Remote work peaked during the pandemic, but the bosses are frustrated over it, and The Wall Street Journal reported that they are getting people back to offices for four main reasons.
Remote employees work less
The National Bureau of Economic Research reported that remote workers work around 3.5 hours less when not in the office. Additionally, people save on commute, so it is easy to see why employees are eager to stay home.
Option for “leisure and sleeping”
A survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics also found that remote employees “decreased time spent working” and are instead more interested in spending time in “leisure and sleeping.” The thrill of working from home appears to be home, bringing us to 3.5 hours less or 72 minutes a day in decline from work.
Productivity goes down when everyone’s working remotely
The CEO of an HR tech firm told the Wall Street Journal that when everyone is working remotely, subscriber counts drop 30 percent. But, even economic blogger Kevin Drum, formerly of Mother Jones, wondered if the CEO wasn’t “exaggerating.” Many are not 100 percent convinced that people are less productive at home, and it is not hard to understand why.
Work-life balance
When it comes to productivity, pro remote workers believe that work-life balance is vital. Pew Research survey found that those who achieve it are 29 percent more productive, making the story about working from home (or on a sunny beach) pro remote work.
Flexibility and productivity
Slack’s think tank, Future Forum, also found that productivity rises with flexibility, including hybrid workers, whose productivity was 4 percent higher than those tied to the office space. Still, as Fortune.com noted, it is not a decision left to the employees, so if the CEOs think they are best used at offices, that’s it.
Remote work hurts newly hired employees
It is easy to understand that newly hired employees will do better if they are in office space. CEO Marc Benioff told Fortune, “We know empirically that [new Salesforce employees] do better if they’re in the office, meeting people, being onboarded, being trained.” This is one of the few points everyone can agree on.
Issues with newly hired remote workers
Drum noted, “It’s one thing for existing teams to continue working well from home; it’s quite another to get a new member of a team up and running.” It is challenging for new employees, those who have to train them, and other coworkers, leaving new ones confused and left out.
Working problems
The easiest way to ruin a relationship of any kind is via texting or sending emails, but that’s only part of the problem. McKinsey research found that 60% of bosses would likely fire remote workers to make job cuts, and additionally, the same remote workers are more likely to experience a toxic work environment. The reasons are not hard to grasp.
Bosses feel stuck
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York published a survey that says many bosses feel stuck with remote work at this point, which is frustrating. It negatively impacts workplace culture, teamwork, training, mentorship, and, yes, communication, over 60 percent of leaders confirmed.
Are the bosses right?
According to Business Insider’s interview with Joan Williams, the Center for WorkLife Law director at the University of California College of the Law, these CEOs are “very traditional.” Willaims told the publication, “The workplace is the key arena. They (CEOs) have no desire to continue to work from home. This is not about workplace productivity. It’s about masculinity.”
Remote work is here to stay
Nick Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University, explained to USA Today, “Return-to-office died in ’23. There’s a tombstone with ‘RTO’ on it.” This dramatic change in workspace comes for the first time in decades, ever since 1963 and the Equal Pay Act.
Individual vs. teamwork
Individual work is easier when you’re alone and not bothered by office noises. But, according to Anat Lechner, a clinical associate professor of management and organizations at New York University’s Stern School of Business, working on a group project online becomes a “mess.”
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