Tolerance for home office arrangements is diminishing among major German corporations. Data from a survey conducted by “Welt am Sonntag” and “Business Insider” among 35 of Germany’s largest companies reveals that the share of firms requiring employees to be present in the office for at least three days per week has risen to 40 percent. This figure shows a significant jump from the 25.7 percent reported in 2023.
Only 31 percent of the companies surveyed still maintain no strict policy, allowing for full flexibility or relying on individual team agreements. While 45.7 percent of firms previously had no fixed, company-wide rules in 2023, that proportion has decreased.
Despite the increasing push for in-office attendance, hybrid working remains highly prevalent. Aside from US corporation Amazon, which implemented similar rules simultaneously in the US and Germany, none of the surveyed companies required a full five-day return to the office.
To expand the scope of their investigation for 2026, “Welt am Sonntag” and “Business Insider” surveyed 56 of Germany’s top employers, including all 40 DAX-listed corporations, as well as accounting and tech firms. By the time of publication, 50 companies reported their guidelines for remote work.
When viewed more broadly, the trend toward structured working remains evident. Of the 50 responding companies, 31 (62 percent) stated that employees must adhere to a concrete number of days in the office or at client sites, typically two to three days per week. Only three companies (six percent) reported having no explicit presence requirements whatsoever. In 16 companies (32 percent), there is no general mandatory presence rule; rather, the decision is left to the managing executives of individual teams.
