More than half of employees in Ireland’s financial services sector are unhappy with their current office attendance requirements, according to new research from Morgan McKinley, with the findings pointing to growing retention and recruitment pressure for employers as return to office policies bed in.
The report, From Hybrid to HQ: The Impact of Return to Office in Financial Services on Ireland, found that 51% of employees are dissatisfied with their employer’s current policy, while 62% said office attendance requirements have increased their desire to leave their role. Some 70% said they need higher pay to cover commuting costs, while 64% said office requirements are contributing to stress or burnout and 60% said more time in the office is lowering productivity.
Three days in the office has now emerged as the dominant model across the sector, reported by 32% of employees and 38% of employers. At the same time, 83% of employees and 84% of employers expect office requirements to stay the same over the next year, suggesting that while the policy debate may have cooled, dissatisfaction with the current model has not.
The research points to a clear disconnect between employer intent and employee experience. While employers continue to link office attendance with collaboration, culture and learning, many employees see the trade-off very differently, citing higher costs, reduced flexibility, and less productive working time.
The findings also underline how firmly flexibility is now embedded in employee expectations. A previous report by Morgan McKinley found that 66% of employees rank hybrid working and flexible hours among their most valued benefits, while 62% of jobseekers have rejected roles that do not offer flexibility.
In a market where firms are still competing for skilled talent, the report suggests that employers who row back on flexibility, without strengthening their wider offer, risk narrowing their talent pool.
The issue is particularly acute for workers balancing responsibilities outside the workplace. Nearly half of employees surveyed, 48%, said they have caring responsibilities, reinforcing the extent to which working from home remains a practical support for many professionals rather than simply a lifestyle preference. This was consistent across both women and men, with 51% of female respondents and 45% of male respondents reporting caring responsibilities.
However, the impact of office requirements is not always experienced in the same way. Female respondents were more likely to report increased stress and burnout linked to in-office working, at 69% compared with 58% of male respondents. They were also more than twice as likely to say in-office working resulted in less support for women and minorities, at 28% compared with 12%.
Trayc Keevans, Global Foreign Direct Investment Director at Morgan McKinley said: “The return to office debate has moved on. It is no longer simply about how many days people spend in the office. It is about whether current workplace models are helping firms to attract and retain talent or making that harder.
“The research shows very clearly that employees still see value in being together for collaboration, learning, and connection. But they are also saying that office attendance comes with real costs, from commuting expenses to lower flexibility, higher stress and, according to many respondents, less productive time.
“For employers, the challenge now is to make sure office policies support performance without creating unnecessary pressure on retention, recruitment and morale. That means recognising that flexibility is not a fringe benefit, but a core part of how people manage work, caring responsibilities and career decisions.”
