More than one quarter of all United States based workers operate remotely, and by 2025, it’s estimated those ranks will grow to 36.2 million employees.
The COVID-19 public health crisis in 2020 forced many organizations to scramble and offer non-essential employees the option of working remotely from home or some other location. This arrangement allowed businesses and government agencies to maintain operations and workers to remain gainfully employed.
As the global pandemic transitions into the endemic stage, many companies and government agencies that previously adopted work-from-home policies are beginning to roll them back, requiring staff to return to the office part-time or full-time.
But employees are resisting these efforts, preferring to work remotely most, if not all, of the time. According to Zippia, 27% of U.S.-based employees work remotely as of 2023.
This sets the stage for a showdown between employees and their employers.
Reasons for Work-From-Home Rollbacks
Private companies and government entities are starting to restrict or entirely rescind work-from-home policies, having workers report back to the office from a few days a week to the entire workweek. These leaders believe the best way to maintain the company culture is for workers to be onsite for part or all of their regular schedules.
Companies and government bodies rolling back work-from-home arrangements believe having most employees working offsite negatively affects team-building, stifles creativity, hampers the development of peer-to-peer relationships, and makes workers less productive. In addition, organizations are still on the hook for the total overhead costs of partially used buildings and facilities.
Why Employees Prefer Remote Work
Most American workers — 68% — prefer working remotely instead of onsite. Among the reasons employees embrace partial or total work-from-home practices include:
- Eliminating the time and expense involved with commuting to and from the office.
- Increased productivity.
- An improved work-life balance.
- Having more quality time with their families.
Some employees find working offsite to be less stressful and less distracting. Others like the idea of not having to invest money in a work wardrobe and being able to dress as they please since there is no dress code to follow.
For working parents of young children, work-from-home arrangements can be a practical and financially prudent alternative to finding and paying for childcare services. Employees responsible for eldercare duties within their families also appreciate having flexible work schedules.
The rationale for resisting the return to the office stems from many workers realizing the benefits of working from home for the first time in their professional careers. The pandemic helped them see that they can successfully perform their duties outside of the office without sacrificing the quality of their home lives.
Incentivizing the Return To Work
Employers could not have anticipated that the work-from-home policies they implemented as a short-term measure in 2020 would last several years. Now that the global public health threat has lessened, companies and government agencies that initially created remote work arrangements want to scale them back and have employees return to in-person duties.
A recent report by the World Economic Forum indicated that 20.5% of organizations surveyed acknowledged that offering remote and hybrid work arrangements was a crucial element in hiring skilled workers. Despite this acknowledgment, there continues to be a push to end or curtail remote work programs.
Employers use carrot-and-stick approaches to entice remote staffers to return to the office. Some fringe benefits offered to workers include commuter benefits, salary increases, relaxed dress codes, free lunches, and hybrid work schedules that allow employees to work from home for part of the week. For example, software company Salesforce will make a $10 donation to a charity of the employee’s choosing for every worker that comes into the office.
Other employers enact punitive measures to compel workers to return to the office part-time or full-time. Google may factor in the number of days workers are away from the office in performance reviews, in order to push its workforce to be onsite for at least three days a week.
Workers Fight Back
While most Americans in the workforce have occupations requiring them to work onsite, those who have worked remotely during the last few years are pushing back against the efforts to bring them back to the office.
This spring, workers at Amazon’s corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington, staged a walkout, in part to protest the company’s return-to-the-office mandates. Staffers at other companies have threatened to quit en masse if they are forced to return to in-person work, effectively forcing their bosses to back down.
Is Hybrid Work the New Normal?
With employees successfully flexing their power to effect permanent changes in how and where they work, the hybrid work model looks more like the new normal. Instead of workers commuting to the office five days a week or working offsite every day, the hybrid model seems to be a reasonable compromise.
Having workers on site two or three days a week benefits organizations as it helps maintain the company culture, supports team-building activities, and facilitates collaboration. It also provides workers with more flexible schedules and fosters a better work-life balance.
These concessions may satisfy only part of the crowd. Still, the hybrid model is a viable solution that meets the needs of companies and their employees.
This article was produced by Media Decision and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.