SINGAPORE – Ms Uma Shangari is usually in a hurry to get to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which are “the busiest days in the office” for the resourcing coordinator at a multinational bank.
Her office has a hot-desking system, and “if you don’t come in by 9.30am, you don’t get a seat”, she said.
The 32-year-old travels to work by train, and she said her journey from Clementi MRT station to Raffles Place is quieter on Monday and Friday.
Her observations are backed by public transport ridership figures for January to August 2024, which show a daily average of around 8.1 million bus and train journeys made from Tuesday to Thursday – 1.5 per cent higher than the 7.98 million journeys on Monday and Friday.
Conversely, during the first eight months of 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the daily average public transport ridership from Tuesday to Thursday was 8.3 million, lower than the 8.4 million on Monday and Friday, according to the latest ridership figures provided by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
Additionally, the daily average ridership on Monday and Friday from January to August 2019 was even higher than the weekday average of 8.37 million from Monday to Friday in that period.
The daily average number of passengers using buses and trains during the morning peak hour on Friday is 87 per cent of that on Wednesday from January to August 2024, compared with 97 per cent for the same period in 2019, LTA said.
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Human resources and business experts told The Straits Times that these ridership figures reflect the rise of hybrid work arrangements that many companies here have put in place.
Mr Raunak Bhandari, regional human resources business partner leader of Asia-Pacific at a technology firm, said many companies have embraced such hybrid work practices, recognising that giving employees flexibility to choose which days they return to the office based on their personal needs and team commitments, contributes to work-life balance.
Typically, employees prefer working remotely on Monday and Friday from the quiet of their homes, as they can plan tasks for the week ahead on Monday, in addition to wrapping up their work on Friday, he added.
Ms Uma, the resourcing coordinator, said she prefers to work from home on Monday and Friday, which she calls her “focus days”.
“Generally, there is less activity like face-to-face meetings (on those days), and meetings can be done via Microsoft Teams,” she said.
But she adds that if an important colleague is visiting the office, she makes plans to go in as well.
Ms Thilagamani Manoharan, a senior recruiter in the tech industry, added that she finds herself “more focused and productive” at home, while she frequently gets interrupted in the office.
While she does not have to go to the office at all, Ms Thilagamani, 32, said she “makes it a habit to go on Tuesday and Thursday, because there are leadership meetings on those days. I just want to have face-to-face conversations with leaders in the office”.
Mr Bhandari said employees prefer returning to the office from Tuesday to Thursday because these days are optimal for face-to-face collaborative meetings, when most people are physically present in the office.
Associate Professor Trevor Yu of the leadership, management and organisation division at Nanyang Technological University agreed that employees favour bookending their week with remote-work days because the idea of a long weekend is attractive to some.
From Dec 1, all employers in Singapore will be required by law to fairly consider flexible work requests.
Prof Yu, who specialises in organisational behaviour, added that many younger employees expect hybrid work arrangements to be offered with the job, and is confident that such practices are here to stay.
That said, public transport experts add that it is unlikely for LTA to make adjustments to train or bus frequencies based on the difference in daily ridership numbers on Monday and Friday, and Tuesday to Thursday.
This is because passengers may be unhappy if the frequency of bus or train services drops without fares falling concurrently, said veteran transport engineering consultant Gopinath Menon.
According to LTA, the number of public transport journeys to the Central Business District – including Raffles Place, Tanjong Pagar, Shenton Way, City Hall, Bugis, Marina Centre and Nicoll Highway – during weekday mornings from January to August was around only 86 per cent of the same period in 2019.
While operating costs can be reduced by increasing the headways of buses and trains, in addition to removing some bus services that run parallel to the train network, Mr Menon noted that it would be “difficult” to persuade passengers that such moves are necessary to match supply to demand.
To this, Associate Professor Walter Theseira, a transport economist from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said lower public transport ridership is likely to widen the gap between fares and operating costs, increasing the need for more subsidies.
Prof Theseira noted that the provision of bus and train services is contingent on commuter loads at the most crowded moments during peak hours.
This means even if non-peak passenger loads on Monday and Friday are significantly lower than on other days but peak-hour loads remain similar across all days, the same frequency of services is needed to accommodate these peak-hour crowds throughout the week.
With new train lines and bus services to be added to the network in the near future, Prof Theseira said it is likely for ridership – more specifically in terms of percentage of capacity utilised – to continue falling.
But Associate Professor Raymond Ong, a transport infrastructure researcher at the National University of Singapore, said ridership may rise if companies start getting their employees to return to the office, as in the case of Grab, which will require its employees to work in the office five days a week from Dec 2.