A study from non-profit Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF) and the London School of Economics found that staff and managers favour a "remote-first" approach despite company policy put in place by top executives.

Based on interviews with 70 women and 30 men in the City of London covering banking, asset management, professional services, fintech and insurance firms at companies like Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, NatWest and UBS.

The report found that women in particular favoured remote working and flagged concerns that coercing staff to work in offices  would deter female staff, according to the Financial Times.

It said it “highlights that while at the C-suite level executives in many large firms are asking for workers to come into the office a specific number of days per week, in practice they are being ignored, with managers often favouring a remote-first approach that satisfies local operational needs”.

Grace Lordan, director of the Inclusion Initiative at LSE and an author of the report, said workers were frustrated with being told to go to the office to simply sit on a Zoom call, the publication said.

“Firms that demand their employees are in the office for no reason will lose out on diverse talent pools,” she said. 

"These demands are also ego-driven rather than having the best interests of the business in mind.”

Anna Lane, president of WIBF, said: “I expect that those managers who are demanding their workers fulfil a rigid three, four or five-day schedule will lose women to their competitors who do not.”

Last year, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan moved to return employees to the office full-time, saying face-to-face interactions are better for collaboration and that employees are less productive at home.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said 65% of its workers are back in the office five days a week.