Is Remote Work Just for Young People?
I did a survey to find out.
Last week I used Linkedin to do a flash survey on age, remote work, and work-life balance. I was inspired by an article in the Washington Post that used Census Bureau data to uncover this fact: “The probability of working from home increases with age. Workers over 65 work from home at twice the average rate.”
This wasn’t intuitive for me, because most stories about remote work focus on “digital nomad” millennials who hostel hop between exotic locations like they’re on a never-ending semester abroad. I wanted to see if I could replicate the Census results to show how age impacts remote work. I also wanted to go a step further by digging into the psychological impact of not having an office — to see if remote workers feel better about their work-life balance.
There were just 3 questions in the survey:
- What % of your life is devoted to working?
- What is your age?
- How remote is your job, on a scale of 1 to 10?
Overview of Responses
We had 185 respondents with a median age of 38.
I posted the survey in a Linkedin group for remote workers, so respondents skewed more remote than the general population.
Interestingly, we saw a pretty even distribution when it came to the question of work-life balance and devotion to work, with a median response of 50%.
4 Big Findings
1. Age was significantly positively correlated with remote work.
The older you get, the more likely you are to have a flexible job.
2. Highly remote workers report significantly less time devoted to work.
So remote workers DO feel better about their work-life balance! Highly remote respondents reported 50% of their life devoted to work, versus 56% for those with less freedom.
So in a week with 100 waking hours, remote workers have 12 more hours to spend on family, hobbies, or whatever else makes them happy.
3. Better work-life balance was consistent across all generations.
We looked at Millennials, Gen-X and Boomers independently, and found that highly remote workers in all categories reported significantly better balance than their officed counterparts.
4. Those with “semi-remote” jobs reported mixed results.
We didn’t find a consistent correlation between remoteness and work-life balance for people who scored between 4 and 8 on our 10-point remoteness scale. This suggests that work-life benefits don’t always materialize for semi-remote workers. There seems to be a psychological “cliff” that semi-remote workers don’t always hit: you’re either free or you’re not. Once you’re truly free and fully remote, you start viewing your life as better balanced.
If you work remote — even just one day a week — check out Work Club by my company, Out Of Office. We make it easy to find other remote workers near you, so you can find a healthy balance between work and everything else. Each Work Club is 4 hours of focused work, with a 15-minute social break designed to foster quick connections and kickstart genuine conversations.
About me
I co-founded Out Of Office last year because I believe remote work IS the future of work. But it has some downsides, including isolation and a lack of everyday social interactions. We’re building local IRL communities all over the world, and we call them Work Clubs. We’d love to work with you soon ツ
