Just 4% of marketers think they should be working from an office five days per week, according to a poll carried out by Marketing Week on LinkedIn.

The survey of 2,827 people finds the vast majority of marketers (68%) feel they should be in the office between one and three days per week. More than a fifth (22%) would prefer to work entirely remotely, while 7% believe four days in the office is most appropriate.

The poll follows findings from Marketing Week’s 2024 Career & Salary Survey, which shows more than half of respondents are seeing a trend to return to office-based working.

The vast majority of workers are spending at least one day per week working from home, with three being the most common number of days in the office (25.2%) swiftly followed by two (24.3%). Four days (9.5%) proved the least common, with more marketers not working any days in the office (14.7%) than those who work the full five days (12.9%).

Participants in the LinkedIn poll highlight that the balance of home/office working can allow days free of distracting meetings while maintaining contact between teams. Respondents also highlight that marketing is a broad discipline and that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to the number of office days required.

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“My personal experience has taught me that you need to be in the office at least a couple of days a week to create the work; being involved in spontaneous conversations with other areas of the business can sometimes spark a great idea for the next campaign,” says Becki Bell, head of marketing and sales at Forward Builders’ Supplies.

When it comes to the number of days businesses require marketers to spend in the office – which differs slightly to the number marketers say they choose to do – two-thirds (64.6%) are taking a hybrid approach, according to the Career & Salary Survey data.

Just 10.1% of marketers say they’re being asked by their business to attend the office five days a week, while 17.8% work for organisations that are fully flexible. Just 3.1% have closed their offices and implemented completely remote work.

Marketers seem broadly happy with their lot in this regard, with nearly seven in 10 saying they feel the balance works. However, nearly a quarter (24%) would like to do fewer days in the office while 7.2% want to work from the office more.

But some responding to the LinkedIn in survey question whether the discussion of home versus office misses some other issues. “How often should marketers be with the customer and with the end consumer?” asks Tatiana Suvorova, senior director of sales and education at Wella Company.