Is Remote Work Dead?

>>>”Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

This famous quote attributed to Mark Twain after the New York Journal prematurely published his obituary, came to mind this week as we read the latest data from WFH Research.

Reports of the slow death of remote work have been making the news over the last 12 months, but as with Mark Twain, the reality suggests otherwise. <<<

The latest update of the Survey of Working Arrangements & Attitudes (SWAA) published by WFH Research was published in early February. For those of you that use data to support your arguments, in our opinion this is currently the best source of data on remote working, and more specifically work from home.

Key findings from the February report, which focused exclusively on the US, include:

• The number of paid WFH days in the sample is stabilizing at around 30% of total days worked

• The average number of expected/allowed WFH days based on employer policies/expectations is 2.2 days per week;

  • Current data suggests that employees are working less WFH days than company policy/expectation; does this indicate a change in the balance of power from employees to employers?

  • Expectations from both employers and employees have stabilised and are expected to remain flat for the next 12 months

• WFH is unsurprisingly most prevalent in knowledge based roles with Tech, Finance & Insurance, and Professional & Business Services leading the way.

There are plenty of anecdotes out there, and usually there is a vested interest in the key headlines depending on the source, but you can’t argue with data*.

After spending a few days this week in London talking to people who work in the city, and looking at the number of people on the streets of the City and other business areas, anecdotally it looks like the Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday in the office trend is continuing. Hybrid certainly seems to have entrenched itself as a preferred working approach for many office workers in London, mirroring the data from the US.

The SWAA research shows that the pandemic permanently increased the the percentage of WFH days at a rate that was equivalent to 40 years of pre-pandemic growth based on the trend line up to early 2020 before lockdowns trained us all on how to work effectively from home.

So when you read articles about the demise of remote working, the data suggests otherwise. From a Hybrid perspective the percentage of people WFH is stabilised and is moving toward a balance with their employers expectations, and policies where they exist.

There will always be opinions as to which model is best - Office, Remote or Hybrid - but as we’ve argued before, there is no one right answer, only the answer that is right for you.

*Well you can argue with data, if the methodology isn’t robust. But as the ‘SWAA’ is published through a collaboration by Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and ITAM, we’d argue that the data is about as good as it gets.