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In a press release published online last week, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the “Big Four” accounting firms, said it was increasing the attendance requirement for partners and employees from “two to three days” in the office or with clients to 60% of their time, or three days a week.
And in another memo seen by CNN that was sent to the company's 26,000 UK employees, PwC said it would monitor the new rule – namely through location data.
Related: Walmart remote workers question return-to-office policy, some choose to quit rather than relocate
“Starting in January, we will share your individual work location data with you on a monthly basis, just as we do with other data such as billable hours,” the memo said, according to CNN. “This will help ensure that the new policy is applied fairly and consistently across our company.”
The new directive will come into force on 1 January 2025.
“Face-to-face collaboration is hugely important for a staffing business like ours, and the new policy shifts the focus of our working week to collaborating with clients and colleagues,” said Laura Hinton, managing partner at PwC UK, in a statement. “This feels right for our business and for our people as we focus on client service, coaching and learning and development, while continuing to offer flexibility through hybrid working.”
However, some experts fear that this move could harm morale and make workers distrustful of their employers.
Related: According to a new survey, senior management secretly hoped employees would quit after the return-to-work requirement was implemented
Kelly Tucker, founder of the consulting firm HR Star, told HR Magazine that the key to the success of this policy is maintaining trust.
“Employers should regularly review the need for tracking and ensure it does not undermine trust,” Tucker told the outlet.
Still, PwC isn't the first company to track its employees' return (or non-return) to the office. Amazon brought the term “coffee badgeging” into the mainstream earlier this summer when it was reported that the company was tracking how often employees use their badges and how long they stay in the office. Salesforce also reportedly tracks badges.
At Dell and Amazon, remote workers are no longer entitled to promotions.
While PwC did not provide further details on how the policy is enforced, a PWC spokeswoman told CNN: “If the monthly data shows that someone is repeatedly violating the policy, we first want to understand the reasons why.”
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