Two of WPP’s flagship advertising agencies have not been able to introduce their holding company’s contested return-to-office mandate because they do not have enough desks to accommodate the influx of staff.

City AM has learned that Ogilvy and Grey’s London offices have not yet implemented WPP’s demand for staff to work four days a week in the office, because neither has been able to rearrange their offices before the policy was meant to come into force on 1 April.

WPP’s chief executive Mark Read had instructed his firm’s 111,000 staff worldwide to work from the office at least four days a week as of the start of this month.

In a company-wide memo in January, he argued that the ad group’s agencies “did the best work when they were together in person”. And in the accompanying FAQs, staff were told that non-compliance would result in disciplinary measures “up to and including termination of contract”.

The directive sparked uproar among a large section of the holding company’s staff. A public petition calling for the policy to be revoked amassed 20,000 signatures in just a few weeks, with signatories worried about the inclusivity implications and its ramifications for agencies’ ability to attract talent.

Now it has emerged that the UK branches of Ogilvy and Grey—WPP’s two most-celebrated advertising agencies—have been told that the policy will not yet be fully implemented because office reorganisations have not been completed in time.

“It’s not come into play for us because there’s not enough space in the office,” one ad exec said. “It’s still being worked out.”

One reason for the delay given by staff was that the agencies, which are located on different WPP campuses in central London, are obliged to use one of the very few office interior suppliers approved by WPP headquarters.

Staff working from sofas

Two Grey staff members, who asked not to be named, said they have been told they won’t be required to work four days a week until at least June while the agency adds desks to its office floor.

Meanwhile, City AM has heard several other accounts of WPP staffers working and taking calls on benches and from snooker tables because they don’t have a desk.