Asda executive chair Allan Leighton has emailed head office staff telling them to spread out their working from home days to include Mondays and Fridays.

Asda store Bletchley

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Asda head office staff will be required to include Mondays and Fridays as part of their office days

The grocery giant currently requires staff to work from the office at least three days a week, but Retail Week understands that senior management is concerned that the majority of staff are prioritising their in-office working weeks between Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Leighton and his team are, as a result, now encouraging staff to break up their days and prioritise Mondays and Fridays as well.

A source close to the business said Leighton was encouraging head office workers to “flatten [working from the office] days out across the week”, rather than “top-loading Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday, spread out to cover Monday and Friday as well”.

An Asda spokesman confirmed Leighton’s request and added: “We have a clearly defined hybrid working policy for home office colleagues of three days per week in Asda House or another Asda location.

“We are asking teams to ensure they have representation across the week in the office so that colleagues are always on hand to support our customers and stores.”

Asda is just the latest large retailer to be left grappling with the ongoing complexities of managing hybrid working and ensuring it works both for the business and for its staff.

In June, Retail Week revealed that Lidl had increased the number of days it requires staff to work in the office at least three days a week, up from just one at the end of 2024.

Ikea and Ocado have also cut working from home days since the beginning of the summer, with the former informing head office staff it was updating its hybrid working policy from eight days a month in the office by an additional four days from September.

Ocado meanwhile have encouraged head office staff to work from the office at least three days a week, having previously only required them to work from a specific location one day a week.

Some like Boots and Morrisons have gone as far as to order staff back to the office five days a week, as they seek to put changes to working habits adopted during the pandemic behind them.

Primark has also cut down on the number of days staff in selected teams spend working from home, with staff being required to work from the office four days a week from September. 

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