Lord Alan Sugar condemns PwC for ‘bl***y joke’ decision to give staff Friday afternoons off 

Lord Sugar has today slammed working from home culture after PricewaterhouseCoopers announced it was giving its accountants Friday afternoons off.

The big four company said 6,000 workers will be able to log off at Friday lunchtime from June until August after a successful pilot scheme last summer.

It is thought to be a move to encourage workers to stay on with better hours amid fierce competition within the City to retain staff.

But in an angry missive on Twitter, Lord Sugar wrote: ‘This is a bl***y joke. The lazy g**s make me sick. 

‘Call me old-fashioned but all this work from home BS is a total joke. 

Lord Sugar is a longstanding critic of working from home and took issue with PwC offering its workers Friday afternoons off, writing: ‘This is a bl***y joke. The lazy g**s make me sick’

PwC has given 6,000 workers the chance to clock off at lunchtime on Friday fron June to August, as it competes with city rivals for ways to keep workers

‘There is no way people work as hard or productive as when they had to turn up at a work location. The pandemic has had long lasting negative effect.’

PwC piloted the summer working hours scheme last year when it allowed staff to leave early in July and August, City AM reports.

The company claimed it was a success after over 90 per cent of workers responded positively to the scheme in an internal survey, with nearly three quarters (73 per cent) adding that the scheme had improved their personal wellbeing. 

A massive 93 per cent their day-to-day experience at work was better, and 74 per cent agreed they had extra time to spend with friends and family.

Kevin Ellis, chairman and senior partner at PwC UK said: ‘We’ve had another exceptionally busy year and as we approach the summer holiday period, we hope our policy gives people more time for themselves, their friends and their families.’

PwC is facing ever increasing competition to recruit and retain staff, with better working times and huge salaries often used as perks. 

Deloitte announced in June last year it would allow its 20,000 freedom to choose ‘when, where and how they work’ after the popularity of home working during the Coronavirus crisis. UK stockbroker FinnCap has meanwhile vowed to give unlimited holiday to its employees.

Treasury staff have also been warned their passes will be tracked to make sure they come into the office as part of the latest attempt to force civil servants back into Whitehall. 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who leads the department, has made it clear he expects his officials to be in the office at least some of the time, but has not yet dictated a minimum.  

Meanwhile, it has emerged the Bank of England is only requiring its employees to be in the office one day a week – demonstrating the uphill battle facing ministers who have been trying to persuade mandarins to kick their WFH habit. 

The Treasury is believed to be the only department to announce it will monitor its staff using their security passes, the Telegraph reported. 

Although it says it has seen a ‘significant increase’ in office occupancy, it appears to have accepted many staff will continue on a hybrid model – with job adverts for senior roles stating that applicants would be required to come in between 40 and 60 per cent of the time. 

Meanwhile, the Bank of England is planning to increase the amount of time staff are required to come in to 40 per cent from next month, with plans to eventually increase this to 50 per cent.