Demanding More: The Longevity of Remote Work

[Your boss] is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. The employees of the world have seen this quotidian message a substantial amount since the start of the pandemic. The pandemic forced many companies to adopt a “work-from-home (WFH)” modality, in order to remain safe in light of the mysterious virus that shook the world in early 2020. As the risks that arose from the pandemic ease in 2022, it is often asked if the ability to work from home will continue. Is this a short-term change or will it be here for the long haul. In order to answer this question, analysis of the dynamic between the employer and the employee is necessary to determine the longevity of remote work. While employers often desire a return to the “traditional” workplace in order to sustain productivity and decorum, I argue that remote work will remain an option in many industries beyond the pandemic because of workers’ increased power and influence in workplace dynamics.

In order to understand the changing workplace, the history of the traditional Before COVID (B.C.) is important. Joanne Lipman, a Time Magazine author, explains that the “modern office was created after World War II, on a military model–strict hierarchies, created by men for men, with an assumption that there is a wife to handle duties at home”. In the 1950s, this very formulaic workplace, consisting of secretaries, managers, and executive directors, was created. Sexism, primarily existing through gender roles, was a central aspect of this. This structure is very rigid, and there is not much flexibility in it. It requires people to come into the office, which involves a commute of varying lengths. It requires people to work a fixed number of hours, with a fixed break. Many did not challenge it, maybe because they did not have the power to challenge it. Even though there were the typical complaints about it, there was not a great deal of discussion about changing this system. This structure existed in a majority of workplaces for 70 years, until something changed it all.

March 2020–the month where the shift from the traditional workplace commenced. The United States began shutting down, making workplaces scramble for the creation of an online workplace. As the months went on, researchers began noticing a trend: less and less people were working. It was not just because they were being fired from pandemic-related finance issues, but that they were quitting on their own terms. This trend has continued throughout the pandemic, with “over 20 million people [quitting] their jobs in the second half of 2021” (Whitaker). That is a significant amount considering there are a little over 320 million people in the United States. People were quitting their jobs in droves, and this is the phenomenon known as the “The Great Resignation”. Bill Whitaker in the CBS News article indicated that people were quitting their jobs because they were no longer content with their fields. Additionally, as the pandemic progressed and we learned more about mitigation efforts for COVID, many companies are wanting to move back to the traditional, in-person workplace modeled after the ones started in the 1950s. Many people learned to enjoy the work-from-home scene that they experienced during the pandemic. So, not only are the workers who are searching for new jobs have their own opinions about what format they would like to work in, the employees who decided to stick around at the companies also have their demands after experiencing work-from home.

These demands are infuential because it is the case that many employers are having more trouble making decisions that go against the contentions of their employees. Karin Kimbrough is someone at the forefront of “employment science” as Linkedin’s chief economist. She says that “It’s as if that social contract work is being rewritten, and right now the worker’s holding the pen”. Kimbrough is explaining that there is a huge shift in our society, and that shift is that the employee is now starting to have a say in things. They are starting to have power over the conditions they work in, the work they do, who they interact with, how they interact with them. Everything relating to workplace dynamics, specifically between the employees and the employer is changing. While of course the employer has the final control over the operations of their business, the dwindling supply of workers is requiring them to be more open to the demands of the employees. If they are short on employees (and need them to operate), they cannot operate a workplace that will push away a majority of applicants or cause even more people to quit. The Great Resignation is pushing people away from their current jobs, so the employer is putting the power in the hands of the employee by listening to their feedback and desires in order to retain them.

Consequently, workers’ demands often include remaining in remote work, despite the push for employers to move back to in-person work (to falsely protect productivity, as discussed earlier). Gartner recently found that 70% of workers want to continue remote work (George). Why is this? People are able to balance their work and their lives much better with remote work. If they have kids, they may be able to take them to school now and not rely on someone else to do so, and depending on the job, they may be able to watch their children and work. People are able to work on their own hours. So, if they want to go to a family outing on a Friday, they can do so and pick up hours another time. If they want to go to lunch at any time with their friends during the work week, they can do that because of the flexibility. With this old way of working, there was control on people’s personal lives in that they had to be at the office at 9:00am, eat lunch in the break room around noon, and leave at 5:00pm. This schedule is void of flexibility.

Because of the benefits seen with remote work, many people do not want to go back to the restricting traditional way of work when they were able to balance their personal lives with work much better when working from home. It is not just a few companies who experienced this life with remote work, but a significant portion of society. People were exposed to something they enjoyed, adapting their lives to this new way of living. Because of the collective participation in this modality and the favorable attitudes towards it, it is not easy to change back to the traditional workplace without widespread backlash, especially in the context of The Great Resignation when there is a significant worker shortage. This will not go away: people will not forget the time of their lives when they could wake up, not have to get ready, not have to drive 50 minutes to work, but just work right away on their own time. So, at least having the option to work remotely will stay for the long haul in many companies.

With the employee shortage and the resulting shift to the employee having more people, the employers are willing to give into these desires to stay remotely (and will continue doing so, indicating that remote work will stay) in order to keep these employees for the operation of their companies. In addition to offering remote options, they are going as far as paying employees’ tuition, signing bonuses, and flexible hours (Whitaker). Remote work is just one of the many benefits that employees are now getting because of the Great Resignation. They have more power, and their feedback is vital and important to executives.

When the pandemic is completely over, isn't is a no-brainer to go back to in-person work? People are more productive when they work in an office, which improves the company’s earnings. When at work, people may be cooking, watching kids, or texting during the workday, minimizing the amount of time spent on actually working. It is important for employers to analyze productivity before choosing a modality, in order to maximize the efficiency of their business. WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani saw the impacts of remote work first hand and offered his insight in a Time Magazine article about the reinvention of the workplace: “‘[the] least engaged are very comfortable working from home’” (Lipman). Mathrani is stating that the people with the lowest amount of productivity/engagement are often the ones most comfortable with working from home, These people are often the ones who would advocate for a work-from-home environment because they are getting the most benefits out of it, as they must work harder in the office than they must at home. Throughout virtual workplace conditions that the height of the pandemic created, the employees being discussed might have gotten used to this and often “advocate for it”. With this in mind, it creates many remote-work skeptics as the main people who want remote work are the ones who lower the company’s overall productivity the most. There are many flaws in a remote work system, and the issue of productivity is one of the main reasons why people urge a move away from it.

While analyzing the issue of productivity is important, as Sandeep raises with remote work, using solidified data helps people understand what type of modality they should have for their business. When the pandemic started, it allowed researchers to generate a significant amount of data relating to remote work, as many businesses were working remotely. In the same Time article, the author, Joanne Lipman, sets forth the data relating to productivity with remote work, explaining that “people were working on average 48 minutes more per day after the lock down started…[and] remote workers upped their hours by 30% (Lipman). These are two actual pieces of statistics that can be used for the analysis of productivity in the workplace. The research is very clearly demonstrating that the time spent on actual work while in a remote format was actually higher than it was in the traditional workplace. With more hours being put into the actual work itself, it is helping to prove the claim that people are not only productive in a remote setting, but actually more productive than a normal workplace. This is not just for one company, but can be seen as a trend throughout working environments. This challenges the notion that people who work from home–especially those who enjoy working from home–are less productive. Tangible data disproves this hypothesis. Because of this, the remote work modality is once again upheld, proving that it is the superior way to operate a workplace. One of the biggest claims against it is refuted, thus upholding its superiority. With this in mind, it is much easier for company executives to decide what type of workplace they should be operating. When the fears are eased about productivity, it also indicates the possibility of remote work staying for the long-haul. It does not entirely erase it from the realm of possibilities for many people. So, it is important to analyze these fears relating to remote work with solidified data in order to make an educated decision to better society.

The dynamics are shifting: employees are starting to have a say over what happens in the workplace. Because of the Great Resignation, employers are becoming desperate to fill vacancies in their personnel. To fill these vacancies, they are giving into the demands and desires of the employees. After seeing it during the pandemic, one of their biggest demands is remote work, which helps foster a better work-life balance. Thus, remote work is here to stay. Once exposed to something positive, people have a hard time letting go of it. Remote work is no outlier.