’t believe it can,” he said. “We have regressed in this country in terms of working practices, productivity and in terms of the country’s wellbeing, I think, by 20 years in the last four.

“We are creating a whole generation and probably a generation beyond that of people who are used to actually not doing what I call proper work.

“I believe that productivity is less good if you work from home. I believe that your personal development suffers, that you’re not going to develop as well as you might if you’ve been in the workplace as long as I have.

“I think lastly, there is a connection, a correlation, yet to be proven no doubt, between the current state of mental health of particularly young people and the number of people who are working away from a workplace. I think it’s bad.”

A survey at the end of 2024 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed 26 per cent of people were hybrid working in the prior week, with 13 per cent fully remote and 41 per cent fully office-based. Other respondents were not working in that period.