Fund manager Baillie Gifford issues ‘return-to-office’ edict

Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based fund manager, has told staff to return to full-time office working, the latest in a string of employers to cool on pandemic era remote working practices.

Sky News understands that Baillie Gifford’s roughly-1,800 employees were notified in a video call several weeks ago that they were expected to attend its offices rather than working from home.

The move is said to have drawn a mixed response, with some staff unhappy at the edict.

A person close to Baillie Gifford, which has assets under management of about £230bn, insisted that the instruction to work from its offices did not amount to a blanket ban on remote working.

A spokesman for the firm said: “In a recent video update to all staff, they were asked to come into the office on their working days, unless there’s a sensible reason not to.

“But of course we maintain a degree of flexibility for all staff, as we always have done, pre-pandemic.”

Many large companies have shifted their guidance to staff in a similar way in the last two years, although a substantial proportion continue to permit some form of hybrid working.

Baillie Gifford has become an increasingly prominent investor in the last decade, having placed big bets on some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including in China.

It was also at the centre of controversy earlier this year when its sponsorships of the Hay Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival were cancelled amid protests over some of the firm’s investment practices.

The firm is structured as an unlimited liability partnership with 58 partners.