Nationwide has issued a warning to customers who work from home. Working from home could harm women’s careers because they are less likely to come into the office than their male colleagues, the boss of Britain’s biggest building society has warned.
Debbie Crosbie, the chief executive of Nationwide, said the fact more women have taken advantage of flexible working – as they tend to juggle work and childcare – could cost them in terms of progression to more senior roles.
Ms Crosbie told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday: “One of the only good things that came out of the pandemic was the fact that people got much more comfortable with working flexibly, working from home. And I do think that’s very useful.
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“My watch out, though, is that what we find, certainly at Nationwide, is that men are more likely to come into the office than women, and we just need to be really careful that we don’t prevent women from accessing the development-watching. I benefited enormously from watching some really excellent leaders and how they navigated challenging problems.”
Ms Crosbie also praised her tenure working early in her career for Lynne Peacock, then chief executive of Clydesdale Bank, whom she described as a “very inspiring female CEO”. She says “and it allowed me to get the opportunity to make different decisions.
“I got a great lot of support from business leaders who let me work part time for a few years.” Back in 2021, Nationwide told 13,000 of its staff to work where they want when the coronavirus pandemic restrictions were lifted.
The UK’s biggest building society, which has called the initiative Work Anywhere, is to introduce the plan after more than half of employees (57%) said they wanted to work from home full time. More than third (36%) said they wanted a blend of home and office work, while just 6% opted for a return to a five-day week in the office.