Mike Ashley’s Frasers bans working from home as staff caught on social media
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has stopped office staff from working from home on Fridays after an undisclosed amount of employees were caught too often on social media.
The retail giant, which owns Sports Direct, Flannels, House of Fraser and Jack Wills, has ended its flexible Friday policy and asked staff to be in the office every day of the working week.
An internal memo, seen by The Sun, was sent by the company’s Chief Operating Officer David Al-Mudallal, stating that “Frasers Friday” had become “an unproductive day of the week”.
Al-Mudallal elaborated and stated that there were “too many examples of people or teams not being contactable when they need to be and colleagues who via their social media profiles are demonstrating they’re not treating Friday as a working day”.
The “Frasers Friday” policy was first introduced in 2020 after several lockdowns forced staff to work remotely. Frasers Group employs over 25,000 people across its stores and offices.
A Frasers spokesman said: “We have an incredible workforce of dedicated colleagues, and in-person collaboration is key to how we deliver value together. We believe that we are all at our best when we work together in an office environment.”
Last month, Frasers Group bought Missguided out of administration in a £20 million deal. The news followed Missguided being issued with a winding-up petition by suppliers who were owed millions of pounds.
In May, Michael Murray took over the day-to-day running for Frasers Group from his father-in-law. It was reported that he received £20.9 million before taking over as the position.
