It’s Friday afternoon in the city. You’re surrounded by office blocks, there’s a restaurant or bar on every corner… so where is everyone? If occupancy and travel data are anything to go by, they’re probably at home. Isabel Berwick speaks to Stanford economics professor Nick Bloom and FT columnist Pilita Clark to find out whether cities will be ghost towns on Fridays for the foreseeable future. She also asks: if people aren’t at the office on Friday, what are they getting up to? Finally, Chris Silcock, the managing director for the UK and Ireland at Kellogg’s tells Isabel why the company lets workers knock off early on Fridays.

Want more? For a limited time this summer, we're making related articles FREE to read for all Working It listeners. See:

Thursdays really are the new Fridays

Get ready for the four-day working week

Big US city downtowns ‘stuck’ behind smaller rivals in pandemic recovery

FT subscriber? Sign up for the weekly Working It newsletter with one click here. We cover all things workplace and management — plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. 

We'd love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. 

Follow Isabel on LinkedIn 

On X, formerly Twitter, you can follow Isabel at @IsabelBerwick

Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts — and do leave us a review!

Presented by Isabel Berwick. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval, with production assistance from Lucy Snell. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa and the sound engineer is Simon Panayi.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.