Joanna Partridge

‘Green shoots’ or coalmining past? Welsh town reacts to Labour and Reform’s visions for future In the final part of a series, we look at the political battle for Bridgend after the closure of its Ford plant

In the final report in a Guardian series on the battle for Britain's deindustrialised areas and the rise of Reform, I visited Bridgend in South Wales where Ford closed its factory in 2020, to hear locals' view of Nigel Farage's pledge to reopen coal mines www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Inequality in flexible working dividing Britain into ‘two-tier workforce’ Exclusive: Office workers have more flexibility than frontline staff such as nurses and shop workers, report says

Our new #EndTwoTierWorkforce report has been covered by @theguardian.com today, which you can read here exclusively: www.theguardian.com/money/2025/j...

Via @joannapartridge.bsky.social

In a sign of the ongoing shake-up to the world of work sparked by the pandemic, work-life balance outranked pay as the top motivator for workers for the first time according to an international survey of thousands of employees.
My article in today's Guardian:

‘Just make people come in on the second Thursday of the month’: workspace provider Mark Dixon on the WFH debate The head of the flexible office company IWG is a big fan of hybrid shifts and says ‘working close to home’ is the way forward

Mandating office attendance for several days a week is "silly stuff", says Mark Dixon, boss of FTSE workspace provider IWG. A spokesperson for hybrid working, Dixon predicts the end of the city centre office and believes people want to work from the suburbs now www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Post-Christmas blues as UK bosses try to turn back clock on hybrid working Amazon mandates full five days and BT and Asda want staff in the office three times a week – but not everyone is convinced

It's the first working week of the year, and that means the post-pandemic hybrid dream is coming to an end for some office workers. I took a look at the changing world of work in @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/money/2025/j...