'It's unproductive' | Mike Ashley's Frasers Group bans home working - are they being practical or paranoid?

Mike Ashley-owned Frasers Group has axed its home working policy after bosses claimed staff were being less productive when not in the office.

Multiple publications have reported that the retail group, which owns House of Fraser and Sports Direct, previously had in place a ‘Frasers Friday’ policy that allowed employees to work from home on the final day of the working week. However, the firm has now reportedly scrapped the initiative, which began in 2020 at the height of the move towards remote working, as a result of the pandemic. But Frasers’ COO David Al-Mudallal has now told staff that it has become “an unproductive day of the week”.

Al-Mudallal reportedly said in an internal memo that there were “too many examples of people or teams not being contactable when they need to be…and colleagues who via their social media profiles are demonstrating they’re not treating Friday as a working day”.

A Spokesperson for Frasers Group, which employs more than 25,000 people, said: “We have an incredible workforce of dedicated colleagues, and in-person collaboration is key to how we deliver value together.