"To be back to/at work", which preposition is the correct one?

Question

I am studying with the book "Grammar in Use" by Raymond Murphy (2019 ed.), going through phrasal verbs. I found this example at pag. 275.

My holidays are nearly over. Next week I'll be back at work.

Is it a mistake? I've only just heard "to be back to work". The COCA corpus agrees with me. What do you think and why?

1. My holidays are nearly over. Next week I'll be back at work
2. My holidays are nearly over. Next week I'll be back to work

Answer 1

I believe, the issue is the verb:

Be ( static, location) - requires AT - be/stay at work

Go/return (movement) - requires TO - go/return to work

Answer 2

These aren't really phrasal verbs. "at" refers to being in or near a location or state. "to" refers to a destination. If you are working, you are at work. If you are returning from a vacation with work as your destination, you are going back to work. Both are correct, and both are the standard, non-phrasal meaning of the prepositions, and they follow "back", not a verb.

As a side note, I'm not sure what punctuation mark you're using for contractions, but it's not the standard apostrophe.

Answer 3

Murphy is correct.

It is more common to hear someone say, "Get back to work."
Or "I'm going back to work."

However, in this construction, Murphy is correct, but I would use a comma after the clause: "Next week,"

You second sentence Would be correct like this:

Next week, I'll be going back to work.

Or you could say, "Next week, I'll be back on the job."