Manchester United staff have been ordered back to the office, working full time

Manchester United staff have been ordered to return to the office for good from June 1.

During a meeting last week, club staff were warned by co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe that flexible working from home arrangements must end. He also mentioned how, at another INEOS-owned company, they noticed reduced email productivity from staff while they were working from home on Fridays.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, United staff – as in many organizations – have spent less time in the office as the working environment has become more flexible. Many people have become dependent on these arrangements to help with childcare and work-life balance.

INEOS’ plans to force people back into the office have received some pushback from the club’s interim CEO Patrick Stewart, who has sought to protect existing arrangements, but Stewart’s imminent departure was announced last week.

An email sent by the club’s internal communications team on Thursday this week said INEOS was “taking time to review all aspects of how we operate as a club”.

He added: “Part of that is looking at how we work – how we create a high performance environment where everyone can be their best, working together towards our common goal of success in football.

“The key to achieving this goal is connection and collaboration. Everyone comes together as a collective to share skills, knowledge and ideas, building on what we already do and looking at where we need to change and innovate.

INEOS makes radical changes (Robin Jones/Getty Images)

“We believe this connection and collaboration is best achieved when everyone is working together in close proximity. While hybrid work has some benefits, it cannot replace the value of people being physically together.

“With this in mind, we will be asking all colleagues who currently have hybrid working arrangements to return to the office for good.”

One problem, however, is that United’s office space has been reconfigured to accommodate those more flexible working arrangements over the past year, meaning there aren’t currently enough offices at their Manchester or London locations to accommodate to each staff member. There is even less space in Manchester after some of the staff office space there was also converted into match day hospitality.

As well as revamping United’s player recruitment set-up, consultancy firm Interpath Advisory has been hired to review the club’s business and operational costs. It started last month and will continue for several weeks.

One such cost-cutting measure is to require members of staff to pay £20 to use a club-supplied coach for the FA Cup final against Manchester City on May 25. — but are required to contribute to travel costs and will not be provided with food between Manchester and London. Another is removing company credit cards from staff members.

The first part of the review focuses on fixed and variable costs (such as suppliers, utilities and travel).

The second part, later this year, will look at the club’s headcount, with INEOS appearing to consider United’s workforce, the largest of any English football club, to be bloated.

GO DEEPER

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(Alex Livesey/Getty Images)