From 2020 and up to 2022, the argument for remote working seemed copper-fastened. Jobs across the globe were revolutionized by the shift to remote, and workers, in the main, enjoyed the experience.
From more personal time to cost-savings, flexibility, and the chance to get other things done during the day, workers found that their productivity levels increased, too. An increase in virtual meetings was a downside, along with a lack of in-person interactions, but on balance, remote was a hit.
According to data from the Pew Research Centre, 57% of Americans rarely or had never worked from home prior to the coronavirus outbreak. By 2022, as return to office (RTO) mandates began to bite, the same data found that 76% expressed a preference for working from home, compared to 60% in 2020.
The move back to office crystallized things for many workers: many Americans decided they really didn't want to have to commute two or three times a week. For this cohort of employees, working from home became a choice—flying in the face of what many company leaders had decided as the ideal route forward.
A recent survey of over 8,400 U.S. workers found that 17% said they'd sacrifice up to 20% of their paycheck in order to be allowed to work remotely. Additionally, 56% of surveyed professionals know someone who has quit—or plans to quit due to RTO.
Despite the evidence, many companies are forging ahead, according to a recent report that found that 90% of companies plan to implement RTO policies by the end of 2024. Nearly 30% say employees will be under threat of firing if they don't fall in line.
Goldman Sachs is one company that now wants employees in the office five days a week, and Google says it will take employees' in-office attendance into account during performance reviews.
If the battle for remote work is over, then the push to at least maintain a hybrid schedule is the next fallback position. In fact, workers like it, with a recent survey finding that 68% of full-time workers support hybrid working, where at least one day each week is remote.
Determined To Be Remote
But if you are really determined that you want to remain at home or in a remote capacity, then what should you do? Increasingly, workers are looking to big organizations and public companies, which are now the outliers when it comes to flexibility.
Structured hybrid, a set number of days that employees are required to be onsite, is the most popular work location flexibility model for Fortune 500 companies, for example.
According to the Flex Index, the largest of these companies are even more likely to adopt structured hybrid, with 77% of companies between 50-100k employees.
Smaller Fortune 500 companies with fewer than 50,000 employees are more likely to be fully flexible, with 23% of these companies allowing employees to set their own way of working.
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