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Friday, everyone in shelters: employees who can telecommute often opt for this remote day as well as Monday, with the corollary of depopulated offices, sparse bicycle parking lots or even scarcity in canteens.
This new situation born of the Covid-19 crisis is felt in particular in transport in Ile-de-France, with days more saturated than others. The director of the Transilien SNCF (commuter trains) thus called on October 20 to “better smooth” the home-work journeys.
She pointed out in the trains, RER, metros, trams a difference of “18% between Tuesday – the busiest day – and Friday” where almost half (49%) of teleworkers who use these transports stay at home. A difference which is also observed for the car (16% difference) and the bicycle (30% difference).
Ilyes, 25, a data consultant who “goes out a lot”, does not hide from AFP that it “suits him quite a bit” to stay at a distance on Fridays so as not to have to come home to get ready to go out and on Mondays ” to start the week off right” because it “leaves him an extra morning to recover”…
Even working, it’s “a break”, also says Anissa Sabeur, 24, on a work-study program in a large financial group in La Défense.
Benoit Serre, vice-president of the association of human resources directors (ANDRH), confirms that the hybrid work that has taken place since the pandemic “has focused on Monday and Friday, with a slight preference for the Friday”.
As a result, notes L’Oréal’s HRD, “there is a form of organization that is put in place empirically” with a concentration of meetings the rest of the week.
“Department meetings are usually scheduled on Wednesdays and Thursdays” and by “training effect”there are a lot of people on those days, reports Xavier, an employee in a communication group. “On Monday and Friday, there is no one. As the interest is still to meet people, it’s not worth going to the site”he said.
“Paradoxically,” says Mr. Serre, it doesn’t really disrupt businesses: “we do not observe a drop in productivity”. “On the other hand, it troubles some managers” who have the impression – wrongly – that “people leave for the weekend on Thursday evening”.
Friday, “it’s dead”
Hubert Mongon (Medef), believes for his part that it is “a bit early to try to identify trends” even if the employees, when there are negotiations on telework, “rather try to schedule it on these two days”, Monday and Friday.
At Orano (ex-Areva), “Fridays are much more teleworked” as well as Mondays and Wednesdays to a lesser extent. The company claims to have been vigilant “so that the working groups are maintained”.
On the Oracle France side, after two years of remote work due to Covid, an experiment was carried out to study the organization of work for “ensure that employees can meet and work together” when they come on site, told AFP the HR department of the software specialist, Caroline Elbaz.
As a result, the preferred days of presence are Monday and Thursday and to a lesser extent Tuesday. On Friday – the day without an on-site meeting – the premises are open, but – like Wednesday – “it’s dead”. The canteen service of the building, where several companies coexist, adapts with “minimum service”, says the HRD.
At Société Générale, the phenomenon is not as marked. The company explains that it has a teleworking agreement “which smooths the presence on the premises throughout the week”. At headquarters, the company restaurant or the cafeteria are thus “not deserted” on Fridays.
What about the employer who tried to close the site, the canteen, or even cut the heating that day? In terms of energy sobriety, the reasoning is “unstoppable” but, observes Benoit Serre, “if we say: on Friday everyone is teleworking, you never bring them back”. But after the confinements, “we have already had so much trouble”…