Do employers still offer flexibility in the summer?

As more companies have experimented with flexible work arrangements in recent years, “Summer Fridays” policies that allow workers to work from home or work fewer hours have become popular during the warmer months.

But the labor market is largely cooling, leading more employers to require in-office attendance and, it seems, reduce summer flexibility perks. Employers that issued an RTO mandate in the past year were less likely to offer employees summertime flexibility than those that did not (50% vs. 65%), a recent HR Brew survey of roughly 200 people pros found.

Here, we dig into the findings to get a sense of where summer flexibility stands.

Are companies summer flexing? The majority (89%) of HR pros say their companies require employees to be in the office the same number of days in the summer as the rest of the year, our survey found. Only 10% require fewer days, and 1% require more.

Unofficial summer flex. While many companies don’t offer summer-specific perks, requiring employees to be in the office the same number of days year-round, 17% allow them to leave earlier on Fridays, and 17% provide flexible working hours throughout the workweek, our survey found.

Different modes of flexibility. Hybrid and remote workers seem to have more access to Summer Fridays than in-office workers, with 19% and 17% of respondents with hybrid and remote arrangements reporting access to such flexibility, respectively, compared to 14% of those who are mostly in the office.

Let’s hope summer perks are like a fashion trend that comes back in style. (Anyone else miss their skinny jeans?)