“In terms of customers, it can be as low as 50 per cent on Mondays and Fridays, but then one week you might be flat out on a Monday … it’s crazy because it’s becoming impossible to staff. You never know when you’re going to be flat out, or there’ll be two people in the shop.”

The Barberhood is responding to the conditions by keeping a full rota of staff on five days a week, and contingency planning for particularly busy Mondays and Fridays – perhaps before a long weekend. But Ms Baltov has watched four of her competitors go out of business in the past eighteen months and knows many CBD shops are in a similar position, and unable to keep staff on in shifting operating conditions.

The City of Sydney believes workers are becoming more ingrained in their Tuesday to Thursday habits, according to spending and public transport data, as well as foot traffic levels which are also being reflected in Melbourne.

“Compared to during the pandemic, the difference in total users between workdays has begun to narrow, though Monday and Friday remain the most popular ‘work-from-home’ days,” a spokeswoman said.

In Melbourne, average pedestrian activity near the Flinders Street Station Underpass in Melbourne’s CBD – a major thoroughfare for commuters – is highest on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, according to the City of Melbourne.

Online recruiting giant LinkedIn also identified the same trend in March. A survey of 1002 workers found that more than six out of 10 head into the Office two or three days a week and that Mondays and Fridays are the least popular days to head in.

It’s a trend playing out around the world according to property giant Dexus, which has research indicating workers in key global office markets. London, Singapore, Hong Kong and New York are also exhibiting preferencing Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the office.

But the office giant isn’t certain the trend will become the rule.

Businesses have told Dexus – which owns flagship Australian office towers including Melbourne’s 80 Collins Street and 52 Martin Place, Gateway and Australia Square in Sydney – that there is a distinct drop-off in productivity where office attendance is limited to three days in the office. As a result, they are providing incentives to staff to come to the office more regularly.

Inside the investment banking heavy Gateway building at Sydney’s Circular Quay, swipe card data reveals a 20 per cent increase in office attendance on Mondays over the past six months. Australia Square – where Dexus has its headquarters – is experiencing the same trend, with recent food court traffic showing Mondays are approaching the same numbers as the midweek peak.

It’s a boon for restaurant giant Hunter Street Hospitality, which owns Rockpool and Spice Temple, and has seen corporate lunching spike Tuesday to Thursday in past months. The group is now offering a more affordable take on high-end lunch – a $29 burger, chips and beer offer at Rockpool or a $25 bowl of noodles with a glass of wine and beer at Spice Temple – to even out the weekly lunch crowd over Mondays and Fridays.

Shopping centre giant Scentre is also coming up with initiatives to smooth out the weekly crowds, including special events or in retail parlance, “activations” on Mondays and Fridays.

“Our strategic focus is to create more reasons for our customers to visit more often and stay for longer,” a spokeswoman said, noting last Friday’s event hosting Margot Robbie as the official Barbie movie fan event and another pop-up dedicated to KPop superstars BTS which is in place until August. “Customers are visiting with purpose and taking their time,” they said.

On Thursday inside Australia Square, finance sector colleagues Renita Ng and Emmy Drew were having lunch as part of a now-weekly catch up. Ms Drew is in the office Tuesdays and Thursday, while Ms Ng only does Thursdays in the office.

“Mondays are dead,” Ms Ng said. “Unless you make plans to come in, no one else is there”. Ms Drew agreed. “We’ve been told Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days our bosses want us to come in, so we stick with that.”

Nearby, fellow finance workers Louis Anderson, Alessandro Frazzi and Bas Bordewijk caught up over lunch, which is also a weekly routine.

Mr Anderson comes in two to three days a week – occasionally on Mondays – while Mr Bordewijk has averaged one day a week at home over the past months. Mr Frazzi, on secondment from Switzerland, spends every day in the office in a bid to get mileage out of his time with the Sydney team. “But that’s the nature of our work and what we do there, the rest of the office … it’s about two days a week,” he said.

Major employers like REA Group and Block Inc have responded to the trend by moving social events to a Thursday when their offices are busiest. And to maximise in-person collaboration and teamwork, many companies have also introduced so-called “anchor days” each week – often on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – when everyone in a given team is required to come in.

For fashion stylist Jeff Lack, flexible working has forced him to change the choices he makes for the executives he helps to dress. Structured suiting is out and in its place, Mr Lack is now dressing his clients in fluid tailoring in soft fabrics which can work just as well in the office as well as at home or at a casual meeting.

“I even own a pair of elasticated pants these days,” he joked.